Thursday, January 31, 2008

Adjustable Goals

Posted by Tracy Wainwright at 8:45 PM
Your goals may look very different from mine. Your areas of responsibilities may look very different from mine. The helpful thing is to look at your priorities and responsibilities and how you can balance them. What can be let go. Some women may be freaking out that I only clean my house completely once a month. I like to keep my house what I call “clean enough.” It’s not spotless, but it’s not a danger to my children’s health either. For me, it’s more important to go on a date with my husband and work on my children’s scrapbooks (which is therapeutic for me) than have a perfect house.
It’s important to realize that goals are not a “have to.” A goal list is meant to help you maintain balance, not drive you insane trying to check everything off of the list. One year I planned to take a bath once a week. It soon became obvious that I relaxed in other ways and this was a goal I wasn’t going to meet. It was replaced the next year, and that was okay. When I had a newborn I most certainly did not exercise 4 times a week, and that was okay. Just because I didn’t meet a goal, had to adjust it, or alter it for a while didn’t make me want to quit. I realized that I needed to either reevaluate my goals or make adjustments in how I was spending my time.
Because I’m a list person, my annual goals are generally broken down into weekly goals, or to do lists. I have found that I am much more productive when I can see and check off items on a list. And because each week can bring new challenges, responsibilities, and events we often need to make adjustments in what we focus on. For instance, if I’m planning on hosting a function I’m going to focus more on housework. But the next week I may focus on spending more quality time with my children and husband because we were extra busy the week before. Many people may not find having a list helpful, but a list helps keep me accountable. On the days and weeks where I don’t consciously pay attention to what I have to do, I get much less done, feel unproductive, and often overwhelmed because things are still piling up.

1 comments on "Adjustable Goals"

Leigh Anne Langston on January 31, 2008 at 9:17 PM said...

I keep referring to a set of goals I wrote back in 2005 to love God, love others. I had to find out the definition of love, what God said about love and what I needed to feel loved. The answers surprised me.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Adjustable Goals

Your goals may look very different from mine. Your areas of responsibilities may look very different from mine. The helpful thing is to look at your priorities and responsibilities and how you can balance them. What can be let go. Some women may be freaking out that I only clean my house completely once a month. I like to keep my house what I call “clean enough.” It’s not spotless, but it’s not a danger to my children’s health either. For me, it’s more important to go on a date with my husband and work on my children’s scrapbooks (which is therapeutic for me) than have a perfect house.
It’s important to realize that goals are not a “have to.” A goal list is meant to help you maintain balance, not drive you insane trying to check everything off of the list. One year I planned to take a bath once a week. It soon became obvious that I relaxed in other ways and this was a goal I wasn’t going to meet. It was replaced the next year, and that was okay. When I had a newborn I most certainly did not exercise 4 times a week, and that was okay. Just because I didn’t meet a goal, had to adjust it, or alter it for a while didn’t make me want to quit. I realized that I needed to either reevaluate my goals or make adjustments in how I was spending my time.
Because I’m a list person, my annual goals are generally broken down into weekly goals, or to do lists. I have found that I am much more productive when I can see and check off items on a list. And because each week can bring new challenges, responsibilities, and events we often need to make adjustments in what we focus on. For instance, if I’m planning on hosting a function I’m going to focus more on housework. But the next week I may focus on spending more quality time with my children and husband because we were extra busy the week before. Many people may not find having a list helpful, but a list helps keep me accountable. On the days and weeks where I don’t consciously pay attention to what I have to do, I get much less done, feel unproductive, and often overwhelmed because things are still piling up.

1 comments:

Leigh Anne Langston said...

I keep referring to a set of goals I wrote back in 2005 to love God, love others. I had to find out the definition of love, what God said about love and what I needed to feel loved. The answers surprised me.

 

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