Begin with Who You Are
January 1, 2025
Last week I wrote about taking time to look in the mirror, to review your past, and to consider your connections before making goals or plans for the new year. Ground yourself in your own worth, progress, and community before going forward. Once that is done go ahead and make goals and plans to support your journey. What habits, tasks or projects would support your journey these next few weeks, months or year? Here are some advantages of having specific goals:
Goals Define What You Will (and Won't!) Focus On
Goals help you decide where to focus your attention, in other words, what you will choose to ignore for a while. I have broad sketchy goals for the year and much more specific goals for the next quarter. Breaking things down includes deciding what not to focus on at the moment. For example, a broad goal is to make our home less cluttered and more “user friendly”. For the first quarter of the year, I am going to focus on the upstairs. This means I can, guilt free, ignore the garage mess, basement sorting pile, and other areas that I would eventually like to address.
Goals Allow You to Ask for Help
Resolutions are often broad, “be healthier” while goals are specific. If you plan to walk a few times a week, learn new recipes, or build a business, your specific goals allow you to share with others where you are headed and how they might support you. Asking for support is a vital skill I learned after a major life crisis but is helpful anytime you are pursuing something new. Ask others to join you or to help you along your path.
Goals Build Your Resilience
You start off with your goal and before you know it you run into barriers. It is harder than you thought to make it happen or to be consistent. Granted, there are times when you simply need to change your goal because it is time to pivot. More often pursuing your goal is difficult. It takes hard work, courage, and persistence to do something new. Figuring out how to make progress takes resilience. In the end, you make progress on your goal, learn something new, and build your resilience skills. A win no matter what.
Writing specific goals that fit your needs in the coming weeks and months allows you to prioritize your own needs on your journey. It allows you to focus on what you will (and won’t) spend time on, clarifies what kind of support you need, and builds your resilience. Note that the goal is not perfection but progress and growth. I would love to hear what some of your goals are, feel free to send an email at resilience@learnmodelteach.com or share them on our Facebook page.
Peace,
Laura
