Plan and Achieve Life Goals
I don’t know about you, but I find it so easy to fall into a rut. I get into habits that I just don’t think about, like watching tv after dinner every night and not doing any of the hobbies I know I enjoy. Well, before I know it, 6 months have passed and the only thing that has changed is my clothes!
So many of us live the same day over and over, and for a lot of people, that works just fine. Some people find a lot of comfort in it, even.
I like a lot of variety and I try to challenge myself, but even so, I realised I was leaving a lot of my aspirations, goals, and dreams unachieved. That just won’t do, I’m afraid!
A couple of years back, I used my diary to jazz up my daily life a bit and do some work towards these goals and dreams. It’s not difficult, but it can still be hard, especially admitting to yourself what it is you really want.
Let’s have a look at how to establish some of your big goals and dreams.
First, remember there is no commitment to thinking, dreaming, or writing in a journal! People often resist letting themselves think about what they want because they think they have to go out to achieve it right now. Understandably, that sounds like a lot of work and can be really daunting.
Well, I’m here to tell you, that you can dream and journal and think as much as you want. You don’t have to go out and make a million quid by next Tuesday!
Second, allow yourself at least an hour to think about what your ideal average day looks like. Preferably, you will think about this a few times, because on different days you will have different aspirations, inspirations, and ideas.
Third, use scrap paper to sketch out your life goals, dreams, and ideas. There’s nothing so intimidating as a smart notebook in which to write messily.
So here’s the process:
Sit down with your favourite beverage, some scrap paper, and no distractions. Let your brain run wild. Don’t allow yourself to be restrained by what is possible or practical in your current reality. This sounds mad, I know, but seriously, who thought we would carry around a full-powered computer in our pockets, even 30 years ago? It wasn’t in my reality then, but now it’s an everyday occurrence.
So don’t let reality constrain you. If you want to make a million pounds a year, write it down. If you want to travel more if you want to be famous if you want to sell everything and live a life of simple elegance by the sea if you want to become the healthiest, most vibrant version of yourself, write it down. If you want to find love, ditto. If you want to leave a relationship, do the same.
Ask yourself these questions:
If I couldn’t fail, what would I do? If money was no object, how would I live my life? If everyone around me supported my decisions, what choices would I make?
At the end of this time, you will have a big scrappy list of probably wildly disparate items. Some might deal with health, some relationships, some career, some finance, some hobbies or adventures. Put them into categories like these if it helps you to order your thinking.
The next step is to consider which of these goals or dreams are the most important to you. Then, which will be the most impactful on other areas of your life.
For instance, your most important dream might be to live as a writer, working on your books every day. The most impactful, though, might be concerned with improving your financial situation, or perhaps your health.
It is important to work on both in order to honour what you consider important, but also to maximise all the other areas of your life.
Once you have your two main ambitions, you can break them down a little further.
If you want to write every day, how can you get closer to that ideal when you have a job, kids, and all of that ‘life’ business?
Many of us shelve dreams and life goals for ‘later’ because fitting them into this life seems too hard. It’s understandable, but can you try to bring ‘later’ into ‘now’?
You can decide how that happens, but in the writer’s example, can you write for ten minutes a day? Perhaps read books like the ones you would like to write. Take a creative writing course, part-time or online if time or finances are a current constraint. Perhaps write on your phone during your train or bus commute. Add in a little contingency time to a journey so you can write for ten minutes before a meeting or school pickup. Maybe you won’t write a book a year like this, but you will be a lot closer than if you do nothing.
Similarly, if your health or your finances are your supporting ambitions, how can you break that down into smaller chunks? Say, lose a stone in a year, or add £10,000 to your savings in 2 years? Start an entrepreneurial enterprise?
These yearly, bi-annual, or monthly goals are what we will take into your calendar in our next steps..
With special thanks for this post to Alex www.alexandratozercoaching.com