Lets make some visual goals!
Welcome to part 2 of making visual goals! (Click here to see part 1.) In this post I will walk you through the steps I take when planning my goals for the upcoming year.
Step 1: To start off, I try to review what I've done through out the year and make a list of 10 things I am proud to have accomplished. I do this to feel a little more confident about setting new goals since it helps me see that I've gotten some neat stuff done! Then I write a brief summary on what direction I'd like to move towards in the new year. I chose to put 3 items down for the moment: Improve quality of life, work towards being self employed, and make more arts and crafts.
Step 2: Now that I can see some of my accomplishments and dreams, I start to move toward the meatier part of the goal planning. Evaluating who I am, who I want to be, what exactly my goals are, and how the heck am I going to get there. That is a lot of information to tackle, so lets first start with, Who do I want to be? I typically have a pretty good idea of who I am, but I feel like my interests change a little bit every year due to growing older, learning more, etc. When I'm trying to figure out where I'm heading as a person, I make a list of people I'm admiring or that inspire me on a sheet of paper separate from my notebook.
Step 3: After I finish the list of inspirational people, I write a number next to each person's name. On a second sheet of paper I write only the numbers for the names and then write a few reasons why that person is inspiring next to each number. Once I've completed my list of reasons, I stash the first list of names in a mini envelope, or tape it under a piece of cardboard so it can't easily be viewed.
The second list is the important one - read over it and see how many repeated factors you wrote down. Those repeated items are likely things that you aspire to be or do! I typically take that information and pair it with the 3 loose goals I wrote down earlier to build my final list of what I want to accomplish in the upcoming year.
Step 4: On two blank pages in your notebook make a calendar to cover the amount of time you will be working towards your goals. My original goals covered a span from August 2008 to January 2010, so I made 18 boxes (one for each month). As each month passed I wrote down things I accomplished that I found noteworthy. A few examples from my first month: Came up with new goals, increased site traffic, had freelance work coming in, visited with friends, etc. It doesn't have to be life changing stuff - just write things you are excited about or proud of! By doing this, you can keep track of the progress you make and it will help you see that you are moving forward.
And thats it! You now have your goals, a personal review and a goal tracker to document progress. I like to keep my notebook with me at all times so I can look at it when I'm feeling down or frustrated. I find it can be very motivating to see the progress on the goal tracker, or review the notes I took about who I'm working to become! Also - I recommend half way through the year you re-evaluate where you are going with your goals to refresh your view and re-motivate yourself to move forward. You can see below the different versions of my goal evaluations over the past two years.
Hopefully this is helpful and has inspired you to try to make your own visual list of goals. :)
Click here for Part #3!
