For several years now I've known what I needed to do to keep my business growing, or at least start the work needed to develop new revenue sources.
I've done this goal work before using many different techniques with excellent results. From "What Color is Your Parachute" to the "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People". Now I feel like I'm living one of the seven deadly sins. Wasting my days, squandering time.
Had enough whine with this cheesy shit?
my goal is to DREAM
And not Hamlet's dream of escape. A dream of respect for myself and this beautiful life I've been given. A dream of listening to really good stories and telling a few. A dream of leaving a legacy of success for my two beautiful daughters.
So, I'm just going to do what my mother always told me to do when I started spiralling down. "Did you eat? Did you sleep? Did you exercise... talk to me again when you have." Those and other important short term goals that are easy to map out.
I've got an excel sheet set up with all the questions and seven steps in hidden columns. Everything is in place for my short term goals. I've tried what feels like a million times to go forward on the intermediate goals. Those goals have been hanging around my neck for the last 3 years. They are good goals. I can answer yes to every single question in the form.
I'm going to memorize/utilize this formula and keep trying to move forward on the big goals. Here is my list of goals. Sorry I haven't been able to whittle it down to the big, pressing one. Sorry if you try and read through it. Even sorrier it is worrying the crap out of my friends and family.
GOALS
Short term (one month or less)
Organize finances. Better filing system and documentation of expenses for all business and personal ventures. Develop budgets and track expenses to ensure budgets are being maintained. While doing this jot down notes/priorities for the 45 minute weekly finance session with Ron. Stay focused on present and future financial issues - don't get caught up in the past.Exercise daily at least one hour, preferably in the morning noticing an elevated heart rate or muscle fatigue from each session. Training for climbing incorporated in each session.
Develop a consistent healthy diet and routine times for eating even if alone. Plan and purchase ahead foods I will eat, not just food Ron enjoys or needs. Focus on nutrients needed for training. Work on keeping alcoholic beverages to a minimum for training purposes.
Express my gratitude love and affection for Ron more often, not just by doing tasks I know he appreciates. Be a couple that everyone loves having around.
Make my Mother happier: ask for specific ways I can help her, stop stressed- out talking jags, do more outings, share more interesting information, visit more with food.
Express compassion for my father and focus on the love and gratitude I feel towards him. The positive effect he has had on me and others.
Improve relationship with Patsy while setting appropriate boundaries
Make my kids happier, spending time with them if they want to
While maintaining exquisite care of myself and my appearance, lose the anxiety about my appearance, modeling this for others. Haircuts, dental care, better sunscreen, reviewing wardrobe
Set boundaries, model that for others
climb more
Intermediate (one month to one year)
Find rewarding work with a team of like-minded people who share my values, hours flexible enough that I can pursue my passions, utilizes my creativity and intellect to the max, not tied to a computer -- interaction with others, producing a product or service I respectAttain reasonable prosperity by utilizing skills and learning new ones. Network in every connection with a focus on solving career situation. I want to pay off all my bills, save for retirement and leave my children something
Conserve resources better, less paper towels, no products in plastic bottles, more bike riding, find an interesting way to share conservation goals with others. Leave the earth a better place for my being here. Document and share the natural world, what we have lost what we have retained
Listen actively and empathetically, finding the really cool story in everyone's life
Become a really good story teller
Long term (one year or more)
Get paid to enjoy the outdoors with others. Teach a love of the outdoors and/or outdoor skills to othersPrepare for retirement
Build a community housing situation with like minded people, communal garden and chickens/livestock.
Reflective Script - May 11, 2016
Based on the comments, on-going reflection and reading other's goals I'm going to try and whittle down my goals and just focus on three that are very important to me:
Appreciating family/Appreciating life. Set specific goals to express gratitude concretely every day.
Defining a better idea of the work I want to do. Dig deeper is a key comment.
Developing a website. Dunx's goals struck a responsive chord for reasons I'm not/haven't updated my website in 15 years. Not really the specific goals but her comment about "archiving" her work. I'm not doing it because I don't like a lot of what I've done and don't want to be defined by my work now. I want to change what I do and how I do it. If I look at the website as an "archive" now I'll at least get through it and can then pull/shape what I need from it to move on.
I can see splitting my time as 10% concrete gratitude, 30% website, 30% defining new career.
Hi Suzi! The attention and thoughtfulness towards your list of goals shines through. It is very comprehensive and personal. You might want to deeply develop just a few of your goals, with obstacles, including a more detailed plan of how you will reach the goal and overcome its obstacles to make things more manageable and measureable. Wishing you wonderful dreams! Laurie
ReplyDeleteHi Suzi, delighted to share the same name and share the joy of curls! You are a bright light and this shines through presenting both emotional and practical goals. I do think its important to list the barriers you believe will arise as you take each step in your action plan. I also encourage a list of concrete steps to an action plan that will help in discovering the barriers that may be at play. For example: in finding rewarding work specific steps can be one informational interview a month and atleast two resumes out a month, etc. Lists of organizations and online platforms to regularly check, etc. While also writing some kind of mission statement around what kind of work makes you sing with as many specifics as possible. Maybe even down to the type of desk you want to sit at or if not desk at all, what kind of landscapes do you want to work in? It is great fun to dream. Thanks for dreaming!
ReplyDeleteSuzi, I am impressed with your list of goals! Clearly, you are motivated and have things you would like to change/accomplish. I'm wondering if you feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of goals you have created and/or sense that your energy is maybe being pulled in numerous directions, which could make it hard to move forward? Is this is the case (I am struggling with this myself), what would it look like for you to establish 3-5 overarching themes/values that certain goals fit under and focus on just those to begin with (at least in terms of mapping things out)? Just an idea...
ReplyDeleteSuzi! Great list. I agree with Laurie. Which of these goals can you develop some strong strategies and help with as well as underscoring what makes them measurable and by extension, attainable. Consider choosing one from each list and doing a deep dive using the seven steps of goal setting checklist found here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sacredheart.wa.edu.au/images/pdf/newsletter/2015/term3/2015_The%20Seven%20Steps%20of%20Goal%20Setting%20-%20Zig%20Ziglar%20_2_1.pdf
Suzi - While agreeing with all the comments above, I sense that you haven't articulated what you truly truly want yet. It's bubbling to the surface, but the Big Dream is still under the surface. I have a feeling that once you articulate that, everything else will streamline.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Douglas. You have a lot of goals. They are all good goals, like you said. They all benefit you and everyone around you. They are relevant and achievable. But... it seems like you may need to dig deeper.
ReplyDeleteYou said that you have been through this process before and that you have an Excel sheet where these are all outlined. Maybe this is part of the problem? What if you only limit yourself to (3) goals. Only three. What would those goals be?