Reaching Our Goals

Do you find it difficult to reach your goals?  Or do you have vague ideas about what your goals are, but have trouble focusing your energies on attaining them?  I know I have trouble with this.  I've written here before about my struggles with trying to stay focused and how frustrated I get when I can't complete all the tasks I set out for myself.

This last week I found and read several really good blog articles on goal setting and staying focused.  I wanted to share them with you.  Angela Flicker of The Artist's House has a series of articles about making S.M.A.R.T. goals.  These are goals that are: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timed.  Start here, then there is this one, and finally April Bowles-Olin from Blacksburg Belle adds some advice on the subject here and here. 

A lot of the ideas expressed are things we already know, we just forget we know them and it's good to have someone remind us, such as the importance of writing down our goals.  One mistake I've been making is that I create goals for myself that are too vague and not measurable.  Another important part is that we keep our goals list visible and check it frequently.  April suggests sitting down every Sunday night and reviewing your long term goals, and then setting out your goals for the upcoming week.  Part of the being realistic part is limiting how many goals and tasks you set for yourself.  This is an idea I really need to put into practice.  I like her suggestion of only giving yourself 6 tasks a day.  I know you're probably thinking, just like me, "there's no way!"  But I've started practicing that already and it is so wonderful to work through that short task list, checking off every item, and then having hours left in the day to chose what you are going to do next!  It's a perception thing that is really very freeing.  My mind gets so boggled down with all of the want-to-dos and the should-dos, that it's hard to focus on any one item.  By writing down the most important tasks to complete each day, it takes the pressure off.

I spent a good part of this last weekend writing down my S.M.A.R.T. goals.  Remember my life pie chart from way back last year?  I used that to keep my goals in alignment with my values.  Of course I had to dig it out from the pile of rubble it was buried under in my studio.  I tried to set goals for each of the important areas in my life.  I found it much easier to set measurable goals around my business; that is so much more tangible than relationships or mental health.  I struggle with depression and anxiety, so that is one area of my life that I would like to improve upon, but how do you write a specific-measurable-attainable-realistic-timed goal about that?  "I would like to decrease the number of days per week that I am a basket case to 2, by December 31."  It's all rather nebulous.   Because the feeling of being overwhelmed with too many things to do contributes to the anxiety I experience, I think following April's plan will help me in that area, so I'm not going to worry about creating a SMART goal for my brain! 

I encourage you to pop on over to the two blogs I mentioned and check out what they have to say.  You will find many more useful and enlightening articles there as well!