First Article in the Series:
Discover, Dare & Dream
Happy New Year! Welcome to the time of year of resolutions and goal setting. Soon to be followed by the time of year of frustration, disappointment and forgetfulness of all the things we said we wanted to have, do and be.
How about making this year different? How about a plan that will take you from where you are to where you want to be? Do you even know where you want to be?
It is okay if you don’t know where you want to be; many of us don’t. We just know we want it to be different than what we are currently experiencing. And therein lies the challenge with New Year’s Resolutions and most other goal setting exercises – we don’t clearly establish where WE want to be.
Let’s begin the process a bit differently and build not only goals, but a vision of how we want our lives to be. And let’s build it on the things that are important to us, things that we value and let’s enhance it with our strengths, what we are really good at and then stir in what “stirs our chili”, our passion.
This is not the “30-seconds to building the life of your dreams” version of goal-setting. If it were that easy, everyone would be living the life of their dreams, doing work that they love, living in a community that supports them with as much family, friends and leisure time as desired. How many do you know that fit that description? How about you become the first?
If you are serious, then pull out that document or recording you made about your dreams. Yes, the one from around the holiday season. Now, let’s put some substance to it.
I’ll ask a few things of you; not for me, for you!
-
Commit to an investment in yourself
-
Schedule time to honor this commitment. Plan for one hour per week of uninterrupted time to work on your vision and action plan.
-
Enlist a buddy to support you in the process and to be accountable to.
As I said earlier, if it were easy, everyone would do it. The beauty of it is once you reveal your vision (yes, it is in there, just hidden), you’ll find an ease comes into your life as you move in the direction of your dreams.