Goals...Gotta catch them all

Hi folks!

It has been a long week and I apologize for not posting last night. My brain was fried by the time I got home yesterday. I barely had enough energy to make dinner and eat it, much less sit and write. But, after finishing some stuff around the house, I decided to sit down and write about my goals.

Most days I feel as if I am adrift in the world. I work hard, but I don't seem to get anywhere worthwhile. I have come to the conclusion that I feel this way because I haven't spent enough time thinking about what I want from life, and I haven't set any formal goals. I feel that without them I am on a major journey with no real idea of my destination. 

Over the last month, I have been seriously looking at and reading about goal setting. Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about an ideal future, and for motivating oneself to turn that vision of this future into reality. The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life, and by knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. So here is my attempt at goal setting.

I have never given much thought to what I want to accomplish in my life in the next year, five years, or even ten years. But because change means change, I need to seriously examine what those things are that I want. So when it comes to setting goals, just about every site I have checked out on this topic has the same ABC's to goal setting:

1. Create the "big picture" of what you want to do with your life (over, say, the next 10 years), and identify the large-scale goals that you want to achieve.
2. Break these goals down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit to reach your lifetime goals.
3. Finally, once you have your plan, you start working on it to achieve these goals.

So basically, make a list of the ultimate life goals, then work backwards from there to today and build smaller goal lists that need to be completed to reach the life goal. Here is my life goals list broken down into categories:

HEALTH

• Quit smoking
• Lose 100 pounds

LEARNING/EDUCATION

• Complete my Bachelors degree 
• Complete my Masters degree

CAREER

• Own my own business

FINANCES

• Buy a house
• Pay off all debt
• Save $500,000

ADVENTURE

• Experience weightlessness
• Skydive
• Swim with dolphins
• Go hang gliding
• Run a marathon
• Travel around the world
• Celebrate the New Year in NYC, watching the ball drop at midnight

COMMUNITY

• Volunteer in my community
• Start a non-profit organization
• Donate blood frequently

FAMILY

• Watch Connor graduate from high school
• Watch Connor graduate from college
• Make peace with my family
• Celebrate my 25th wedding anniversary

FUN AND PERSONAL

• Learn to belly dance
• Master quilling
• Read the top 100 novels of all time
• See the Top 100 films of all time
• Get a tattoo
• Get rid of clutter and only keep what matters most

So there is my list. I already have completed one item; I quit smoking on January 1, 2011. I only have twenty-seven to go :-). The next step is to set a plan of smaller goals that I need to complete in order to reach my lifetime plan, and then break those down into even smaller manageable goals. That will be another day. For now, I will contemplate my goals list and picture what it will be like when I scratch off the last item from my list. 

Until tomorrow...

Ana