Goal Setting is one of those important aspects of life that I never did single or married. I have always just gone with the flow. Not saying that is a bad; it is I just didn’t have any focus and just moved along with life events as they unfolded. After my divorce with my life in complete array, I knew that I needed to start choosing my priorities differently. Four years ago, I was attending a company workshop on Goal Setting and the coach asked us if the life we are living today is what we want in 10 years. Of course not; was my response and she replied with ‘What is your plan and how are you going to accomplish it?’
That comment started me on a journey on goal setting across all aspects of my life. What goal setting has allowed me to achieve my dreams. What I have come to realize as a divorced mother is that my goal setting are about me, my daughter and my ability to attain a life for us on my own. For me that is BIG! The fantasy that Prince Charming will sweep me off my feet and unlimited access to his bank account are gone. I’ve embraced the fact that I own my future and that of my daughter as long she is living under my roof. It’s powerful, energizing and very real.
My first year of goal setting I set what I thought were some pretty aggressive goals for myself in a plan and found that I exceeded most goals and nearly all others I met. What intrigued me is that I knew left to my old ways; I would not have accomplished what I did in one year. My plan gave me focus for my dreams and a renewed sense of energy and belief in myself that I can accomplish what I set my sites on.
I’m now ending my 2011 plan. Going into 2012, I have set more aggressive goals for myself. My viewpoint is that I should be able to hit about 70% of the goals. I have found in 2011 I hit about 80% of my goals … and once again am amazed at the progress I have made. Over the past few years, my goal setting has evolved.
Above all else, I have found that I need to have a system and tools in place to keep my goals alive. This is critical! By alive, I mean that I’m regularly reviewing and incorporating the action steps into my life. Without a system, goals will keep getting put to the back burner to daily life activities. Goal setting is an activity that needs to be incorporated into your regular living; not just an activity done once a year.
There was a time in my life that every New Year’s I would set resolutions. For me, they seemed to be focused more around my health: Lose weight, exercise more, break a bad habit. Sound familiar? I found that they were focused more around what I should NOT be doing versus who I should strive to be. I usually found that by second or third week of January I reverted back to old habits and the resolutions were forgotten; well at least ignored to be honest. After many unsuccessful years of trying to stick to my resolutions; I finally just gave up making them. I lived for the day was my motto.
About four years ago, I was attending a workshop at my company on goal setting. The instructor asked the question “Is the life you have today the same you want in 10 years?” That hit me between the eyes since I have BIG plans for my life. But that day I came to the realization that my life in 10 years would be not much different then my life today if I didn’t start consciously making decisions that would enable me to achieve the results I wanted. Don’t get me wrong; I have an amazing life and am truly blessed. But, I also feel a higher calling me to even greater accomplishments; I frankly want to do more with my life. I also determined that unless I started setting goals and actively manage them they will fall by the wayside like my New Year’s resolutions. For me, the reality is if I don’t keep my goals alive; my daily life activities would just edge them out over time.
I decided that I needed to get a system in place to assist me in developing my goals and keeping them in the forefront of my mind so that I can accomplish them. So, I found a system that appealed to me and determined that for one year I would stay committed to it. It was an amazing process to go through the first time; and a task I look forward to doing each year since. The ability to sit back and ask yourself in every aspect of your life what do you want to look different and commit to achieving it is quite the eye-opener. To be able to put these down on paper and then have a system in place to keep them focused in my life on a regular basis is absolutely key.
What I quickly discovered by my third month is that I was making progress in accomplishing my goals. It was a good motivator to stick to the system I had in place. By the time I got to the end of my first year, I was surprised to discover that I hit about 80% of my goals and about 50% of them I had exceeded. So, the second year I decided to set my goals even with a higher and again found that with focus I could accomplish a lot.
As I wrap each year, I enjoy reviewing the goals I set for myself the year prior and have found a few repeating patterns.
- I always achieve/exceed at least 70% of my goals. Even though I set the bar on goals a bit higher each year; it is amazing how many I actually reach.
- There is always an area of my life that is flat-lined … I didn’t achieve the goals to where I envision at the beginning of the year. I don’t view this as a negative point; I’m not expecting to hit 100% of my goals any year. This has happened two years in a row for one particular area in my life. What I’m questioning now is how much effort or energy should I put forth in this area this next year in relation to the other areas of my life.
- A new goal appears every year. And these are BIG goals I’m referring to. What I’m finding is that the more I step outside my comfort zone .. new opportunities in new areas of my life appear. For the past 2 years, these new areas have become significant focus areas on my goal setting for the next year.
As I mentioned before that I feel I’m being pulled to a higher calling. I believe the new goals are moving me towards that higher calling and the goals I’m flat-lining on is an indication that my energy needs to be diverted elsewhere.
Goal Setting has been a wonderful experience. It keeps me focused through-out the year and am finding that a bi-product of my progress is happiness and a sense of purpose. I know the positive impact I’m making on my life and of those around me.