We’ve all heard the wisdom that every journey begins with a single step. And while that is true, what that simple phrase doesn’t convey is how convoluted the path often is. It also doesn’t tell you how that your destination might change or how often you may need to stop and rest. Because of this many people see themselves as failing when in reality the only failure is giving in to defeat.
My personal journey has re-routed so many times it looks more like a pile of spaghetti than a road. I will turn 45 in a month and I thought it was time to stop and check the map again. Make some decisions about what is important and how I can achieve the goals that matter most to me. While pulling those goals together it allowed me to appreciate everything I have accomplished in my life both big and small and I highly suggest doing that to everyone.
I love lists, especially if they are checklists. I broke my planning/reflecting into categories then tasks and created weekly/ monthly/ quarterly goals that I put into a spreadsheet.
This allows me to track everything easily and be aware when things are off track and may need adjusting. I also decided to share those worksheets weekly for accountability. Not sure if my method will work for anyone else but I know when I was coming up with this I read lots of blogs for inspiration.
First I decided what things in my life I was unhappy with. Then what portions of my life needed improvement. Finally I asked where I wanted to be in 1-3-5-10 years and what had to happen to get there. Once I had all that information I broke everything down into four categories: Health/Fitness, Family/Social, Creative/writing, and Work/Financial
Health/Fitness
When I was younger I loved being active and the outdoors. Unfortunately in the last fifteen years I’ve gained over 100 lbs making any outdoor activity less fun. There are reasons. Two kids, surviving cancer only to end up in pain and confined to a wheelchair for two years, not to mention a divorce but I’m now in a good place and those reasons are quickly becoming excuses.
I want to be healthy and active not only for my kids and someday my Grandkids but because I miss not worrying if I can physically do something when deciding on plans. This is the hardest part for me so I have tried to keep my goals realistic to start and increase them as time passes.
GOALS:
- Lose 1lbs a week
- Drink 5 glasses of water a day
- 2 hours of exercise a week
- Sleep 7 hours a night
- 2 hours of house cleaning a week.
Family/Social
As a single mom my children are the most important people in my life but sometimes in the scramble to make sure I provide financially for them I forget the fun and love that they need just as much. I only have a few more years before they are off to college and I don’t want to look back and wish I had spent more time just getting to enjoy them. My friends and family often get forgotten when work and stress rile me up.
GOALS:
- Spend 3 hours quality time a week with Kids.
- Spend 2 hours quality time with Friends
- Call parent 2x a week
- Call close family 1 time every 2 weeks
Creative/Writing
These goals were the easiest to come up with. I’ve been meandering along the way to becoming a published author for a few years but not really putting in the time to do more than just write. If I want to publish whether traditional or self there are so many other things I have to do. My ultimate goal is in 5-10 years be making enough to become a full time author. That requires actually publishing and what I’m primarily going to be writing about here in this blog.
GOALS:
- 2 blogs a week
- 12 tweets a week
- 7 hours of writing
- 5000 word count a week
- 2 hours of editing a week
- Learn how to vlog
- 3 queries a week
Work/Financial
Here is where I thought I excelled but have realized I sacrificed so much to get success where I gain little to no happiness. While I’m not going to jump off the cliff and forget these things I am going to search for balance.
GOALS:
- Work less than 50 hours a week.
- Work the numbers to create financial needs for early retirement/becoming full time author
I started writing this blog last week and tracking my progress then. I’ve since realized that with my crazy life maybe some of my goals may need to change but I’m going to keep them for now and see how the next few weeks go. I’m determined if nothing else that tracking will help me understand where my time is going and how best to alter my days to achieve my goals.
This week was crazy because we had a hurricane and a tornado around 14 miles away. I lost power and spent 2 days living by candlelight and emptying out my refrigerator.
As you can see I totally flopped on my goal to exercise this week. I also missed several other goals. I’m taking that as a kick in the butt for this up coming week to catch up so that I don’t miss the quarterly goals.
None of us are perfect, but I believe that awareness is the key to making our lives into what we want them to be!
