Last year, I spent the first few days of January looking for a good ‘Goal Template.’ Something that would allow me to visualize my year and make better goals. A tool. After searching for a while with no luck, I thought I’d just draw up my own. So I made a simple goals sheet that looked like this:
Goals 2013
Goals and dreams
Long term-
Short term-
BHAGS (From Jim Collins’ book Good To Great)-
Dreams-
Very Simple. It included everything I needed. So I filled it out saved on my desktop and never saw it again until March and then a few times after that throughout the year.
The problem is that I forgot what I had typed. I forgot to look at them because they were stowed away in the busyness of my laptop. And they didn’t inspire me to action because they were hidden. Instead, they stressed me out. Becoming the opposite of an encouraging friend that reminds me how far I’d come and what I can do, they stood as a giant that I thought I’d never beat.
Despite my best efforts, I still was able to accomplish most of my goals, but I’ve been curious what would have happened if I’d physically written them down and revisited them everyday? If I had them with me in my notebook at all times? Would they have been as daunting? Would I have made them bigger and gone further?
I believe that the act of writing the words of your plan for your life is a powerful thing. As you draw up your goals, and write down your dreams you make them real. Still new, still incomplete, but alive. Typing is easy to forget. It’s something we do everyday. It’s mundane. But writing, with a pen and paper, is real. It’s messy. It’s not perfect. But it connects us with what we’re writing and helps us to remember our thoughts in our own voice.
Goals and dreams are not meant to be a once a year kind of thing. They’re an everyday thing. They’re a wake-up-and-let’s-freaking-do-this kind of thing. New Year’s Resolutions are empty and so are goals set in January and forgotten until March.
Write down your goals on paper.
Make them specific. (Ex. “I want to lose 25 pounds by March 31, 2014”)
Look at them every single day until they’re complete.
Then make new goals.
As you look out at the newness of 2014 and feel alive with the blank canvas ahead of you. As you start to devise your Evil Plan for world domination, remember that what you do everyday is what will make your year awesome. It’s what makes you a better artist and helps you become who you want to be.
Don’t plan and forget. Revisit your goals everyday and win. Make something awesome this year.
Happy New Year! And, Happy Monday.
Question:
What is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal for you this year?
Here’s to a crazy 2014. #makestuff
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Amy Cherry - Love this, Chris! Jeremy and I did type ours, but we are printing them out to have in our room! I find so many people posting their goals on Facebook and we felt it to be unauthentic. That may seem harsh, but I feel so many of us (myself often included) shout to the world what we are doing and how we are getting better instead of just keeping things simple and to ourselves. I find it so much for rewarding when we know we worked together towards something.