by Kerry Taylor
Hopefully, at this point, you took some time to do some reflection (Part One). You may have discovered some great, some good, some bad, some disappointing things about it. Now what? Great question! Now we take all that information and lay out our new goals, some may be carryover and that's fine. Just get them on the grid somewhere.
Again, a lot of this work is putting yourself in a place that will allow you to clear your mind, but also get the juices flowing. Once you start to write, don't stop, no goal is too big for you. Aim high, if you miss it's okay, the important thing is you took the shot.
There are many ways to go about this, but one way that may clarify things for you is to take all the different areas of your life and start listing out goals for those areas. Some areas of your life you can look at are financial, health and wellness, family and friends, spiritual, fun and adventure, professional, romance, giving and serving, and intellectual. List as many goals as you want, then dwindle it down to anywhere from 1-3 goals in each section. These goals can change as your year progresses. If you complete one then just slide in a new goal and keep plugging away. To keep you on track add a timeline, a goal date, quarter or month. The following are some questions for each section, depending on what you discovered when you did your reflection (Part One).
Financial: Have more money? Pay off debt? Find a way to make more money? Invest? Create a budget for something? Spend better?
Health and Wellness: Move more? Join a gym? Create healthier eating habits? Sleep more? Hire a coach? Learn how to destress and handle stress better?
Family and Friends: Get out and meet more people? Spend more time? Apologize for something? Reunite with college friends? Have a monthly guy's, girl's, or friend's get together? Weekly dinner with the family? A family trip?
Spiritual: Meditate? Go to church? Read the Bible? Learn religion? Pray? Spend time alone to connect with yourself? Watch the sunset or sunrise? Go for a hike? Go for a walk along the beach?
Romance: Go on a blind date? Schedule date nights? Schedule a vacation without the kids? Share more? Add more adventure into your relationship? Do things just because to make the other person feel special?
Giving and Serving: Volunteer when and where you can? Donate money? Serve as a Big Brother or Big Sister? Give your time to speak to our youth? Visit a group home or retiree home? Go back to your alma mater and donate time? **You can never give enough, it always comes back**
Intellectual: Attend a seminar? Attend a workshop? Read books? Learn a program? Get a mentor?
Take some time and craft all this out for yourself. Once this is completed, congrats, you've taken another step forward which is a lot further than most are willing to go. Okay, you hopefully have a ton of goals and objectives written down. So what do you do now? We have to come up with some sort of game plan for each of these goals. Tune in next time as we take it another step to move your needle in life. Until then, continue to live a life one degree above the rest.
