I love Jim Rohn and still have my very first copy of SUCCESS Magazine. In a recent article titled: 4 Tips for Setting Powerful Goals Jim got in my face and helped me realize I had been forgetting an important key to my personal and professional goal setting. I'm sharing my experience in hopes of helping others who might have fallen into the same trap I had.
The number 1 point in the above article is Evaluation and Reflection. I had gotten so busy trying to keep my boss happy, my clients happy, my children happy, the bills paid, the clothes washed, the animals fed, etc... that I had forgotten to evaluation my goals. It had been a good long time since I had taken a look at where we were going and where we had been. After reading the article a few times, I came back to number 1 and asked myself:
"Are you satisfied with where you are right now?"
Guess what? That question made me giggle at first. I thought about it some more and started jotting down things I was and was not satisfied with. I started crying. I sat a good long while just looking at my list before I answered that important question with:
"Absolutely NOT!"
In so many areas I felt I was falling short. I had slipped from an over achiever to someone who was just getting by with good enough, close enough, and that will do for now. I had been doing the same things day in and day out thinking I was moving toward my goals when in reality I was stagnant. I wasn't making any forward progress at all but I hadn't realized it because I hadn't taken time to evaluate much of anything. Blame it on the pandemic, blame it on the busy-ness of life, blame it on anything, but regardless of how we landed in this place, something needed to change to move us forward again. No one wants stagnant goals and that's what mine had become.
Until now that is! (if you know me, you knew there was a happy ending right around the corner)
We sat down as a family and made some big changes and set some lofty goals. Each one of us has our own goals and we also have some family goals we are all working towards. My goals include more time for writing, following up with authors who have asked for help, and some additional time for reading. Let's not forget some time each week to evaluate and reflect!
As we near the end of our time together today, let me ask you these important questions (please answer in the comments, or leave a note - we love hearing from you):
1) When is the last time you evaluated your goals? How often do you do this and how do you remind yourself?
2) Are you going to evaluate your goals sooner than later now that we've chatted?
3) What are you most excited about this new year? What's going on with you?
And as we part ways today, I'll leave you with this gem:
Hugs,
~Crystal
and now...a little more about me...
Crystal is a hot mess of busy-ness who has decided to shorten her bio...
Shown from left to right: Delphine riding Honey Mr. Otto holding Eudora Crystal riding Marv. Thank you Forward Farm, LLC |
You can find Crystal milking cows, riding horses, and the occasional unicorn (not at the same time), taking the ordinary and giving it a little extra (making it extraordinary), blogging and reviewing books here, and at her own blog - Crystal is dedicated to turning life's lemons into lemonade and she has never (not once) been accused of being normal!
3 comments:
Oh I hate to hear that your self-reflection made you start crying--you are so busy and dedicated to everything you do. I hope that 2021 brings you some time for yourself and to figure out how to get where you want to.
Crystal I like the fact that you sat down as a family to write down your goals. Self-reflection and reevaluating your life is always a good thing to do. I'm sure this will be instrumental in you accomplishing all of them in 2021.
Evaluating is definitely essential. Otherwise how do you know how you're doing.
Hope everyone "tunes in" tomorrow for a slightly different take on goal setting and establishing new habits.
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