Achieving My Goals = An Improved Life

A small change can make a big improvement.  Not all changes need to be on a grand scale.  A lot of small changes can equal one big change.  A big change can make a HUGE improvement.  In order to make improvements I set goals.

I strongly believe in setting goals to accomplish the things that will enhance and improve my life and the lives of my children as well.  If I have the opportunity to do something to improve the life of someone else then to me that is a true bonus.  I firmly believe in a good quality of life and I strive for that in all aspects of how I live mine.

Setting goals gives me direction and something to work toward.  Without them I'm certain I wouldn't be able to accomplish the things that I do on a regular basis.  I've set some big goals for myself and sometimes they can feel a bit overwhelming.  If I break that goal down into a set of smaller goals it becomes much more manageable.

Achieving our goals should never be daunting or unattainable.  A good example of this is what I said in the first post about my daughter's car and the work she wants to do to it.  On the whole fixing up the car seemed to initially overwhelm her and she didn't know where to start.  We broke it up into smaller goals, eating the elephant on bite at a time rather than trying to consume it all at once.

First we simply cleaned the car inside and out, small change but it was a big improvement.  Then we moved onto the next goal.  Making a small change by buffing out the hood made a big change to the overall look of the car.  We made another small change by repairing the oxidized roof.  That small change made another big improvement.  Next we restored her headlights from foggy to clear.  Big improvement not only in appearance, but their function as well.  She has made more repairs and improvements that are making the car better, thereby improving her quality of life.  By the time she is done all of these changes will add up to one HUGE improvement.

Patience is another big part of the process when it comes to accomplishing my goals.  I don't always have a lot of money or time to spend on some of the goals I've set.  While a timeline is important, very important, to getting things done, I sometimes find I need to exercise patience while I wait for all the pieces to fall into place.

Flexibility comes into play when patience is required which is why I tend to have multiple goals set and it is not uncommon for me to be working on them at the same time.  While I prefer to set a goal, work on it, complete it and then move onto the next one it isn't always possible.  If I need to be patient and wait on one I move over and begin to work on another one.  I have a hard time being idle so sitting around just waiting isn't an option.  I need to be busy.

Tracking my goals allows me to adequately manage them.  Especially if I have more than one I am working on.  My preferred method to do this is simply to write it out on a piece of paper and keep it in my day planner.  I look at my lists daily and keep them fresh in my mind so these projects don't languish or get sidelined indefinitely.

Finding time to work on our goals can be a bit challenging as well.  I prefer to have set blocks of time where I plan to work and then get as much done as possible in that timeframe.  Sometimes that block of time may only be fifteen minutes or an hour and that is okay.  Any amount of progress you put into a goal is still progress.

I hope that by sharing how I manage my goals this helps you in some small way as well.  Let me know if you have any questions.  I'm always happy to hear from all of you.