Setting Goals for Yourself
Goal setting is an incredible way to get yourself focused, and to keep you moving forward in your life.
"Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional." We are never too old to grow and learn, and once we stop growing or stop moving forward, we have stopped living. It's not always fun to learn that we have things about us, whether we're 4 years old or 40 years old, that could improve. These things could involve our career, our personal relatioships, or even our health.
This is a great time of year, because it's the beginning, to stop and decide what it is you want for yourself in the upcoming year. Get a vision for what that may be. Every New Year's Eve I take sometime to make myself a dream board. Basically, that is a poster board that has pictures that I have chosen to put on it, which represent my goals. These pictures give me the visual, and the daily reminder that I am striving for more for myself in the new year. It's amazing at the end of the year, how many of those things end up happening, year after year.
Tying that into goal setting, I would encourage you to first get a vision of what you would like to obtain in 2008.
Once you have that vision, begin to write out your goals. There are some basic principals that help make goal setting effective. These principals include:
1. Give yourself no more than 3 goals to focus on at a time. You want to avoid overwhelming yourself.
2. Set positive, specific, and measurable goals. These goals should say what you are stiving toward. They should also be very specific and you should be able to measure whether or not you've obtained them.
3. Give yourself a specific date to obtain these goals. Once you have reached those goals, immediately set new ones to continue to challenge and motivate yourself.
4. Post your goals where you can see them every day.
5. Be realistic.
6. Believe in your ability to reach these goals. No matter who you are or where you've been, you truly can do anything you've put your mind to.
7. Forgive yourself. If you fall short of a goal, or you do something that may set you back. Then, take it as a lesson learned, and continue on your path. You will eventually get there! Then you'll look back and those set backs were actually moments that made you stronger in the long run.
The time and effort put into this is well worth it. It's amazing to see how many positive changes you've made for yourself by the end of the year.
Here is an example of specific goals for someone that is setting a health and fitness goal:
1. To fit into a size 8 pair of jeans by Valentine's Day. (It states what your ARE going to strive for, it's specific, and you know for a fact whether or not your reach that goal).
2. To be able to complete 35 full body push-ups by the end of camp 1(February 8th).
3. To plan all of my meals, and eat 6 small, healthy portions a day, six days of the week, four weeks straight.
All in all, if there is something you are truly striving toward in your life, then it is important to see it, write it down, and start your journey toward the goal. MAKE IT HAPPEN FOR YOU! YOU CAN DO IT!
