There is a lot more to goal setting than just picking a goal and moving forward. While that is important, it’s also important to ensure that you are setting the right goals at the right time so that you can truly be successful. In order to ensure that you are setting the right goals for yourself, answer the following questions:

I. IDEAS FROM ME

Are You Setting Specific and Realistic Goals?

It takes a little research to ensure that a goal is realistic. If you’re not sure if something is actually achievable then you’ve not done enough research. Once you’ve set a goal that is indeed realistic, then you need to be specific enough in your description of it so that it’s also easy to take the goal, and work backwards to create a schedule of actions needed to succeed.

Are Your Goals Multifaceted?

Focusing on only one part of your life is a bad idea. People live multifaceted lives and need to make goals for all areas of their lives in order to feel successful. If you have a wonderful business and career but your personal life suffers, then no matter how successful you are, you will not feel successful. Something will always feel as if it’s missing from your life if your goals aren’t inclusive. Therefore, make sure your goals include something from each aspect of your life.

Is Your Scheduling Representative of Real Need?

Once you create the schedule for yourself to reach each goal that you’ve set, you need to truly consider how representative it is of reality. Say your goal is to be healthy and reduce your cholesterol by 10 percent in six months. But, you haven’t set aside the time needed to exercise and eat right. If you don’t schedule in the time needed, you won’t succeed because something will always be in your way taking time away from you. It will be very frustrating to practice your schedule because it doesn’t represent reality.

For instance, if you are going to exercise 30 minutes per day, setting aside only 30 minutes isn’t going to be realistic. You’ll probably need to set aside an hour to account for getting ready as well as cooling down or getting cleaned up to go back to work.

Are You Learning from Failure?

Many times when setting goals and schedules, instead of learning from failure, people give up. Using the example above, once you implement your schedule to reach the goals that you have set, when you notice there are things you’ve forgotten to take into account, don’t give up. Learn from the failure and change the schedule to be more realistic.

You might find that in practice you have to rewrite all your goals and your schedule, but this is perfectly acceptable. Many people believe failure is something negative, but the truth is, if you don’t fail sometimes you’re not going to learn much and it’s likely your goals are too easy.

Do Your Goals Represent Your Needs and Wants or Someone Else’s?

A lot of people set goals that represent what someone else wants instead of what they want. This can really cause a lot of bad feelings and resentment which can derail the best laid plans. As you set your goals for your life, ask yourself if they’re really what you want for yourself or what someone else wants for you. Ask yourself if you’re okay with any goal you make being for someone else before you embark on your journey.

It’s okay to do things because of someone else, but it’s important that you are honest about that and make some goals for yourself too that don’t involve anyone else’s needs or wants.

Are You Checking in Often to Stay on Track?

Schedules are very important to the success of reaching any goal in life. To do lists pale in comparison to a well laid out calendar of tasks and activities that get you from point “A” to point “B”. Ensure that you look at your schedule every morning and every night and note when you succeed on sticking to your schedule and where you don’t. Noticing a pattern of activity can be helpful in fixing a poorly written schedule as well as staying realistic about whether or not you’re sticking to the plan.

Are Your Goals Focused Positively?

When writing a goal, it’s important to write them in a positive way, or at least a way that feels positive to you. In the quest to improve your life, try writing down a goal and then changing the words to sound more positive to see if it isn’t more motivating. For instance, “losing weight” seems like a good goal, but for some people it might signify deprivation. So instead, the person might frame the goal as “improving my BMI by 10 points” or “improving my cholesterol by 10 percent.”

Do You Have Too Many Goals Set at One Time?

Just as setting too few goals can be a problem, so can setting too many. Everyone has a personal life and a career life and points in between. If you have set goals in too many areas of life at once, you might tire yourself out and get overwhelmed. Instead pick one personal goal, and one other type of goal to focus on until you reach them, and then you can add more goals as time goes on. You don’t need to do everything today. Slow and steady wins the race is a good motto to hang on to.

Setting the right goals for yourself takes some thought and consideration. Don’t try to set all your goals in one day - instead, set some goals in different stages and in different areas of your life and give a lot of thought to why you’re making the goal in the first place.

II. QUOTE FROM OTHERS

“It’s harder to stay on top than it is to make the climb. Continue to seek new goals.”

― Patt Sumitt was an American women's college basketball head coach who accrued 1,098 career wins, the most in college basketball history at the time of her retirement. She served as the head coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team from 1974 to 2012.

“The greater danger for most of us isn’t that our aim is too high and miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”

― Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, known simply as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet of the High Renaissance born in the Republic of Florence, who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art.

Source: developgoodhabits.com/wikipedia

III. 1 QUESTION FOR YOU

What are your short term goals that will help you achieve your longterm goals?

Until next week,

Ruth and
The team at Life in Balance Careers

Ask about how you can become a Performance Consultant at Life in Balance Careers.
support@lifeinbalancecareers.com

P.S.
You are amazing!

In order to prioritize your goals, you’ll need to have a good understanding of what you need to be happy in your life. There are typically four areas in which most people make goals:

1. Family – Spending more time with your kids or partner
2. Financial – Saving toward your six-month emergency cash or starting a business
3. Physical – Being healthy and more active
4. Personal – Getting more education, or devoting more time to spiritual pursuits

I. IDEAS FROM ME

Within each of these areas are numerous concerns, but most goals can be summed up into one of these four areas. As to which goals are most important at any given time, you’ll need to ask yourself some questions to determine where to place your focus.

* Which goals nag at you most often? – What keeps you up at night that worries you? Are your finances suffering because you cannot earn enough money at your current job and you want to figure out how to get off the debt treadmill? This is a goal that fits in with all four of the areas above because financial stress can cause a lot of problems with your health and personal development as well as cause problems within the family.

* Which goals can be accomplished most easily? – Some goals are very short term but give maximum impact without too much work. For instance, maybe you have a goal of walking 15 minutes per day. This goal may only fit in with the personal and physical areas above, but walking 15 minutes per day will not take much away from the other areas and can give you huge results and a feeling of accomplishment.

* Which goals would give you the most pride in yourself? – Will you feel better if you lose 20 pounds or will you feel better if you spend 20 minutes extra with your son? Keep in mind there is no wrong answer, although being healthy might ultimately give you more time in terms of years with your son.

* Which goals have the most permanent results? – When choosing whether to spend that extra money on your degree, determine how permanent the results are, and realize that no one can take that degree from you; it will always be an accomplishment. What is it worth?

* Which goals will still impact me in 5 years, or 10 years? – If you start a business today, and work daily toward meeting the goals of that business, what will be different in five or ten years? How will that impact you now and in the future?

* Which goals align with your core values in life? – Any goal that fits into all four areas of your life is worth pursuing if it also fits into your schedule at the time.

* Which goals are completely up to you, that you control 100 percent? – Remember that you cannot control what anyone else does, so if any goal relies on the participation of someone else, and you don’t have their participation, you might want to switch gears and focus on something only you control.

* Which goals are just for you? – Some goals are completely personal in nature and have nothing to do with anyone else. For instance, you might want to read a particular author that has nothing to do with anything but your own pleasure. This is perfectly fine.

* Which goals are just for others? – There are “should” that often get in the way of proper goal setting and these are goals that are only for other people. Your spouse wants you to lose weight, your mom wants you to go to college, your best friend wants you to start a business. None of these are a good reason to do something, although as long as you know going in why, it’s okay to make it a goal.

* Which goals cause you the most fear? Why? – Sometimes the very thing you fear most is what’s best for you to do. Look clearly at your goal and figure out why it frightens you. Sometimes it’s the unknown, and like ripping off a Band-Aid, just doing it might be the best cure.

* Which goals make you excited? – Some goals immediately send tingles down your body and into your mind, pushing you forward to doing it. These are goals that are easy to do and probably impact your life a lot. However, do pay attention because if it’s a goal of becoming the high scorer on a video game you might want to question your “why”.

* Which goals are most realistic? – The best goals to put first are the goals that best fit into your life today, cover all four areas of life, and still fit into your schedule and where you control 100 percent of the effort. When you answer all these questions, you’ll be able to see how the goals practically organize themselves. Try making a chart and adding each goal to the four areas, then choosing the ones that cross the most areas to add to your schedule first.

II. QUOTE FROM OTHERS

“Today's priorities should be reflective of tomorrow's regrets that you don't want.”

― Germany Kent is an American print and broadcast journalist. Kent has also authored ten non-fiction books, including The Hope Handbook series, and You Are What You Tweet. Kent is also regarded as a social media etiquette expert.

“The key is to not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”

― Stephen Richards Covey was an American educator, author, businessman,
and keynote speaker. His most popular book is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective
People.

Source: goodreads.com/wikipedia

III. QUESTIONS FOR YOU

What will provide the most value for you and how great is the impact?

Until next week,

Ruth and
The team at Life in Balance Careers

Ask about how you can become a Performance Consultant at Life in Balance
Careers.
support@lifeinbalancecareers.com

P.S.
You are amazing!

If you think about the word commitment, what comes up for you? Does it sound like a chore or a burden, or perhaps something that you have to do instead of want to do? Well committing to positive actions is different and not like that at all.

When you commit yourself to positive actions, guess what. You gain all the benefits and reap all the rewards. Committing yourself to positive action means committing to your authentic self.
​
Although commitment may sound like a bad word, when it comes to committing yourself to positive actions, there are a few steps you can take to make it easier.

I. IDEAS FROM ME

Start Small

If you are like most individuals, you may have set grand goals and desires only to fall flat and feel as though you have failed. More often than not setting goals that are too big is one surefire way to flop.

When you have a desire, a dream, or a vision, it is important to set smaller goals, ones that are more manageable. When your goals are more manageable, they are quite simply easier to achieve.

Once you have achieved one small goal, the feeling of confidence in you will soar and you will be able to achieve the next bigger goal.

Have an Accountability Partner

Once you have chosen and set smaller goals, find yourself a buddy, co-worker, or family member who will sign up to be your accountability partner. So, when you set those goals, you will now have someone to answer to so to speak.

In other words, make a promise and have someone check in on you to see if you are keeping that promise. It might be to sign up for a class or it might be to make a phone call. Whatever it is, have someone to answer to and you will see how this has a positive impact on your end goal.

Reward Yourself

Whenever you reach a goal no matter how big or small, reward yourself. Whatever the goal was whether it was to find one new client or to lose five pounds, when you reach your goal reward yourself.

If you start out small, have someone you are accountable for when you make a promise to yourself, and reward yourself whenever you reach a goal no matter how big or small, you will see how easy it is to commit yourself to positive actions.

II. QUOTE FROM OTHERS

“Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something
inside you that is greater than any obstacle.”

― Christian D. Larson was an American New Thought leader and teacher, as well as a prolific author of metaphysical and New Thought books. He is credited by Horatio Dresser as being a founder in the New Thought movement.

“When confronted with a challenge, the committed heart will search for a solution. The undecided heart searches for an escape”

― Andy Andrews is an American author whose work has appeared on The New York Times bestseller lists in the categories of Hardcover Fiction, Hardcover Nonfiction, Business, and Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous.

Source: quotemaster.org/wikipedia

III. QUESTIONS FOR YOU

What went well and what could have gone better today?

Until next week,

Ruth and
The team at Life in Balance Careers

Ask about how you can become a Performance Consultant at Life in Balance
Careers.
support@lifeinbalancecareers.com

P.S.
You are amazing!

Have you ever heard the phrase low impact living and wondered what it is? It almost sounds like it means you live your life not moving around a lot. That's not exactly it, though. Low impact living refers to the amount of impact you have on the planet. That's at its absolute basic breakdown, but it's really more than that. Here's what it means to live a low impact life.

I. IDEAS FROM ME
​
You have to really plan to live a low impact lifestyle today. We live in such a disposable world that it's hard to not just run out and buy new all the time. And really, nothing is created to last anymore. Furniture, appliances, and even computers either don't last or become obsolete the moment you make the purchase. But living a life with as little impact as possible on the planet is not impossible to achieve. Here's what you need to do:

* Invest in your future. No, this doesn't mean education. Invest in things like cloth grocery bags, cloth produce bags, a reusable water bottle/coffee mug, bus pass or bike. These things can pay off in the end. While you might have to purchase those grocery bags initially, many grocery stores give you a refund for each bag you use of your own. You could pay off the purchase of these bags in just a few trips to the grocery store.

* Be prepared. Keep a few cloth grocery bags in your car and an extra water bottle/coffee mug. You never know when you'll need to run to the grocery store for something and you don't want to be caught unprepared for that trip and have to use the store's plastic bags. So being prepared will come in handy.

* Cook from scratch. Making your own sauces will use less garbage. Less waste means less impact on the environment.

* Live a minimalist lifestyle. Only purchase the clothes that you need to get you through until you wash again. Plan your shopping trips and don't stray from them. Making your own clothes will lower your impact on the environment as well. Being able to mend your own clothes instead of throwing them out will be great too.

* Buy used. Shopping in thrift stores is a good way to get some great gently used items that you need in your home. If your refrigerator goes and it can't be fixed, go with used instead of buying new. Older appliances are easier to repair anyways so you'll save money this way.

* Recycle and compost. When something has outlived its usefulness to you, that doesn't mean it's no longer useful to someone else. That refrigerator that's not worth repairing could make great parts for a refrigerator repairman. So see if you can find someone to take it off your hands.

* Refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle whenever you can. If you follow this method of thinking when it comes to the way you live, then you'll live a low impact life.

Low impact living does not mean you have to give up certain luxuries and comforts. You can still live a very full life while also remaining a small blip on the screen of life. So give low impact living a try. You might find it to be really easy to achieve and maintain.

II. QUOTE FROM OTHERS

“Have the courage to build your life around what is really most important to you.”

― Joshua Becker is an American author, writer, and philanthropist.Becker has spoken publicly on his writing and on minimalism throughout America and internationally. He maintains the website Becoming Minimalist which was named one of the top ten personal development websites by SUCCESS Magazine in 2015.

“My goal is no longer to get more done, but rather to have less to do.”

― Francine Jay pioneered the minimalist living movement with her blog, MissMinimalist.com, and her book, The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Your Life. In 2009, she and her husband sold their house, and all their possessions, and moved overseas with one suitcase each.

Source: lowimpactlove.com/wikipedia

III. QUESTIONS FOR YOU

In your opinion, is low impact lifestyle really possible today?

Until next week,

Ruth and
The team at Life in Balance Careers

Ask about how you can become a Performance Consultant at Life in Balance Careers.
support@lifeinbalancecareers.com

P.S.
You are amazing!

Have you ever started something new - a new job, a new sport, even a new game and you’re trying to learn the information and it feels like your brain might explode? That’s an exaggerated symptom of information overload. But, most people are experiencing it daily from normal life due to fast access to information via the internet.

Information overload can cause the following symptoms:
* Headache
* Stress
* Moodiness
* Overweight
* Cardiovascular issues
* And more…

Plus, often it can cause problems in interpersonal relationships and work relationships. The reason is that most information overload is a choice you make. You choose to be on social media all day; you choose to watch every single news station and every single pundit on TV talk about whatever is the topic of the day.

I. IDEAS FROM ME

It’s Like Drinking Water from a Fire Hydrant

Anytime you want to learn something, it’s tempting to start gathering tons of information. And due to the net, it’s easy to get drawn down into the rabbit hole of unending information. It becomes hard to determine what information is good and what information is bad.

It Leads to Poor Information Filtering

When you are bombarded with so much information, your brain can’t filter it properly. Your brain does something called twigging, which means that instead of filtering information in terms of importance it just generalizes all information as being the same. This is terrible for decision making.

It Leads to Bad Choices

If you can’t properly filter information to determine what is true, what is right and what is wrong, you’ll have a hard time making the right choices. The information overload causes you to choose wrongly on any number of issues, because with so much noise going on you can't determine what is right.

It Harms Your Relationships

Information overload can harm your relationships. If you’re always reading your smartphone, looking at social media and aren’t present in your life, it can hurt intimacy. If your partner and friends are complaining, take heed.

It Leads to Black and White Thinking

The world is not black and white. The world is colorful, black, white, gray and everything in between and more. The same can be said for a lot of issues. There are very few issues that are either right or wrong, black or white.

If you have too much information at your fingertips and are rating everything the same, it’s easy to see things as black and white, which can make it hard to negotiate a happy life and successful business.

It Can Lead to Mental Issues Like Depression

When you get to the point of information overload, a lot of people experience mental problems such as short-term memory issues and even depression. If you find that you’re just feeling mixed up a lot, forget appointments and aren’t doing your best at home or work, consider information overload as a potential culprit.

Information overload can be a big problem for a lot of people. People are wrecking their cars due to not being able to turn away from looking at their text messages. Who knows how much money is lost in overall productivity due to information overload.

You can do your part by trying to limit information overload for yourself and your family. You can also encourage co-workers and employees to avoid multitasking and focus training on smaller topics rather than broad ones.

II. QUOTE FROM OTHERS

“The result of information overload is usually distraction, and it dilutes your focus and takes you off your game.”

― Zig Ziglar was born in year 1926 in Alabama, the infamous Zig Ziglar is one of the world's most popular and motivational speakers. His real name was Hilary Hinton Ziglar but the man came to be known as Zig Ziglar as his alias which originated from his pet name in elementary school during the 1930s in Mississippi.

“When information overload occurs, pattern recognition is how to determine truth.”

― Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian philosopher, whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media theory. Born in Edmonton, Alberta, and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, McLuhan studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge.

Source: azquotes.com/quotefancy.com/wikipedia

III. QUESTIONS FOR YOU

How do you identify information overload and how do you handle it?

Until next week,

Ruth and
The team at Life in Balance Careers
​
Ask about how you can become a Performance Consultant at Life in Balance Careers.
support@lifeinbalancecareers.com

P.S.
You are amazing!