I was reminded last week about the "Rule of Five" when it comes to goal setting. During an interview I was conducting, the interviewee mentioned that he uses the rule of five to get things done. This wasn't a new concept to me but it did get me thinking about how I approach goal setting. When it comes to setting goals I go to extremes. Sometimes I'll create a list that is so large I know I'll never get through it. Conversely, there are times I make the list so small that I think there's no way I can't get through it.
The Rule of Five is credited to the writers of Chicken Soup for the Soul. Basically, the rule of five is that if every day you went out and made five chops at a tree, even the largest of tree would eventually fall. Pretty simple concept yet so powerful when you really think about it. Typically I'll use examples like "you never eat a steak by shoving the whole thing in your mouth" or "the longest journey is made up of a lot of small steps" but I really like the tree analogy.
As I think about it, maybe my erratic approach to goal setting isn't always the best. Would I have better success if I implemented my own rule of five? What I love about concepts is that you can find a few concepts that you like and pick various pieces from each of them to implement in your life.
Here are my goals from last week and how I did against them.
Make an appointment with an attorney to prepare a will and power of attorney - didn't accomplish
Exercise three times and make an appointment with the personal trainer at the gym - I worked out twice (I'm counting two hours in the yard as a workout. Trust me, my muscles are aching and I worked up a sweat). I also made the appointment with the trainer.
Do some work on the blog (new about page, writing additional posts, etc) - Did quite a bit of work on the blog but I didn't write my new "About" page Ugh!
Finalize volunteer dates - I'll be helping out at a Habitat for Humanity build this weekend.
This week instead of writing a laundry list of goals, I'm focusing on implementing my own rule of five. Here are my goals for the week. In keeping with my rule of I five theme I was hoping to come up with five of them. However, as i thought about what I realistically could accomplish, I figured if I accomplished all of these I'd be doing pretty good
Fill out my "Life Plan" (I downloaded this from Michael Hyatt last summer but never completed it)
Identify five key areas of my life I want to focus on
Explore ways to keep my goals top of mind
What's on your goal list for the week? Feel free to share or post a link in the comment section.
I'll be linking this up at
Funny that you should mention goals (not that you haven't before), that's what I was thinking about today. Not necessarily the goal for this week, but the goals for the summer. The things that I would really like to accomplish. I had four listed, but had thought later it should be 5. 1. Organize my backroom/pantry 2. Re-do the bathroom 3. Organize our bedroom 4. Organize my craft room 5. ???? I know that we won't be camping much this summer since gas prices are so high & we also just put in a pool & we'll be able to use that lots. I'm wondering if that's too much for a summer. I've already decided that if I get two accomplished that will be satisfying enough for me. Three or more? Woo Hoo!!
ReplyDeleteDecorating the bathroom sounds fun - I love redocarating just not the money it takes! I hear you about the gas prices but the pool should help ease the pain a little bit. Aren't you glad you put it in last year?
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