My Goal Planning Process

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Sometimes I love it, and sometimes I hate it, but  nonetheless, my brain seems wired to see everything in categories and lists. Several times a year, I sit down and do a big "life evaluation" where I re-evaluate my personal goals and create to-do lists to help me reach those goals. I often feel the need to do this after a period of time where life and schedules have been a little crazy like Christmas.

So here I am, January 1, 2011. We just got back from visiting my family in Ohio. The Christmas decorations are 1/4 of the way down, and I am so ready for life to get back to normal (if there is such a thing). On our drive to and from Ohio, I did some great reading, and Phillip and I had good conversations on various topics regarding faith, family, and our future. My mind has been swirling with thoughts, goals, ideas as I have unpacked from our trip and started taking down decorations. Now Phillip is watching a movie with the boys and has given me some precious time to myself to think and write, and get all of these thoughts out on paper.

Sometimes I forget that everyone is not wired like me, and some struggle in setting goals and creating realistic steps to meet those goals. So as I sit here and work on mine, I thought I would let you in on my goal planning process to perhaps help you in creating your own.

First of all, my goals are more than just New Year's Resolutions. I think that everyone wants to eat healthier, exercise more, spend more quality time with family, pay off debt, read the Bible more, etc. I think those are great goals for all of us to have, but sometimes they are too general and vague. I like to see my goals more as small areas to focus on in order to reach those bigger overall goals. For example, I want my family to eat healthier. Instead of just making that a general resolution,  a more specific goal I have is to work on creating a healthy 2-week meal and shopping plan. Focusing on that specific area will bring me closer to my overall goal having a family who eats healthier.

Another thing that helps me is to not get too overwhelmed by the big picture. Someday I would love to have an amazing garden where I grow a lot of our own food, shop in bulk at health food stores using bags that I have sewn, soak all my grains, fill my freezer and pantry with things I have made and preserved, and the list goes on and on. When I think of all of those things, I get very overwhelmed. But if I just focus on one area, such as creating a 2-week meal and shopping plan, I am less overwhelmed. Once I complete that goal, I can begin to work on a new goal in that category.

When I first sit down to do some "life evaluation" and goal planning, I pull out a scratch pad and write out what goals or areas for improvement that immediately come to mind. I then categorize those goals according to the different areas of my life. You could look at these as the different roles you have, hats you wear, or layers of who you are. Here are my current categories:

• Personal 
• Mind (Self-Improvement Goals - e.g. Read More)
• Spirit (Personal Spiritual Goals, Disciplines and Habits)
• Body (Physical Goals)
• Homemaker (Daily Care of Home and Family)
• Mother (Spiritual Goals for Boys, Discipline Goals, etc.)
• Educator (Educational Goals, Plans and Activities for the Boys)
• Minister/Christian (Different from Personal Spiritual Goals. These would be more outward focused.)
• Creative (Because I am a creative person, I have a list of goals of creative things I would like to focus on this year. You could list this as your whatever your hobby is.)
• Projects (Home Improvement)
• Miscellaneous (Because some things just do not fit well into any category.)

There are other hats that I wear, that I do not have listed such as Wife, Daughter, etc. Because I am always working off a list such as this, the focus areas change every couple of months or so. So if there isn't an immediate goal that comes to mind in that category, I usually leave it off for now. If I dig too deep, I will create a mile long list in every category and will be so overwhelmed, that I won't make any progress across the board. My biggest piece of advice - don't over think this. Keep your goals simple and reachable. Don't try to plan your goals for the whole life or even the entire year, just list the areas that you want to focus on for the next three months or so. 

Once you have your immediate goals written out and categorized, see if you can break them down even more. For example, if one of your goals is to read more books this year, go ahead and list some books that you would like to read. Reading more is one of my goals for 2012, and many of the books I want to read are actually steps to help me reach other goals on my list. 

Once you have your goals broken down into realistic things that you can take action on, you have to figure out when you are going to take action. Let's face it, we can only focus on a few things at a time if we want to do them well. I have tried different methods of goal reaching. One thing I have learned that doesn't work for me is to put a date or time on my goals. Kind of like following a Bible Reading Plan where you read so many chapters per day and check them off on a dated list. That kind of thing stresses me out. 

What I have found to work best for me is weekly evaluation and small goal setting. I have a small dry erase board in my office that I use for weekly goals. At the beginning of the week, I will write different categories on the board of things to work on for the week. I start with things that have to be done, such as grocery shopping, cleaning the house, doctor's appointments, etc. Then I pull out my list of goals from above, and write out what goals I want to focus on that week. I try to keep it all pretty flexible, so I will stick with it.

There is one last thing that I do that seems to help me stay inspired and focused. I am a very visual person, so I like to hang pictures, Scriptures, quotes, and words in different places around the house. If I am reading a book or a blog, and something really stands out to me, I pull out an index card and write it with black Sharpie. I will then hang it above my kitchen sink, on my bulletin board, on the bathroom mirror, above a light switch. You will find little things all around my house that remind me of the person that I want to be. I was very encouraged by Sarah's post about her One Word for 2012. That got me thinking about what my one word for this next year is. I have several in mind. 

So that is my goal planning process in a nutshell. Later this week, I plan to share some of my specific goals for this year (next 3 months at least) as well as some books I hope to read, and maybe even my "One Word". I hope that you are having a great first day of 2012!

Happy New Year!

xo, 

Amanda