Dec 30 2008
Goal Setting: The Plans
When I was very young, my father taught my siblings and me that goal-setting should become a regular habit in our lives. For a while we were required to write out daily goals every morning and have them approved before the day went on. At the time it seemed rather pointless — our lists commonly looked like this:
1. Get up
2. Take pajamas off
3. Put clothes on
4. Eat breakfast
Daily goal-setting trailed off after a while, but as we girls have gotten older, many of us have reverted back to the habit. Without it, forward motion seems an unattainable dream. Dad taught us that goals are more than a to-do list, and far more specific than your typical New Year’s resolutions. He urged us to set yearly goals, to break those down into monthly and weekly goals, and to break those down into daily goals. So if your goal is to write a book this year, you figure out how many words you need to write per day to make that happen. Goals can and should evolve as time goes by; some will be dropped, others revised, others renewed.
My goals are not quite that detailed, but I do break long-term goals into short-term steps, and my daily to-do lists keep all my desires and projects moving forward. I’ve taken to setting and revising goals twice a year: once at the new year (which is roughly when the Fall Semester ends) and once at the beginning of summer (when the Spring Semester ends).
In the spirit of New Year’s, I’m currently writing and streamlining a list of goals and plans for 2009. It includes business and marketing ideas, educational goals, books I want to write, relationships I want to invest in, and personal lifestyle changes. I’ll be blogging about some of these things over the next few days.
I’d love to hear from you: do you set yearly goals? In what areas? What are some of yours for this year?
My goals for today look something like this:
1. Get up
2. Get dressed
3. Eat breakfast
So far, I’ve accomplished one and half. I decided to stay warm and wear two layers–the first being my pajamas. Maybe I should spend my next break on writing a revised list… in fact, maybe I should do that every day! Write the first list in the morning, and a revised list over lunch.
Your goals might not look like they used to when we were kids, but for some people, old habits die hard!
(Of course, this is all a big joke. My goals for today are about a mile long… and getting dressed and having breakfast aren’t among them! They probably should be though. Perhaps that’ll be my first 2009 resolution: “Back to basics… eat breakfast.”)
My personal daily goals tend to be quite simplified since the world I live in seems far too busy for me. These are realistic short term goals that I feel I can accomplish without adding more stress.
They tend to go something like:
1. Wake up and breathe
2. Don’t panic – it will all work out
3. Just start – starting is good because it leads to finishing.
If I can accomplish these then I my professional goals tend to fall into place. :)
Hey this is the first time I’ve ever commented on anything…will most likely be another few years before I do so again.
Haha Deborah! At 6:50pm you’ve only gotten up and got half dressed?! :-) Wait… That date and time hasn’t happened yet. Somebody got the computer’s clock screwed up.
Hi Rachel! That’s a good thought you have. For most of my life I never really had any long-term goals. I just drifted along and worked at what came my way. It’s generally gone pretty well.
But I am finding now that I get more done in a day if I have specific objectives. I expect that’s also true for the year, so I guess I’m becoming more goal-oriented.