Life Goals

I have in the past, but I'm at a stage right now where I've had to put it to one side and concentrate on one thing at a time. I'm going through a pretty desperate period at the moment and my sole aim is to get out of it.

Back in the goodle days, when I regularly, or at least fairly regularly wrote in my journal, I would write a list of "What I want to get out of this Spring" or Fall or Winter or Summer, or sometimes out of This Vacation or whatever. Then I would forget about it and go back to using my journal for whining and complaining. Invariably, when I would eventually look back on those lists, I'd find that I'd "gotten" most of what was listed. If I hadn't written it down, I'd never even have realized how successful I was.

When I eventually got a job that paid me to write (tech writer) I quit doing any personal writing at all. I'd try, but just couldn't. Now no one's paying me, so I'm getting back to it.

Three seven, I'm very tempted to use this as another opportunity to tease you about the other Life Goal you seem to hold dear (catching up with Maestro's post count) but perhaps I've done that enough today.

-pkpk

paprikapink said:

Three seven, I'm very tempted to use this as another opportunity to tease you about the other Life Goal you seem to hold dear (catching up with Maestro's post count) but perhaps I've done that enough today.

Click to expand...

Surely you're mistaking me for someone else?

Don't call me Shirley! Talk about mistaken identity. Sheesh.

-pkpk

I am definitely someone who does this Dawn.
I write in my journal often and do it in there. I don't really keep them where I can see them always, but they are always in my head, and when I pick up my journal I usually look back to what I've written. It really does help. It gets everything into perspective. I often also discover that when I do not work on accomplishing something over a long period of time I probably don't really want it so I stop writing about it until I am ready (or think I am!).

I read a variation of that, Dawn, and found it quite intriguing. The version I read went somewhat like this: Take out a sheet of paper and over the course of the next few days, write down the 100 things you want to achieve in the next ten years (personal, professional, whatever). Now take 10 of those things and assign it to specific months in this year. Each month, make that one thing your priority and work towards achieving it.

I found this interesting because I guess each one of us has a dozen or so things we want to achieve at a given point of time, both personally and professionally. This approach lets us see things realistically and focus on one thing at a time.

Could be worth a try.

life goals


I do write my life goals down. not just for writing, but everything I hope to have or be in life. specaially things I have to have/be that will make me so much happeir in life. hopely I'll get to have all those things. but If you don't dream first. It can't come true. some dreams I know for sure I know going to come dreams. like being a mother. but my writing dream I just have to hope and pray.
that somewhere down the line. I won't just writing as a hoby. but as a writer.

I write about my goals in my journal, but I don't make lists.

I am usually only working toward one major goal at any given time. I can either focus intensely on one big goal, or end up scattered trying to achieve several lesser goals--there's nothing in between for me. So I choose the one thing that means the most to me, and work toward it.

The goal can change very suddenly. I returned to college in my early 30s and discovered that I had what it took to be an academic. I decided to go to grad school, and as recently as six months ago I was certain that I wanted to get a PhD and teach.

Since then, however, I've realized that the overspecialization that is required to be an academic is not what I want at all. I used to like the idea of immersing myself in one field; I'd never been an expert in anything before. But now it feels claustrophobic. I love doing research and writing, but I now know I don't want to teach. I also want to write for a larger audience, not just a small circle of academics, as well as use my creativity and imagination.

I got into grad school--I reached my goal. In the process I've learned an awful lot that I probably wouldn't have learned in any other way; I have no regrets at all. But now that I'm here I've come to the conclusion that a life in academia is not what I want. It's time for a new goal.

I want to write historical fiction. I have for years; I just never thought I could. So tomorrow I'm quitting grad school to do just that. My new goal is to have a completed novel by the end of the year, and a second well underway. So once I've enjoyed a well-deserved Spring Break, it will be back to the books as I do the research for the first two (and possibly three) novels.

I just looked at some of my personal goals. I've made a couple of them, but only the smaller ones. It's kind of a cross between a personal goal list and a to-do list.

Julian, I envy you. I've never been able to focus on one big goal. It's always five or ten big goals. And in doing that, I've ended up becoming a workaholic, with absolutely no time for any kind of social or personal life.

I like the idea of focusing on one goal, giving it your all for a fixed amount of time and seeing where you go with it. Somehow, I can never get myself to do it. I'm way too scattered. That's why the make-a-list-of-10-goals approach might work better for a person like me. (Are there any more of my type here?)

Writing goals now and then on paper, computer, blackboard, whiteboard, walls, whatever, helps to focus a person, lets you see where you're pointing the ship of life, maybe tells you where you need to turn, what you need to think about.

Thinking about why you want to do things, why you like things, why you don't like things, etc., can also help in figuring out what you want to do.

If nothing else, writing down goals makes you think about them. Look at them every day, every month, whatever; write down new ones, compare them to old ones.

Whether you want to focus on one main goal or select a group of a dozen or so, you can better choose your plan of attack when you know what you want, what you're willing to give up to get it, and whether what you gain from it all a month or a year down the road is worth it.

Having goals can help to keep you out of the gaols.

Bob/bfdc