We spent the last few days of 2006 reviewing where we were and how we got there. January is here now and today is January 4, 2007. Four days into the New Year and for many of us that means a return to the normal day to day activities that consume our lives whether it’s getting the kids to school, teaching school, going to work and more. We’ve taken down the Christmas decorations and we’re looking forward to the weeks and months to come populated with their own activities.
In many portions of the nation, we’re under several inches of snow. Here in Texas, we have tons of rain and chilly winds. It can make getting outside a challenge at best and a hardship at worst. So take a few moments in the cold and the wet to reflect back on the year behind us. There are a great many goals we all chose for ourselves last year and if we look back on it – let’s ask ourselves, what goals were realistic? What goals did we achieve? Which ones did we abandon? Why did we abandon them?
The Goals We Abandoned
When we abandon goals, we usually do this because we have too much on our plates or we’ve bitten off more than we can chew. It’s important to look at what those goals were and if we can break them down into more digestible chunks – chunks of a goal that we can accomplish and by doing so make our way to achieving the whole.
Perhaps we wanted to walk five miles a day, but we could never achieve that goal and because we never made it to five miles, we decided that we were failing and we abandoned that goal. A better goal would be to walk 1 mile a day and after you have achieved that and feel comfortable with it, the next goal would be to walk 2 miles per day and so on and so forth.
What Motivates You?
For many of us, success is what motivates us and for many of us, we are more motivated at one point in the day than we are in others. So ask yourself – what motivates you? When do you feel the most motivated? For me, success does motivate me, but it’s more than just random success. I enjoy succeeding at the tasks set in front of me and I am far more motivated in the early hours of the day than I am at any other point.
When you can look at all of these things and you can use that knowledge to help you choose your goals and assist yourself in achieving those goals. For example, in my case if my goal were a mile a day and I motivated by success and the early hours of the day – I would choose to make my daily walks every morning – that success would then feed my desire to achieve the next goal – which would be two miles per day.
So take a moment today to pause and reflect and to help you make your goals for 2007 achievable. What goals can you chunk to make success more achievable?
Related Articles:
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Welcome 2007! Happy New Year’s Eve
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Planning Success – Goal Chunking and How it Works