Different Areas of Your Life

You have your lists of wants, balanced in the different areas of your life. You have checked them against your values, and each supports the other. Now, how do we turn those "wants" into meaningful and achievable goals?

Today, take one of your Balance Wheel sections. One that is always important to me is Family. Traveling as much as I do, it would be very easy for me to lose contact with my children and grandchildren. So, one of my goals is to spend time with each of them, and for them to know that I am always available.

Now, it is important to understand the difference between "want to" and "do." "Wants" set up the "do's" in your life, and your goals will need to be written to reflect the "do." So, when my goal is to spend time with each grandchild, I write the goal like this: "I spend quality time with each of my grandchildren. They all know how important they are to me."

Suppose that you are a single mother, trying to balance work and home and family. It is a difficult road to travel, one filled with many choices. You want to spend as much time with your family, but you have to work. Guilt kicks in as you attempt to do it all. Now, thinking of work as a "have to" causes additional stress, which can shadow your work and home time. To remove the "have to" from work would help a lot, so your goal would be written as, "I love the work I do, because it affords me what I need to spend time with my kids."

One final tip: When you write out your "wants" and goals, make sure you write them in the present tense - the future as now. Take out the "going to" and replace it with "I am." You are seeing your future as if it has already happened.

Take each of your Balance Wheel "wants" and turn them into goals for the future, written in the present tense. You have come a long way in the last few days, and have started on the path to a successful 2012!

 

Each day is a new opportunity

Each day is a new opportunity to change anything you want to, it does not have to be 1^st Jan, or your birthday, or any special date; everyday is special and you can choose to make it “the day”.  Nobody has the power or the privilege to make that choice for you, unless you let them.

Why spend your days in places, with people and doing things you don’t like, or that do not make you happy, fear of change is often greater than the uncomfortable situation we are in.  We create our limits in our minds, then believe them to be the truth.  One thing I learnt very early on in the field of psychology; ‘the truth” is never just that, it is only the truth as we see it.  Just think for a moment, football, baseball, or any sport when you follow one person or a team, they are the best. If that were “true” then everyone would follow or support just that one team or person and we know that is not true.  Snakes, heights, flying some people are terrified of one or maybe all of these, but not everyone.  The actual snake, height or flight is not different, but our personal reaction is depending on our beliefs of the truth.

It is never too late or too soon to make changes for yourself and to change your truth. It does take work and dedication; a little each day makes a world of difference over time.

The only place to start however, is within yourself, being honest with yourself about your situation and make the decision to change, that is what takes the time.  Once the decision is make….. it gets easier.

Here’s to a very different 2012.

January Thought