Out of Balance! -- Setting goals
Posted October 11th, 2007 by ajlogan
Hello, I am new to the forums but have been using LB for many years. However for the last few years I have not been good at keeping it up to date. I need to refocus and rebalance my life, so I decided to download the new version and join the forums. Perhaps the hardest thing for me is to actually set goals. I have lots of tasks I must do and many that do not get done on time. I go through periods of concentrating on work, and other time concentrating on other things - gardening, housework etc. Of course when I am concentrating on one thing all the others don't get done.
So you can see I need to rebalance my life!
Athena
Comments
RE: Out of Balance!
Hi Athena,
Welcome to the forums. It's good to have you here!
Hmmm. You may find it helpful when you are using Life Balance to think about using it as a way to switch gears gracefully among your goals.
I agree that setting goals can be hard to do, because it gets all tangled up in "where you are now" and "what is realistic" and all kinds of sports cliches.... some of the advice I've heard is downright prone to set you up to fail repeatedly. UGH!
Setting goals is a great topic, though - full of exciting possibilities, nuance, and verve!:-)
It is important because it clarifies what you are trying to do and sets your motivation in motion to work for you. Goals should have some energy to them. They aren't just the chores, although they may encompass the chores. And the wording of your goals can make a tremendous difference to how you think about them! Imagine the different tasks that are suggested by a goal that you might start out calling "gardening" and one that you set up to be, "Win prize for growing the largest pumpkin!" :-)
Taking on each task one at a time, and giving it your full attention is often a good way to make progress on a goal, once you've identified what the goal is.
Have you had a chance to listen to the podcasts, yet? Some of that might be useful to you for what you are thinking about now. Especially of the one titled "The Outline."
Best wishes,
--Catherine--*
Catherine E. White
President
www.llamagraphics.com
Creators of Life Balance software
for Palm OS, Macintosh and Windows.
RE: Out of Balance!
Thanks Catherine,
I think you are right about naming goals. My outline begins with Work, Home, Health, Leisure, Others. After looking at some of the other outlines and your example of gardening I think I need to rewrite the first level, at least, of my outline. Maybe even the second to show how it helps reach the first and then the third level would primarilly be tasks.
I haven't had a chance to watch the podcasts yet. I'll take a look at that one on outlines soon. Thanks for the advice.
Athena
RE: Out of Balance!
You are most welcome.
I think listening to the podcasts will give you some ideas on that. :-)
Best wishes,
--Catherine--*
Catherine E. White
President
www.llamagraphics.com
Creators of Life Balance software
for Palm OS, Macintosh and Windows.
RE: Out of Balance!
Hi there,
I've also opened up another area under "Discussion" in the user forums for getting help with clarifying what your goals are.
Setting goals can be so much fun. Changing a few words here and there can make all the difference!
Best wishes,
--Catherine--*
RE: Out of Balance! -- Setting goals
Athena, I feel yer pain! I could almost have written your post myself. ;-)
I think my main problem is avoidance. I can think about the goals, I can write down all the little tiny baby steps to reach each goal, but actually setting my foot on the path can be really rough for me. At least LB keeps me from forgetting the steps!
-- amazondoc --
Confused, bemused, and disorganized, but trying to reform!
Palm TX, Pismo running OS 10.4.11, LB 4.0.2, Palm Desktop 4.2.1