Goals

Photo by Jennifer Campbell

Jennifer says: Aside from acknowledging that you aren’t living the life you want, I think the next step is setting goals to help create that ideal path. Goals and the process of setting them, is an important part of creating your life and not just sitting by while life happens around you.

So how do you go about deciding what your goals are? One popular exercise that I’ve tried, several times, is to write what your “perfect” day would be. It has to be specific. Like, I wake up in my own home and have coffee in my backyard surrounded by flowers. Think about how you spend your time, beyond spa treatments and driving your Lexus. Although I think you should include them, if that’s what you want. I know I dream of daily spa visits. But what I mean is to define your work. What do you want to be doing? Event planner, clothing designer, landscape artist? This is the crux of it.

Also think about how you want to dress; business suits, jeans and a t-shirt or pajamas. What causes, charities or organizations do you want to support? Personally, I think this is important. I believe if everyone donated even a little bit of time or money to something they believe in, the world would be in a much better state.

Ok, you have your detailed idea of a perfect day. Now stop thinking of it as a dream and look at it as a blue print of what your life could be like. Now try taking making a list of each point in your blue print. Like this: have my own home, backyard gardens, spa treatments, landscape artist, wear jeans and T-shirt with my company logo, donate $10.00 a month to St. Judes Children’s Hospital, spend one hour a month working in the soup kitchen at church, etc.

How many of these things can you do right now, there’s always at least one. From the list above, I would say planting some flowers in your backyard or even a window box is do-able. Donating $10.00 to charity and spending an hour volunteering for a cause is probably do-able. Wearing jeans and t-shirts on your time off is do-able. Designing a logo is do-able. Maybe scheduling one spa treatment a month, to start, is do-able. That’s six things off the top that could be done right now.

What’s left? Have my own home and landscape artist. Two major goals. Not overwhelming. Ok, now begin to break these down into smaller and smaller steps. For instance becoming a landscape artist could involve taking some courses, learning about different types of plants, developing a design style, purchasing tools, gaining experience, getting clients, etc. The point is to think of such small steps that it’s easy to make some progress every week, or month, like purchasing one tool or one book. Now make the commitment to invest the time.

A word of caution here, don’t let yourself get so caught up in the planning of your goals that you never actually start or can’t maintain the schedule you’ve set for yourself beyond a week or a month. This has been my downfall. I would also limit my choices to two or three big things, more than that can be too much to devote enough time to. Major goals take major time, in most cases. But starting and committing to taking small steps everyday will yield success.

It is possible to create your dream life!