Setting Goals

So a bunch of months ago I started with this whole rant about how i hated certain parts of my life and really wanted to change them. Then i started a whole set of blog posts about what i wanted to change, and why. But i made a huge mistake. I never really sat down and thought about HOW I was going to change anything. So now several months have gone by, and just by writing my goal ideas down I've made progress. But not nearly as much as I could have.

Time to start over.

No excuses. No trying to fix everything at once. No trying to catch up. I'm just going to start where I am and pick one of my goals to focus on. So from the previous posts that I've made on this topic, here we go.....

Before I pick which of my ten goals to get started on again, there are two types of goals that I want to talk about. Smart goals and dumb goals. Not good goals and bad goals, there is no such thing as a bad goal - unless your goal is to kill someone, then, not so good.

Smart Goals

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

Dumb Goals
Dangerously Unattainable, Monstrously Big goals

The point is that there are two things that will push you to accomplish what you want. A plan, and your ego. Smart goals help you by making sure you have a plan. There is a specific thing to accomplish, a measurable way to tell when you're done, you've proved that it's not impossible, you have a reason to do it, and you know when you want to have it done by. This keeps you from not knowing where to start, getting overwhelmed, wasting your time on useless work, dragging your heels, etc.

Dumb Goals on the other had play merely to your ego. Who doesn't want to say they were great enough to triple their income in 6 months all while quitting their day job to start their own business in a new city in a field they knew nothing about before they started. Some would say that's dumb, others would say it's adventurous. These are the goals that push us to our limits and help us strive not to accomplish but to over-achieve.

You can read more about Smart Goals and Dumb Goals here.

So now back to my goals again. I'm going to pick a SMART goal to get started. There are a few DUMB goals that are hanging around on my bucket list, but that's another post entirely.

For now I think I'm going to get back to my goal of starting new habits. Originally the intention was to start 52 good habits by the end of the year. Now that it's almost August that's not so achievable, so I'm gonna make it 20 habits. I have 4 that I do already, so that just leaves 16 more to come up with between now and December. I think that's a bit more doable than still aiming for the 52 with less than half the year left.

If you wanna get on the goal setting bandwagon with me, here are a few sites to help you figure out what goals to go for
Achieve your goals by putting them online
How to stay committed to long term goals
How to choose the right goals for you
How to set deadlines

In one of the next posts I'll get a little deeper into what kind of habits I'm going to be adding as a part of my goal, how I'm keeping track of my progress and why I'm adding habits to my life in the first place. Hopefully I can stay focused this time...