I talked a lot about vision or a vision statement in this month’s blog series, but I also want to talk about achieving your goals before the series ends.

Achieving your goals is crucial to your overall vision. Within a vision, there can be a couple or dozens or hundreds of goals to meet before you reach it. You’ll be proud when you can say your vision is a reality, but there is a long road ahead paved with the goals you need to achieve before you can get to where you want to be.

Whether you want to or not, you will probably find yourself leading some kind of team during your lifetime, and not necessarily for a short time.

You could be a business owner or a manager who handles day-to-day decisions, a teacher who commands a class of students, or a parent who is responsible for taking care of your children for the first 18 years of their lives.

I am one of the luckiest men in the world in that I met the woman who I knew would become my wife when I was very young, back in my home country of Haiti. We are proof that love knows no barriers, and I thank God for every day that he allows me to spend with her.

Losing sight of any long-term vision is easy as we mature and take on more responsibility. Many of us live paycheck-to-paycheck, and trying to get through each day is hard enough without having to think about tomorrow, much less 20 or 30 years down the road.

Do you sometimes feel like you’re doing everything right, and you’re achieving your daily goals, but something is still amiss? Do you feel like no matter how well you’re doing, you’re just treading water, not really getting anywhere?

If so, you’re probably confusing a vision with a set of goals, but that's OK.

Most people do.

Somebody once said that “healthy equals happy.” On the surface, that seems too easy to believe, but scientists have been proving it's true for decades.

Think about it. When you’re feeling sad, how does your body feel?

Your mental state has a direct connection to how you’re doing physically. If you can keep your mental health in a good place, you’ll feel better physically. The same can be said for the other way around.

It's important to manage your time well. If you've been offered that advice quite a bit, maybe your time is managing you.

Let's find out.

We all know of Murphy’s Law, but have you heard of Parkinson’s Law? It comes from a 1955 essay in The Economist that was expanded a few years later into a book.

What would a blog in January be if we didn’t touch on New Year’s resolutions? It’s a nice sentiment, but how many people maintain their goals?

In truth, not many.

If you’ve ever been hired by a large company (or certain small ones) you’re probably familiar with a mission statement. It is designed to be the ground zero upon which the entire company is built. I believe if more people followed the lead of companies and created their own inspirational mission statement, difficult decisions and the direction of their lives might be easier to handle.

Now that you have developed all these positive tools for personal development over the past three blogs, I want you to expect the best and use the what you have learned to get it.This is the last blog to wrap-up the holiday season, and I want you to remember it doesn’t matter how hard things get, they will always get better. Tough times never last, but tough people do. I want you to throw your heart after anything you pursue. Don’t pursue your goals or your dreams casually. Whatever you do, do it with passion during this holiday season and beyond!