Be a Goal Glutton

Here's the fun thing about goals: You don't have to confine them to your job or your work life. Anything can become a goal--a dinner party, a wedding, reaching your ideal weight, acquiring a new car, or vacationing in Spain.

I collect goals the way I collect gaudy pairs of dangly earrings. I have a list of things I want to be, do or have, and I add to it whenever an idea strikes my fancy. Or course I can't pursue every single goal all at the same time. But sometimes something will strike my fancy, and I'll put it on the front burner. For example, I never learned how to cook when I was younger. But now that I am supposed to be eating a low-salt diet, I can't eat out as much as I used to. So it became a priority for me to learn how to cook the foods I love, but with less salt. I created some appropriate goals (like giving a dinner party).

In fact, at the start of every year I make a list of goals for all areas of my life--career, health/fitness, home, relationship, spiritual, and hobbies/just plain fun. Periodically I pick out some areas I want to work on and I create intermediate goals, weekly goals and daily goals based on what I would like to accomplish and when.

It sounds complex and, well, something a control freak would do. But I'm not a control freak. Really.

We'll talk more about how to chart your path toward a goal another time.

Non-freakishly,
Kara