Goals

Last week my goals were fairly simple.

Finish my life plan
Identify five key areas of my life that I want to focus on
Find a way to keep my goals top of mind.

I sat down to do the life plan as outlined by Michael Hyatt and decided it was way to detailed for what I need right now. Not that I disagree with the process, that much detail is not what I need at this point.

What I did do was identify what areas of my life I wanted to change. My plan was to come up with five, but after thinking about it I decided there were three areas that I wanted to focus on. Those three are career, well-being and finances.

After identifying the three areas I pondered what I wanted success to look like. For me success in my career isn't a high paying job or a title, it's about utilizing my skills to make a difference in this world. All the goals I identify going forward will be part of the roadmap to help me attain that success.

Once I wrote out what success looked like, I then identified specific high level steps I need to make my success a reality. For example, one of the items I deemed critical for well-being success was learning to relax. Under the "learning to relax" goal I'll have smaller, specific goals to help me achieve relaxtion.

After I spent some time thinking about my focus areas I moved onto how I could implement my goals. I don't know about you, but if I'm not focusing on a to-do list I find it hard to remember to do things. The problem that I'm having is I'm writing these things down in my blog but not necessarily on paper so they aren't "top of mind". Instead of them always being on my brain I think about them in bits and spurts.

I've really struggled with the best way to keep track of my goals. The obvious is to write them down on a piece of paper and carry them around with me or tape them to my monitor at work. I hate to do that 1) because I'm trying to keep them electronically and 2) I would prefer to have them with me all the time.

I've considered using the calendar on my Iphone for my goals but have decided against that. While I use my phone all the time and it would probably be the best way to keep them, the phone is a work issued phone. I do use my phone for some personal phone calls and messages but I prefer not to use it for goals.

With all that being said, I'm going to try and use my new Ipad. I bought the Ipad so that I could carry it around with me and have access to a personal computer during the day. This will allow me to use my lunch hour or other downtime in the evening while running around to get some stuff accomplished. My plan is to use the reminder APP on the Ipad, I'll let you kow how that works.

As I go forward the goals that I write down here will be specific to my focus areas. For those of you wondering, don't worry, I still have my crazy to-do lists of all the things that need to get done. I just won't be posting a laundry list here :)

Career
-Research continuing education options

Finances
-Finish family balance sheet (I'll be writing more details later but this was one of my 12 financial goals for 2012)
-Contact lawyer about wills

Well-being
-Exercise four times (once with trainer)
-Find a 20 minute yoga program that doesn't strain my knees

That's what I'm focusing on this week, what's on your list? Feel free to share or leave a link to your post in comments.