My bucket list helped me achieve my goals

Having a plan can be a great way of achieving things, and when life needs to be organized because of challenges, it may be what helps you through things and takes you to your goals. The lady of this week decided many years ago to live that way, and it lead her to success. Read her story and be inspired.

Name: Ola Jackson

Age: 59

Occupation: Magazine Publisher and Podcast Host of Stages with Ola Jackson

Family: Married for 34 years

Lives: Pittsburgh, PA, USA)

You are a career woman and you managed to start your business at the same time as your son grew up. How has it all developed through the years?

I found that the strategy for raising my autistic son was similar to what it took to grow a business. I needed to nurture the growth of both of them. Both of the journeys started with a plan. After accessing my needs, I found the right people to delegate responsibilities to, I needed to schedule my time to be more productive and I had to decide on the managed risk and the sacrifices I would make to juggle both to be successful.

I had to focus and not get detracted from the goals of raising a special needs child and growing a business with very little capital and even less experience. My son grew up to be a well-adjusted adult, and in some ways exceeded my expectations by being very independent, mannerable, responsible and mild-mannered. At the same time, my business grew into a brand that became associated with helping other women in business fulfill their dreams. My business won several awards and my greatest award was knowing that the risk that we took and sacrifices we made helped my son to transit into adulthood.

Although you have a lot going on in your life, you have done a bucket list. When did you do it and how much of it has come true so far?

I created a bucket list in my head many years ago, but I never wrote anything down. It was when a friend called me to speak in S. Africa, which was a dream of mine, was when I decided that the thought in my head would go down on paper. I always wanted to go to Martha's Vineyard when I would see it on television. I thought that it was out of my reach until another friend sponsored a trip and invited me to go. Martha's Vineyard was on my mental bucket list, but I never wrote it down.

I also never shared my desire to go to S. Africa. Another friend needed women to speak at an empowerment conference and asked me to attend.

On my list now is to go to Paris. Out of nowhere another friend invited me to go and I simply wasn't ready, but I plan to go for my 60th birthday next year.

Why a bucket list? Do we need even more goals and dreams?

A bucket list can help you stay focused. There is value in writing things down. Your bucket list is a gift to yourself; all the experiences that you deserve. I want to do more than just live life...I want to experience it. The number of dreams and goal don't matter as much as how much you plan to execute the steps to getting there.

I always tell myself that dreams are just fantasies if you don't work towards making them realities. I believe that you grow where you focus. I focused on those dreams and out of nowhere that energy reached people who decided to make it happen without the knowledge of my desires.

I was stunned friends contacted me and with invitations to check off my bucket list. How could they have known?

Finally, is the list finished now, or will you add to it?

No, the list is not complete. As long as I am evolving the bucket list will evolve as well. I want to travel to more places, I want to grow my Stages with Ola Jackson podcast and our New Network TV YouTube channel to help document my evolution with other mid-life women.

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