Having worn glasses or contacts since I was six years, I had LASIK eye surgery a few years ago. It was like a miracle had occurred overnight. I could see. The goal now is to maintain this 20/20 vision.

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As we mature, one of the myriad of changes we may experience is deterioration of eye sight. It happened to me and the first symptom was excruciating headaches. If it hadn’t been for the headaches I’d probably have gone on with less than perfect vision and accepted the status quo. Pain however is a great motivator.

So last month I finally made an appointment with my eye doctor. He and his staff performed a second miracle and “tuned-up” my eyes. I’m amazed with the improvements. Sometimes we don’t know how bad things are until they get better.

We can apply this same line of thinking to financial goals.

What are your goals? Do you pay as much attention to those goals as you do to the means used to achieve them? Is your focus clear or are you accepting “status quo?”

You may ask your financial advisor if you can afford to retire, if it’s okay to take a lavish vacation, make gifts to children or purchase a second home. An advisor’s job is to provide you with an informed and educated answer by crunching the numbers with consideration of such things as interest rates, inflation and taxes. It’s also important to delve further to more clearly understand your goals. This is not to be overly personal or nosy; quite the opposite. The rational is that it’s much simpler to see how seemingly different areas of your life may actually be connected in a financial sense.

Asking questions is a great way to build a framework and highlight issues. The goal is to gain insight and clearly define goals. What keeps you up at night? The answers will uncover your biggest financial concerns for your present situation as well as into the future.

All aspects of your life may be evaluated in similar ways. Focusing only on the “means” may lead you into ignoring the overall vision. Here is a sample of questions to ask yourself:

What’s more important to you, being near family and friends or a lower cost of living? Describe your current living situation. Do you own a home? Are you living where you want to and do you see this changing? Are you working now? How do you feel about what you are doing and if you could do anything in the world, what would you do? What does retirement look like to you? How do you like to spend your free time? Have you thought about how you’d like to be remembered? Would you like to leave a legacy to your family or a cause that’s important to you? How is your health, the health of family members? Are your parents living? Do you have any family members with special needs who may depend on you? Are you married or have a partner? Where do other family members live and whom do you feel closest to? Is there anything left out that you feel is important? Any major changes coming up that you’d like to prepare for?

Purposely we haven’t addressed performance benchmarks, interest rates, taxes or the overall market. In due time we’ll discuss those specifics, but first it’s important to uncover in a conversational manner what your goals are, prioritize them and discover how they may be connected.

By identifying what’s important and the outside influences that may have impact on your road to financial well-being, you stand a better chance at truly matching your investment policy statement with real life concerns and goals. Remember, one size does not fit all in the investment world.

The relationship with your financial advisor is unique, should be trusting and provide a long-lasting bond with someone who takes stock in your overall life situation.

Yogi Berra also said, “you can observe a lot just by watching,” and I’d like to add that you can learn a lot just by listening.

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Darcie Guerin is a financial adviser and branch manager at Raymond James & Associates Inc. at 606 Bald Eagle Drive, suite 401, Marco Island. Contact her at Darcie.Guerin@raymondjames.com, 389-1041 or toll-free (866) 343-0882.