Goals
Am I The Only One Who HATES Goal Setting?by Linda Brakeall
Repeatedly over the years I have been encouraged, coerced, nagged and forced to attend, read or listen to the joys of goal setting. Y U C K !
I thought, "There has to be a better way! Why can't it just get done? Why do I have to think about it in advance?"
Then somehow and someone made me write the goals down. And that worked. Sorta.
Well, some of them actually happened but frankly, most didn't. And I thought, "KNEW IT! ---What a waste of time!"
On a recent car trip, I listened again to Brian Tracy's "The Psychology of Achievement." I've played those tapes before. Several times. But this time I
H E A R D them.
One of his goal setting tips encourages you to not only write down your goals but to RE-write them daily.
Rewrite them? DAILY? You gotta be kidding!
Couldn't I just put them on the computer and COPY them daily?
But at Grandma's house I didn't have a computer and you can only go out to see so many movies (We saw five last week!), and read so many novels, (I finished three.) and help around the house and the yard so much, (We pruned bushes, built shelves, ran errands etc.) Without the phone or the computer by day two I acquiesced to the nagging voice of Brian Tracy in my head and wrote down my goals a SECOND time.
That wasn't so hard. Didn't take too long. Did it a third time.
Hmmm. Maybe Goal Number 5 needs a little tweaking. Did that. Oooh!
You know what? Number 6 could easily be combined with number 8 and if I did THAT, it would be slam-dunk to ...
And each morning I would re-write and refine my goals and they evolved. Daily they became clearer.
Ideas for implementation grew and my puny little list became a powerful list by the end of the week.
While doing this daily rewriting of goals, trying to establish this as a habit, it occurred to me that the reason people don't do this daily is that it is hard to get into the HABIT of doing it. (21 days to form a new habit.)
In the meantime, I'm seeing amazing progress, clarity and focus coming out of this simple exercise. Now that I'm back home, I get up 20 minutes earlier to write my goals FIRST, before anything else. I tried doing it later in the day, but it was mechanical rather than inspired. If you try this technique, I'd love to hear how it goes for you.
You are the only one in charge of the rest of your life.
If there is anything that you TRULY want to accomplish, change or improve, today is the very best day to start.
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Linda Brakeall. All right reserved. For information contact Frog Pond at 800.704.FROG(3764) or email susie@frogpond.com.
