“A goal without a deadline is just a dream.” 

– Gail Vaz-Oxlade

I adore Gail Vaz-Oxlade… she’s full of fantastic financial advice, seems to have a big heart, and above all else, is extremely practical. Here in Canada, she’s something of a national celebrity due to her many books on finance and her two television shows based around helping people get control of their money and their lives (and often saving marriages in the process).

She knows the value of deadline-setting when it comes to the goal-making process.

It’s something I’m not very good at.

But when I heart that quotation on her latest series, I realized: If I don’t set a definite goal for what I want to accomplish both in the short and long term, I’m not really striving for anything. I’m just hoping that the universe will swirl around and make things happen eventually. (And I don’t know about you, but I’d like the universe to stay how it is, thank you very much.)

That’s just a dream, an abstract hope, not a concrete, working-toward-it reality.

If you haven’t yet set a concrete goal for your dream, why not? What’s holding you back?

Fear? An uncertainty of how to reach that goal? Laziness?

Without a deadline for that goal, how do you expect to get there?

I’d take Gail’s advice, if I were you! I’m taking it right now—I’m taking steps toward my goal that I’d been avoiding until I realized the truth in what she said. Plus, she’s a tough cookie. Don’t make her come after you!