How the heck are we already in October? I want to say to the time, "slow down, you move too fast." Seriously, it is. If you're like me, you're feeling like whoa, I better get a move on to achieve those goals. In the midst of taking action on my goals , I took a detour to my favorite place. You wouldn't believe it but I love libraries. Seriously I do. I love to read and I did a lot of reading as a child. Of course, I read a lot of romance novels but we won't talk about those. I promise you, I've graduated into more mature reading (i.e. self-help -- this is where you smile).
I didn't visit the library to read but instead to focus on my goals. The process of documenting goals started way before the retreat and have since been tweaked. However, I felt there was an opportunity to review and finalize my goals and that's what brought me to the library. The library is super crowded and there's no quiet room for me but I do find a space to decompress, download, and reflect. I had no idea mid-terms fell so early in January. This is probably because I'm not still in high school.
I want to share with you lessons that I take from finalizing my goals. I hope you will find it useful and that you'll follow a similar practice to document, reflect, and ready yourself for some serious action.
My lessons for today:
Walk your talk. This includes me. I'm big on planning but it's so easy to jump to executing on a goal. You have to be really intentional to pump your brakes to slow down and evaluate what's happening before you start taking action. Today, I pumped the brakes to look back on my goals for the year. And I allowed myself time to populate the columns in my goal sheet. Those columns are Measurable Goal, Budget, Priority, Impact, Success Looks Like, Support, Status, and Reward. That can be quite taxing when all I want to do is get started because there is so much to do. However, as a best practice, I suggest taking the time up front and being clear on what it is you want to achieve and why you're doing it.
I really enjoyed filling out the Success Looks Like column. This is because it got me in tune with what I considered success.
You might find it challenging to come up with rewards. They do not always have to be physical items. Here are some examples of rewards I came up with. Give yourself self-care as a reward. This could be as simple as taking a walk and enjoying the great outdoors. Create happiness for someone else. There is indeed joy associated with making someone else happy. One example might be having a fun date with your family (bowling, ice skating, swimming, etc.).Give yourself permission to take a day off for fun.
Stay focused. I found myself struggling with wanting to table completion for another time. There are so many distractions and you need to be intentional with staying focused on completing your tasks.
Appreciate the excitement of the journey. As I worked through the goals, I felt excited about some of the things I plan to create for myself in the coming year. I hope you will be excited about your goals as well.
The process doesn't end with documenting your goals. There is still work to be done in planning out the details of each goal. I would classify the aforementioned exercise as requirements gathering. I'm in the process of putting together an in-depth course on the process of planning your goals. Another worthwhile exercise that I will be sharing more on in the future. I would love to hear about your process of documenting your goals. Feel free to share your process and lessons in the comments below.Welcome to your blog post. Use this space to connect with your readers and potential customers in a way that’s current and interesting. Think of it as an ongoing conversation where you can share updates about business, trends, news, and more.