It shows up unexpectedly in the inbox. You knew it would happen, but it doesn’t lessen the shock nor eliminate the slight trepidation you feel as you open it.
Mind racing, you may already be making your excuses about why you won’t be able to make it to your school reunion/industry gala/insert other event that makes your heart race for the wrong reasons.
Maybe it is not so much the event itself, but the “What have you been up to?” questions that make the reunion brutal. When you think about what you’ve done in the last few years, you come to a dismal conclusion: your life is boring.
Maybe you were so busy establishing a career, and you put your personal life on hold. Maybe you never saw the value in creating personal goals, so just never took the time. Maybe you never realized how
boring your life actually is, and you’re not sure how to change it. Whatever the reason may be, goal setting is the solution. It is time to change the course of your life. What’s on your bucket list to accomplish? It’s time to get started.
The Goal Setting Kick My Boring Life Starter Plan
Set short-term, easy to accomplish goals. Look for things you can accomplish in the next 30 days. Setting and reaching short-term goals will not only start you on your journey to be more interesting, it will motivate you to keep working on your next goals. (Short term goal ideas that can be really easy… For some it might be signing up for that kayaking adventure, for others it could be to take your dad fishing, still others could instead read a book off the fiction best-seller list.)
Set long-term goals. Pick goals off your bucket list that are incremental, or that need a longer ramp up time to accomplish. (Long term goal ideas: Learn to line dance. Take a foreign language course. Train for a marathon.)
Use the
SMART system to establish your goals. It will give you the framework to set a goal and develop benchmarks to help you move forward.
The Keys to Continued Success
Focus Develop your list of potential goals, and then narrow the list down to one short term and one long term goal.
Plan Break your goals up in to small, incremental steps. Take one action towards your goal today to get started in the right direction.
Find support Develop a group of “groupies” who will be your cheering section when you succeed and your encouragers when you fail. Tell a few close friends or family members of your goal and ask them to help keep you accountable.
Assess Revisit your goals and monitor the progress you’re making. What are the next steps in advancing your goal?
Celebrate Even small goals should be celebrated and shared. Post it to your social media accounts, share the achievement with your friends, put pictures on your refrigerator as a reminder. No matter how you want to celebrate, take time to relish the accomplishment.
Not only will setting personal goals help you to
feel more accomplished, it will give you something to talk about during the cocktail hour at the reunion and give you a feeling of an exciting life. What stories do you want to be telling? Start setting goals now to reach them.
Michele Bailey is president and CEO of
Blazing Agency and
My Big Idea®. These two lines of business work congruently to support her clients’ success.
