Welcome to 2010. January is traditionally the time to sit down and look at what you have done with your life in the past 12 months. Its so much easier to see what has and has not been accomplished if you write your goals down. I am one of those traditionalists who likes to take a couple of hours at the beginning of every year to reflect on the past, see where I have actually progressed, what I completely bombed out on, or what I don’t think is important anymore. I do write down my goals. I have different areas in my life that I like to focus on. It helps me with being a more balanced person. In case you’re curious, I divide my personal goals into the following catagories: Physical, Spiritual, Educational, Business, Home and Family.
My physical goals include things like eating habits, sleeping habits, and exercise. I’ve also included goals that help with maintaining better posture, skin care, or proper breathing - just whatever physical thing I need to work on. Spiritual goals center around maintaining my personal belief system. They often include reading books. They may also include things like taking time to meditate, pray, use positive self talk, or developing certain character traits I find challenging. Going to church is not a spiritual goal for me, because it is not something I’m striving to accomplish. It is just part of my life. Educational goals usually include learning about something that I don’t understand, but need to - like Quickbooks or web design, or a foreign language. I also like to have a goal to learn something that I don’t need to understand, but want to - the funner things like painting, singing, gardening, etc. I usually give myself a book goal in this area too. I challenge myself to write about the things I read on a regular basis. That has been a long standing goal - I just struggle to do that before picking up the next book. Business goals are general and not specific because there is another place I become more specific about the business goals. But, I do jot the general idea of what I want to accomplish for the next year. Home and Family goals include everything from going out regularly with my husband to what this child or that child needs from me during the coming year. I like to write down the maintenance goals for our home and any hopeful remodeling plans. I also write down where I want to go in the coming year as far as vacations, concerts, plays, etc. I usually only write down the things that I would really like to focus on - things that might get lost in the daily routines I tend to fall in to.
There usually aren’t more than five or six goals in any one area. Too many goals just doesn’t work. It gets way too overwhelming. So I try to prioritize and tell myself that it is OK if they don’t all get done, but these are the things I would like to do if I can. That helps me stay sane. At the end of the year when I haven’t done EVERYTHING, it really is OK. It has to be. After all, I have been successful at many things, there is always next year for the others, and some of those things I don’t even want to do anymore.
You might be wondering if I look at these goals on a regular basis throughout the year. No, I don’t. I think there is value to that, but it just isn’t something I do. Perhaps it should be a goal! I have found that recording them is the most important thing. I have been amazed at the things I have accomplished from my list of goals when I do remind myself that I wrote down some goals and maybe I ought to read them again. Your Journal is one of the best places to record your goals. Hopefully it is a place you frequent, so it is more likely you will turn to the page where your goals are located. Usually by June I will take a look and I never cease to amaze myself at the things I can cross off. I believe the act of writing things down more firmly plants the information in our subconscious minds and when we are not consciously aware of it, our subconscious is going to work for us. “Writing crystalizes thought” - a quote from Beverly Cleary is very true. Studying the powers of the subconscious has been one of my interests lately and I am even more convinced that the process we go through when we decide upon some goals for ourselves, then take the time to physically write it down, locks them into a powerful part of our minds. In the book The Brain that Changes Itself we learn that cursive writing is even more powerful than printing. Both are more worthwhile than typing when it comes to locking in information.
And so I encourage you to take some time. Come up with some goals that you would like to accomplish. What do you want to be in 2011? What do you want to look like? What do you want to know? If you don't have a journal, get one. It doesn't have to be expensive. It can be as simple as a notebook. Some of the finest 3 ring binder journals I've come across - that aren't too expensive - can be found at www.personalponderings.com. The binders allow you to add or delete pages as time goes by. We - mankind - are most happy when we are progressing. So learn something new this year, get in better shape, develop that character, but most of all Be Happy.
