The world is full of people who bill themselves as advisors. From presidential aides, public affairs advisors, publicity agents, religious advisors, and even fortune-tellers, there is a living being made by providing people with good advice.
The word advice is defined as an opinion of what could or should be done about a situation or problem. It is in our nature as humans to hunger for advice about our problems and how we can achieve our dreams.
A good piece of advice is to start with a vision and then set a mission, goals and objectives to help you achieve that vision. In a short simile sentence, determine what it is that you really believe in. What are your ideals? What is your vision for your life? Do you want to be remembered for your philanthropy or your work with your church or do you just want to be successful? How do you define success? Answers to these questions will help you realize your ultimate vision for your life. Try to answer the questions who are you or what are you all about, and then develop your vision from that starting point.
Once you know your vision then you can set a mission for yourself. A mission is a broader, more comprehensive statement about how you hope to achieve your vision in general terms (no specifics yet). If your vision is to be remembered for your philanthropy then determine a broad overview of how you will realize that vision. Will you start by liquidating all your assets and then determining which charity will give you the most notoriety for your contribution? Or will you just start being as generous as you possibly can to the causes that really need your attention whether or not you get recognition publicly? Try to answer the questions where am I now and where do I want to be?
After a vision and mission have been determined then you need a focus and direction. Focus and direction come from setting goals and objectives to accomplish your mission and thus realize your vision. We all need some sense of accomplishment tat comes from achieving what we are trying to do so it is important to make plans about how we are going to do things. Even if the plans change, we still have an initial direction. Goals and objectives help us find the answer to how am I going to get to where I want to be.
Think about it like this. You want to travel the world (a vision). You will start today by saving money and making travel arrangements to visit all the countries in Europe before you turn 50 (a mission). In order to carry out your mission you need to get to the specifics of what countries in Europe you want to see first (establish a priority order), how you are going to get to these countries (fly, cruise, or train), what you want to see when you are in these countries (museums, cathedrals, or local dwellings), how are you going to best arrange for seeing all the things that you want to see, etc. (your goals and objectives).
Plan your life like you plan for your vacations with a vision, mission, goals, and objectives so that you will accomplish all you want to accomplish in life.