I've been reading a number of articles and websites lately about goal setting, how to go about it and what goals should entail. I must profess, I have never been one to do written goals. I just, apparently, go along and do my job and live my life, and things usually work out - each year is usually better than the one before.
For 2007, I'm going to TRY to be better at setting goals, and having them mean something other than just words on a piece of paper that I misplace or throw away. I'm going to try to make S-M-A-R-T goals, those should be perhaps more realistic instead of pie-in-the-sky goals:
S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Attainable
R - Relevant
T - Time-bound
Writing goals is supposed to help you think ABOUT your goals much more carefully and thoroughly. In all the reading I've been doing, I came up with this short outline that might be of help to others as well:
~~ Where do I want to be FINANCIALLY?
(earnings, savings, investments, etc.)
in 3 months? in 6 months? in 1 year? in 3 years?
~~ Where do I want to be PERSONALLY?
(education, career, self-improvement, life changes, etc.)
in 3 months? in 6 months? in 1 year? in 3 years?
~~ Where do I want to be SOCIALLY?
(family, friends, marriage, kids, friends, signficant others, etc.)
in 3 months? in 6 months? in 1 year? in 3 years?
I've read some very good articles on "Personal Goal Setting - Setting and Achieving Life Goals" - finding your own direction and living your life YOUR way, and not how others want you to live it. I admire people I see living their lives THEIR way, and not always necessarily confining themselves to society's norms. And it's not that I don't live my life the way I want, but I know sometimes my life can be so much more........
I want to learn to make my goals SMART, I want to learn to write them down and I want to learn to make them
mean something. They need to mean something to me in order for me to pay any attention to them. I took a course one time, long ago, and I remember writing things down then that meant something in the class to appease those in the class, but they didn't mean anything to me. And I'm the one who counts now.
I have achieved and attained things at this point, that long ago, I never dared dream about. But I'm certain there's more to be attained. And to that end, here's a website that talks about writing powerful written goals in 7 easy steps.
I've read some of the great posts by Skip Weisman here on Active Rain, and he's got some great information he's sharing with us. His post, "Did You Achieve Your Goals in 2006?" got me to thinking about goals and that I really should do some serious thinking about them. And he has some other really great reading there as well.
It's time to start putting some of what I've written here into action. I need to learn to stop procrastinating and just DO IT!!
Ann Cummings
Portsmouth, NH
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