Setting Goals...........

I had the wonderful pleasure of my eldest daughter staying with me this past week. Eldest daughter is going through some transitions in her life and was feeling she needed some guidance and grounding. She loves to come here and get away from the city. Here she feels she can just relax, regroup and contemplate her future.

Well she did a lot of chilling, but I wasn't going to let an opportunity to help her focus on her future pass her by. Most of you know I am a goal orientated person and list maker. I personally have found that by putting things in writing makes them more concrete, tangible and achievable. That is what I was hoping it would do for my daughter. Before she arrived we had discussed that it would be a good idea if we looked at goals, what she wanted and where she saw herself in the future. In order to achieve this she knew I expected her to do some homework.

So the other morning after making her a latte, I asked her to sit down in the living room and asked her to do some brainstorming, to freely write down where she saw herself in 6 months,a year and in five years. After her brainstorming, I had her to do another exercise. I had made up sheets for her to complete. On these sheets I had put headings; Attitude, Artistic, Education, Family, Financial, Physical, Pleasure and Public Service. I asked her to take her brainstorming ideas and fit them into each of these categories. Of course we discussed each and every topic and how she saw herself achieving what she was putting down. I think it is vitally important when setting goals to not only look at education, career and financial, we are more than that. There is an artistic side to everyone and for some that might be exactly where they need or want to be. Our attitudes influence where we see ourselves. So I had her look at her mindset, and had her write down if there was any part of her mindset holding her back and if so, I asked her to set a goal to improve her behaviour.

Of course there is no purpose of sitting down and writing goals if they are unrealistic. So when she was doing this I also asked her to keep in mind are these goals measurable, attainable and realistic. How will she determine if she has reached her goal?

Before she had started this exercise I had also given her some articles to read that I thought might be helpful it getting her focused....I came across this site that gave quotes about goal setting....this quote just seemed so appropriate at the time.....

If you don't know where you are going,
you'll end up someplace else.
Yogi Berra

Goal setting was all very foreign to her but I commended her on sitting down and doing the exercise, and I told her that this was time well spent and an investment into her future.

As she did this exercise early on in her visit it gave us lots of opportunity to talk about the future and how she was going to go about achieving some of the goals she put down on paper. I reminded her that it's one thing to put it in writing it's another to take action. I suggested that she take the goals list and from that create a to do list and post it on her cork board....make little reminders to herself.....talk positive to herself.....I suggested she look for inspirational quotes that touched her and to post them where she would see them every day. Positive talk.

At the end of this week, I think we both benefited. It was a great exercise for me, it helped to remind me to stay focused, to keep pushing my envelope to not let fear hold me back...and that I must set an example.....The one thing I have always tried to instill in my girls is that life is a journey...even though we may not understand why we are at the place we are at right now, it is our journey and it is these experiences that make us who we are and where we venture and not be afraid about pushing the envelope.

~ Each day is a journey. Each day is a process~

Anne Wilson Schaef