I don’t write New Years resolutions. I think most people don’t follow through with them after January 14th comes around. Instead I start thinking a few days before my birthday about what I would like to accomplish in the next month or 3 (short term), over the next 1 year, 5 years, and 10 years. Sometimes I won’t worry too much about the 10 year mark unless I have decided to change the big picture course I am on. To me, that part is very important. Goals can be changed! They are yours, and do not belong to anyone else. You are allowed to change your mind.
I know many people who have a problem with achieving the goals they have in mind. This is something I feel I excel in. If I have something I want to do, I’ll pick a path, research how to do it, and achieve the goal. Really. I don’t think that any particular person taught me how to do this. Instead I just learned how when I was in college and stuck with a winning combination.
This all began for me about 17 years ago… Here I was, a single mom working her way through nursing school. I didn’t have much family support and I was having to juggle so much on my own. I was also seeing a counselor at school who suggested I write down 50 things that I accomplished on my own over the past few years. After I wrote those down I realized just how much I had already been able to do. I decided to write down what I wanted to accomplish in the short term, in 1 year, in 5 years, and in 10 years.
That was easy enough. The next question was, how do I achieve the list? I needed a game plan. I then researched the pathways of each goal. There is such an abundance of information out there on how to do so many things, you only have to look for it. So many of the things one wants to do has been done by another and most people are happy to share how they got to the same place you want to be. You can find the way.
So now I have my plan, written down with a timeline in which I should accomplish my micro-goals. Finishing these small parts should bring me to accomplish my bigger goals. All I really had to do at this point was to put my plan into motion. Easy. Breaking my goals into smaller manageable parts made it so much simpler! I didn’t need to cram everything into a short time period.
For instance, I knew I had a plan of getting my Master’s Degree. I also knew that it would be very competitive getting accepted into a good program. If I wanted to beat out the other people applying for the position I felt I deserved, I needed to make sure my resume was better. I decided to make sure my grades were excellent, that I held some kind of leadership position and that I was part of some honors societies and professional organizations. All micro goals researched to achieve the bigger picture.
Starting 17 years ago, I found a part time job, started college, managed to graduate college magna cum laude as the president of my student nurses association, then started my career in a surgical ICU. These things were achieved all by making goals lists. By the way, I was able to accomplish my 5 year and 10 year goals that I had written down so long ago.
By setting further targets and coming up with a well thought out plan, I managed to purchase 2 homes and 2 cars, earn 2 degrees, have started my goal of running 50 half marathons in 50 states, and so much more. I continue to make my lists every year and follow my paths.
If you don’t have goals, what is your purpose? How do you know where you are headed? I found a winning formula that works for me. What’s yours?
