After some struggles and denial, and just plain stubbornness, I’ve come to realize it only makes sense that simplifying my life cannot be done without setting and achieving goals. Now that I admit that, the goal I must achieve is to learn efficient goal work. Sounds kind of complex and New Agey, doesn’t it? Maybe it is, in a way, but it also makes a very practical kind of sense.
I’ve done some a little preliminary research on efficient goal setting (did you know there are folks out there making a fortune selling this information?!), and reached a conclusion or three. First, everyone sets unconscious goals every day, but we often don’t hold ourselves to them; most of the successful people I know consciously set goals. Second, setting goals doesn’t matter at all if you don’t know how to achieve them; you have to make a plan, because just setting a goal is far from a guarantee that you’ll realize it. Third, if you have a goal and a plan, you have simplified your life; you have stopped struggling and panicking about at least one tiny detail, and started doing something straightforward about it.
So, if goal setting is so simple, and so many successful people do it routinely, why doesn’t everyone? Why haven’t I? Well, I’m not sure about other people, but I’m scared. What’s funny about that is I suspect getting a handle on this goal setting stuff will give me the confidence to overcome the fear that has kept me from setting tangible goals. Catch 22.
The trick, then, appears to be starting small, and proving to myself that I can set a goal, make a plan, follow it, and achieve the goal. It is said, and it sounds logical to me, that if you achieve your goal, it builds confidence for the next one, and so on. It makes sense. Really. It’s like building one lesson on top of another. If we learn everything else in our lives that way, why would the same principle not apply here?
The other thing that has kept me from achieving the goals that I have set is that I didn’t form them correctly. They were too general. I had no clue whether I was really making progress toward them or not because there was just no way to measure or set benchmarks. I didn’t give myself a deadline on them. I didn’t always have control of them. I had way bigger goals than I had ability, resources, and confidence to face them with. In short, I didn’t know how to set an attainable goal, so I set myself up to fail. A lot.
So, here we go. I’ve chosen the first goal I’m going to achieve. This month I will create the habit of writing daily. By the end of May, I will routinely sit down and get at least 300 words out per day. They may not be here, they may not be on my other blog. I am not going to force myself into writing something specific while I build the habit. Just the word goal. I already have places and subjects for writing, so that part of the plan is covered. It seems likely that I will have to set a specific time each day that will be my writing time, most likely right after I get home from work, when I have the privacy and fewer interruptions. By the fifteenth, I should be writing daily, even if it’s just a couple of paragraphs here and there. By the twentieth, it should be more solid still, with 150-200 words per day. By the 30th, it will be normal for me to set aside time to write at least short pieces every day, and potentially a great deal more. By doing that, I will have also discovered the best times and places for me to work, which is a nice perk in itself.
I’m pretty sure I can do this, since I religiously chase new entries on blogs that I follow, and when I comment, it’s rarely short. Heck, I’ve already met today’s goal by about 200%!
Ripples of Simplicity 