An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied. ~Arnold Glasow
Hi Team,
We’re well into 2011 now. Remember those goals that you came up with at the beginning of the year? How are you doing on them now?
Take five minutes today to review your public declaration, review where you’re at on your goals and re-dedicate yourself to making this YOUR year. If you need to take corrective action, make it either one of two things:
1) Why do you need corrective action? Were your goals unreasonable for your lifestyle? Did you make a goal without much thought to how your real, day-to-day life could sustain that goal? (Pssst … it’s okay if you did. It’s totally normal and we all know that if you shoot for the stars, there’s a good chance that you’ll end up among the clouds at least). If this is the case, review the goal and CHANGE IT to make it work with your lifestyle and your bandwidth.
2) If your goal is perfectly reasonable but you’ve simply fallen off the wagon, re-dedicate yourself to your goal. Remind yourself why you made the goal to start with, talk to your family and friends about how they can support you and give yourself visual reminders of your goal (lists, positive pictures etc…)
I’m right there along with you today. I just wrote my Accountability Group and requested a change to one of my goals, mid-quarter. It turns out, the larger I get (thank you, unborn healthy baby boy …), the less motivated I am to work out (shuffling like a water buffalo down my former running trail just isn’t on my list of awesome things to do right now). So, I ‘fessed up, asked for help and am changing up my goals a bit to ensure that I stay physically active through my last 7 weeks of my pregnancy.
Join me? I’d love the company of all my Soap Queen family doing a re-focus along with me.
Isn’t it funny how that works? I can easily do awesome with my biz goals but
then somehow when it comes to making the right choices for myself in my
personal life, I allow myself to slide. Ironically, it should be the other
way around.
I totally know what you mean about sun salutations. I did that as a goal for
a quarter and was SO bored of them before the 90 days was up. I ended up
coming up with a few variations for each week, that worked on different
parts of the body, to keep myself slightly more entertained but I never gave
myself that goal again.
I LOVE doing group pilates and yoga. I’ve never taken the time to do
organized classes (they are so hard to fit in with my schedule) but while
pregnant, I’ve been really diligent about doing them and it turns out, I can
make time in my day (but it still feels difficult to get out of the office
during the day!). =)
Congrats on getting to your goals and keeping your other commitments. That
is awesome – and remember, every little bit counts. =)
Hi everyone,
My goals for 2011 were 1. more physical activity, 2. staying in contact with far-away friends and family, 3. spending quality time with closer family and grandparents, 4. organizing creativity day for the orchestra I’m in.
Concerning 1: I have been doing the sun salutation every morning for 4 weeks, then I got bored with it and eventually skipped it. I knew I had to challenge myself a bit more, so I got a member of a pilates and yoga studio nearby and since then, I’ve been doing classes 2-3 times a week. It is fun and relaxing after a busy day at school and I am glad I took care of my physical health before I didn’t have the time to think of it anymore. But, I have to confess that outdoor activities have been neglected, although I take the bike to go to school, which means 12km cicling per day (not too bad, in my opinion).
And I founded a musicians’ activity club. Our initial meeting was a birthday hike complete with tons of cake (ok, not so healthy, but so yummy!), champagne and hot tea!
Concerning 2.: Difficult point because I have to motivate myself again and again to phone or to write emails especially when I’m not in the mood for talking. This point needs and deserves improvement. But: I had a great girls’ day last Saturday and will have a whole girls’ week-end in March.
Concerning 3.: We regularly meet for cake and coffee or dinner, concert tickets for a trip are bought, so I’d say I’m on a good way. And I want to continue!
#4 is critical as we have to safe the orchestra club from being “closed”. All our energy is focused on finding a new chairperson, otherwise there won’t be any orchestra in the future.
Starting my new job at school I was glad I had planned in advance (I tried to anticipate the difficult parts in order to solve them in advance). Being prepared mentally and physically saves a lot of worries!
So thank you, Anne-Marie, for acting as our reminder and motivator! Even some of my hesitating-to-set-some-goals friends called me after reading about your contest and told me they wanted to try some, too :).
Steffi from Philosoapia
Thanks for the reminder. I’ve been doing better with my biz goals than my personal goals.
Good for you for recognizing when a goal needs refocusing. You sound very goal-oriented, so I imagine it was not easy to do. 🙂
I’m terrible about setting goals and then not completing the steps I need to take to reach those goals. However, I’ve stopped beating myself up about them and have realized that, I’m not so much lazy, as I’m content. I dream of having a bigger business, maybe my own shop one day, but when I’m honest with myself I can admit that I’m just not willing to make the sacrifices where my family is concerned. That’s not saying I won’t reach those goals someday, but for now, my family is my focus. So, I guess you could say I’ve had to “refocus” some of my goals, too. 🙂
WOW! You are soooooooo on track and doing great with your goals. I am proud
of you! And way to go with using technology and tools to keep you
accountable.
I tried the Covey method on the computer (rather than day planner) and found
that the free Google calendar had most of the bells and whistles that the
Covey method did so switched to that.
Very excited about your 7 miles a week progress; that is great to read.
Great job! I hope you celebrate your victory for staying on track, on target
(and yes, even ahead!) for this year =)
Yay! Get back on track with me =))) I would love the company.
My theme for the year is Synchronicity – or how to better find synch with all my business and family goals and demands. So far there has been a pretty steep learning curve.
Goal 1 – 30 minutes cardio/yoga a day. This one hasn’t gone very well. Half the time I’m too busy and the other half I’m recovering. But I feel like I’m finally finding a better stride and will be able to really refocus on this starting now.
Goal 2 – Better planning out supply orders to spend more time creating and less time in front of the computer. This one is working out so well that I find myself having to order more in between my scheduled dates just to fill all the new orders at my shop. WooHoo! Happily may need to reevaluate my ordering dates. =)
Goal 3 – Better balance. This one is a constant trial by fire. I made huge plans at the beginning of the year for the blog, shop, events…and last week I had to just pull all of them off my calender for my own sanity. I bit off way more than I can chew and for the next couple of weeks I’m going to step back, fill orders (YAY!), and listen to the universe. And some where down the road I may need to get a tattoo that says, “You can do anything, just not everything.” LOL
Anne Marie,
Thanks for the reminder…I am doing good on several, got sidetracked on one because of waiting on someone else and I know I am off on two others because it is hard to do hard things…no excuses allowed…so I will revisit those two today and start that back up.
C~
Amazingly, I’m keeping on track with my goals this year! In fact, I’m slightly ahead of schedule (I don’t foresee that lasting, but so far, so good…LOL!) I’m so psyched and pleased with myself. Thanks for the exercise and for the check-in, Anne-Marie!
Hi AM. One of my goals (maybe a medium term goal) is to have a store besides my virtual store on internet (http://www.lacatarinamty.blogspot.com), but some times it´s a little difficult to “jump”. I would like you to give us a entire post in which we can read from you some steps, advices, tips or suggestions to start with that “big jump”. What I mean is, how can we (little bussines owner) increase our sales horizons?
Thanks in advance.
God bless you, your Bramble Baby and your husband!!!
Claudia E
Monterrey, Mexico
To revisit my original post, my goals for the year were “1) to get better at time management (I recently got a promotion at work and I realize that if I don’t find a workable strategy for managing my time I’m going to get overwhelmed quickly – I need to work on the SMART part of this one still though…), and 2) walk at least 5 miles a week – I’m going to take some walking shoes to work and start spending my afternoon break with a brisk walk outside. I have an app on my phone that tracks where and how much I walk so I can see my progress as I go.
My theme for the year (inspired by my dog) is “Wag more, bark less.” My focus word is “Enjoy.” I have so much to be thankful for and am lucky in so many ways. This year is all about enjoying my life, my family, my boyfriend, my job, and my hobbies!”
So how am I doing?
For Goal #1, I followed Anne-Marie’s advice and looked into the Stephen Covey “First Things First” system. I even purchased a dayplanner based on his “7 Habits” books & system… I’ve been very good about getting all my appointments (including phone number and address info) into that, so I at least know what’s going on on a daily basis and can see at a glance what my week looks like. (I have a full time job with an hour commute each way, a part time job, and am on the Board of Nonprofit, so I have something going on every night of the week… it has happened in the past that I forget where I’m going and actually take the wrong freeway!) So having it all in my dayplanner has helped, and (knock on wood), I haven’t been late or gone to wrong city yet this year!
I still need to work on the “during-the-day” time management – actually managing my tasks at work. So my refocused goal there is to “spend 10-15 minutes at the start of every work day listing my priority tasks for the day, penciling in an estimated time for them, and then spend 5-10 minutes at the end of the day reviewing to see if I completed everything I set out to, noting the reason if I didn’t.”
For Goal #2, I’m happy to say I’ve actually revised this goal upward! I’ve gone from 5 miles a week to 7 miles a week. I realized that 5 miles a week wasn’t quite enough of a “push” from my normal routine, so I increased the goal a bit. The app on my phone has been helpful in tracking this, and I’ve stuck to it even through the rainiest winter in a long time!
Wow, I didn’t know ‘bandwidth’ had made it into everyday vernacular as such. Interesting!