How To Spend Time

Posts Tagged ‘goal setting’

The best way out of a slump is to define a life goal. Once done, you will identify your priorities and the areas of your life that needs improvement. Thereafter, you’ll be able to start along a path of self-discovery and fulfillment. Goal setting may pertain to health, spirituality, finances, relationships, work, hobbies or personality changes. The first step toward achieving your dreams is deciding what areas are most important. It can be difficult if you try to start on everything all at once. You’re more likely to succeed if you choose one priority goal at a time.

The first step to establishing a life goal is to do a little life planning. You might want to write down the basic categories of life, such as health, relationships/family, career, hobbies, finances and behavioral/personality traits. Then you can write down three sentences for each, stating where you have been, where you are now and where you’d like to be. So, for example, under your work goals, you might write… “Where I’ve been: I worked as a secretary at a law office. Where I am now: I am finishing my last year of law school. Where I’d like to be: I want to be an attorney at a law office firm.” You can feel good about where you’ve come from, but you can also brainstorm five short term goals that can help you reach the long term goal of becoming a practicing attorney. You might then list finishing school, taking bar exam study classes, passing the bar exam, interning at a law firm and updating resume.

Once you have everything written down, one predominant life goal will likely emerge. Have you put career first and let your health languish? Or have you been so preoccupied with your relationship that you lost sight of your career goal of running your own business? Look at some of your long term goals and list the short term goals you must accomplish to get there. Then determine an appropriate timeline in which to meet your objectives. For instance, your long term goal might be to run a five-minute mile. First, you must set up a training schedule of 5 days/week. Then, you must try to run a mile without stopping. Then you can try to shave off a minute here and there to reduce your time from 10 minutes down to five. You can try training with weights to feel lighter or change your diet slightly to include more protein and energy-boosting foods. Whatever your plan of attack may be, looking at manageable, written goals will help you accomplish them.

After you discover your life goal, you need to look at what you logistically need to do to complete your task. Do you need to keep your life goal list tacked to your refrigerator or work desk as a constant reminder? Do you need to write weekly short term aims down in your day planner? Do you need cell phone reminders set to keep you motivated during the day? Reminders often help people who are trying to tackle complicated work projects. Also, do you need to hire someone to whom you’ll be accountable? When people are trying to lose weight or achieve fitness goals, it helps to have a personal trainer or work with an establishment like Jenny Craig, as people will call to make sure you’re staying on track and keeping focused. It may also be helpful to reward yourself for your smaller accomplishments as time goes by to keep you motivated and sensing progress.

Beth Kaminski is a leading expert in how to end panic attacks and has been publishing lots of information on the best anxiety attack medication for years now at www.anxietydisordercure.com.