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Goal-Setting Infographic: How to Write a 5 Year Plan

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Can you imagine setting off for a new restaurant without the address? Or taking off for a vacation without first mapping your route? We’d think either one of these scenarios were borderline nuts, wouldn’t we? Yet, if we have goals and don’t write down how we intend to achieve them, are we really all that far from the proverbial nut bowl???

Whatever goals you have, start taking them more seriously. If you don’t start treating them more as GOALS and less like WISHES, you may never get where you want to go, achieve what you want to achieve, or obtain what you… oh, you get the idea.

The first step to take when it comes to goal-setting is to make a plan. Write it out. The infographic below will help lead the way.

Infographic: How to Write a 5 Year Plan to Achieve Your Goals

Source: Essay Tigers

A word about the infographics you see on Self Help Daily: I do not create these infographics. They are created by individuals who send them to me to share with my readers, in exchange for the link you will always find below the infographic.

If you send infographics to me for Self Help Daily, thanks! I love them as much as my readers do – however, please realize that I am not always able to publish them immediately. They will need to fit into the flow of what is being published on Self Help Daily (or any of my blogs, for that matter). I try to space infographics out, so each one gets the attention and potential to be shared across social media that will benefit the sender and readers.

If you send the infographic, please know that 9-1/2 times out of 10 I have received it. What’s more, I have placed it into my Self Help Daily folder and will use it as soon as I possibly can.  As long as the infographic is useful to my readers, I will share it with them.  Thanks, again – there are some amazingly talented people out there making these beauties! ~ Joi

How to Write an Action Plan to Achieve Goals

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Achieving Goals Infographic
When it comes to goals, a lot of people have a tendency to call them by the wrong name: dreams, hopes, wishes… While there’s nothing wrong with any of these words (personally, I’m smitten with each one), when we use words like this we kind of take ourselves out of the equation. Dreams, hopes, and wishes – they more or less indicate that success will come at random.

Just by wishing for it! 

While I’m all for positive thought and believe firmly that we can produce more positivity in our lives by first being positive, ourselves, good things do not just happen because we want them to. Work and/or prayer produce desired outcomes.. and when the two team up, look out.

The infographic, above, is on the same page I am.

  • Identify your Goal
  • Write it Down
  • Make a Plan
  • Carry it Out
  • See it Through
  • Drink Coffee (okay, I went a little off track – couldn’t help myself)
  • Keep Your Cool – the best things in life aren’t always easy to obtain. But, boy, are they worth it!

~ Joi

Source: WriteThisEssay.com

How to Keep Your Resolutions

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Quote About Keeping Resolutions

I love Thursday Throwback posts on the Self Help Blog.  As a book lover, I get a special thrill out of reaching back into the distant past and retrieving a piece of brilliance left for us.  When they wrote these wonderful words, the authors, no doubt, hoped that the words would reach as many people as possible.  That’s why I LOVE to see others doing their best to keep old books that are in the public domain alive and well.   Riches untold lie in the books that are lying around in attics and musky used book stores.  The authors would want their words dusted off, revived, and put in front of a whole new generation.

Whenever I type in one of these articles or excerpts from great authors of the past, I always imagine them walking the earth today. I try to imagine what they’d make of our dress, the way we talk, our hairstyles, and cars!  Can you imagine what’d they’d think of today’s cars?  I’m obsessed with the idea of bringing these great men and women back to teach and inspire us, because they have so much to teach us. Even if their words and expressions are different from our own, their knowledge is priceless.

It’s a special joy for me to share excerpts from my personal favorite  authors like Grenville Kleiser.  The following article appeared in one of Kleiser’s books (from 1917), Inspiration and Ideals.  As always with Thursday Throwbacks, I’ll remind you that I”m typing the words in just as they are written in the book in 1917.

Put Your Ideas Into Practice

by Grenville Kleiser

Make more positive resolutions regarding the things you ought to do. Bring every available reinforcement to bear upon such resolutions.  Write down on a card the special things you resolve to do, and read it several times a day.  Repeat it aloud at frequent intervals.  Assert in vigorous tones of voice the thoughts you wish to establish as unconscious habits of your life.  The best means of impressing new resolutions upon your mind is by concentration, iteration, and vigorous assertion.

At the close of every day review your thoughts and actions, and know precisely what you have done with your new resolutions. It is a great thing to conceive a great idea, but it is still greater to put it into execution.

– From Inspiration and Ideals by Grenville Kleiser, 1917

It’s funny, isn’t it. When we think of the word RESOLUTIONS, we think of New Year’s Day.  Yet, resolutions are simply things we’ve resolved to do or keep from doing. We can (and certainly should) make resolutions all year – not just at the first.  If we, as Kleiser suggests, wrote these resolutions down on index cards and confronted them several times a day (as opposed to writing them down at the fist of the year, and never looking at them again!), we’d stand a much better chance of turning them from resolutions into reality.

Resolutions, or goals, should be made often and confronted daily.  The Grenville article above was plucked from a book in which he gave advice and motivation for each day of the year – much like devotions.  This particular one actually fell on the date March 7 – far removed from New Year’s Day.  Just a reminder that we need to think about self improvement and growth every day of the year, not just the first one.

“The best means of impressing new resolutions upon your mind is by concentration, iteration, and vigorous assertion.” – Grenville Kleiser

 

New Year’s Day: Self Improvement’s Holiday

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A few days ago, my youngest daughter Stephany declared that New Year’s Day was her second-favorite holiday (behind Christmas).  As visions of cranberry sauce, Thanksgiving Day parades, Easter bunnies and baskets, fireworks, and Valentine’s Day candy danced around my head, I asked, “Seriously?!”

Then the younger schooled the older.

She said that she just loved the whole premise of “fresh starts” and putting into action things you’d learned (sometimes the hard way) in the previous year.  As she explained it, even the Easter bunnies stopped dancing and listened.

As Thelma from Scooby Doo fame would say, “Jenkies! She’s got something.”   I’d have gone on putting candy hearts above New Year’s Day…. if not for that meddling kid.

The whole premise of fresh starts occurred to me a few nights ago.   As you know, there are few places I’d rather be than in my kitchen cooking.  I LOVE to cook and trying out new recipes (most of which I kind of make up as I go along) is a personal joy.  I wanted to make homemade re-fried beans a few nights ago to accompany cheese enchiladas, Mexican rice and guacamole with chips.  I was in a bit of a hurry, so I plucked a random recipe from an old cookbook.  It wasn’t an Authentic Mexican cookbook, so I had serious doubts.  I mean, if you want excellent re-fried beans, you have to go to the source of the most excellent re-fried beans ever.

Like I said, I was in a hurry and more times than not haste makes waste.  In this case, a waste of time.

The beans were a bitter disappointment – canned would have been better!

As I was cleaning up after the meal, I thought how I wished I could reverse time and have a “Do Over.”  I’d have backed time up a little bit and sought out a good, authentic Mexican recipe – as opposed to grabbing the first one I found.

Unfortunately, there are no do overs in life.

Or are there?

In a way, New Year’s day is all about DO OVERS.  What better time to think back over the past year(s) and ask yourself, “What would I like to DO OVER?”  Here’s our chance to get it right this time.  Take a minute to reflect over the past year.

  • What were some things you “got right?” Think of the great decisions you made and of the times you wowed yourself.  Vow to keep heading in the right direction and finish what you’ve started.
  • What’s the biggest mistake you made last year? No doubt you learned something from it – even if it was a whopper!  Our mistakes are like very strict teachers, there’s nothing remotely enjoyable about them but we learn from them like nothing else.  A lot of people say we should never think about our past mistakes – to just pretend they never happened.  I’m not so sure I’m totally on board that thought train.  Agreed, we shouldn’t dwell on them to the point of agony and we should NEVER allow ourselves to become racked with guilt or self-pity (neither’s attractive or productive). However, if we don’t acknowledge the mistake(s) and acknowledge the lessons learned, we won’t learn a single thing.
  • What areas of your life (personal and professional) have room for improvement?  Vow to do whatever it is you have to do to improve yourself… and thereby your life… in the coming year.

Here’s a little something I’ll share with you and only you.  I’ve admitted the re-fried beans gaffe, what else have I got to lose?!  Last year, thanks to a couple of my daughters who joined me in a great walking routine, I dropped some unwanted and unappreciated weight.  During the course of spring and summer, I lost 15 pounds!  When I went to my doctor, she asked me what I’d been doing and said she was impressed.  Always good to impress the doctor.

In August, however, I hurt my right foot.  I dropped a heavy glass jar right on the top of the foot (why oh why do we Kentuckians so rarely wear shoes around the house?!?! ). I’m certain I cracked a bone.  Anyway, as you can imagine, the walking routine suffered.  I tried, against better judgment, to keep walking but I ended up making the foot worse.  I’d walk through the pain, but I wasn’t able to walk as fast as normal.

If I had been as smart as I sometimes like to think I am, I would have made CERTAIN to adjust my diet accordingly.  But, noooo, I kept eating like normal and gained back 10 of the 15pounds.  When you’re on thyroid medicine, 10 pounds DO NOT COME OFF EASY.  Believe me, it’s a fight.  Yet, I managed to take them off anyway.  I felt great!  Unfortunately, it was all but a wasted effort because I didn’t devise a diet plan.  When you fail to plan, you plan to fail. And fail I did.

It’d be really easy to get discouraged and say, “Forget it!” It’d be even easier to feel sorry for myself for what happened to my poor foot.  But I’m adamant that the elusive 10 come off again and would love if they coax about 10 more friends to follow them! Feeling sorry for yourself and allowing discouragement to take center stage get you nowhere, and I’m not interested in going nowhere!

The point is, my mistake was a painful one. It was infuriating and I still grumble underneath my breath at myself.  But I learned something in the process. One of my biggest flaws is that I tend to be flighty and assume everything will just take care of itself.  I tend to live in my own little world and am not proactive nearly enough.  While I do like myself,  sometimes I don’t make it easy.

As we head into 2011, think back over 2010 and ask yourself what you wish you’d done differently.  If you had the chance, what would you have done over?  While we can’t go back and take a second crack at it (oooh, my foot didn’t like that choice of words), we CAN arm ourselves with a valuable lesson and new-found resolve.  Who knows where that can lead us… but won’t it be wonderful to find out?

How to Achieve Your Goals

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The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps – we must step up the stairs. – Vance Havner

My husband, Michael, has been in the building industry for many years. He sells bricks, blocks, mortar, and other constructional materials, so he visits job sites regularly. I love to ride along with him and see what it looks like when a store, house, hospital, school (or whatever) is more of a VISION than a VISUAL.  It never ceases to amaze me how returning to the same dirty, cluttered, and genuinely unimpressive-looking location months later can take on a whole different meaning.

The architect has a clear vision of what the end result will look like. Even an architect years ago who envisioned an elementary school in New Albany, Indiana had a clear vision. It was a checkered, whack-a-doodle kind of vision, but a vision nonetheless. When my husband showed me the building, he asked what I thought. I said it was probably the biggest eye sore I’d ever had the pleasure of seeing. He laughed and said he felt the same way but that the architect was so delighted he was beside himself.

Yay, him!

When it comes to self improvement, resolutions, and self growth goals, we’re a lot like architects. We have a clear vision of what the “end result” will look like and, more importantly, feel like.  (More about feelings later.)

If we want to lose weight, we envision ourselves in the same size of Levi’s we wore in college. We think of how amazing it will feel to have better mobility and to look in the mirror without hating the golden arches with a cruel, unChristian hatred.

If we want to make more money, we envision ourselves in a new UK Wildcat’s blue Ford Edge, making a joyful trek from Starbucks to Target to the Mall and back to Starbucks (say hello to my personal vision).

If someone wants to learn to control their temper, they may envision themselves smiling and remaining calm while dealing with every nut job in the county.

You get the idea. No matter what the end goal is, we have a clear vision of it. Oddly enough, there are a lot of well-meaning, usually high-pitched men and women who’d lead you to believe that having this vision, alone, will bring good things your way.

H-o-g-w-a-s-h.

That’s akin to telling an architect, “Stand in the field and attract the building to you. The universe wants you to have the building.” I don’t know who the universe is, but even God expects us to earn the things we want.

Anything worth having has to be built. One brick at a time. Is it fun? Not always – but it is necessary. One of the problems we run into is feelings and emotions.

Make no mistake about it, we are governed to a great extent by feelings.

Some of us (my hands in the air) more so than others. That’s one of the reasons we have trouble “staying on course” while trying to achieve goals or adhere to resolutions. Eating a cream-filled, chocolate-covered doughnut feels better than NOT eating a a cream-filled, chocolate-covered doughnut (did I mention that the hand in the air has chocolate on it?).

Obviously, this makes it vital to focus on the end result. We HAVE to picture – throughout the day – ourselves at the finish line, whether we’re in a smaller size Levi’s, in a Ford Edge, or lying on a beach in Hawaii.

Picturing ourselves there won’t transport us there. What it will do is motivate us to stay on track…. and not just any track. The track that WILL lead us where we want to go.

Motivation is when your dreams put on work clothes. – Author Unknown

All of this SOUNDS lovely, doesn’t it? It SOUNDS pie in the sky amazing. We read or hear words like the ones above and we get so motivated and inspired that we can hardly sit still. Unfortunately, there is a rub. A rub so powerful that it knocks the majority of people clean off the track.

It’s the rub of instant gratification. If you work from home like I do, you know how hard it can be to fight the urge to just get up from the computer and…

  • watch a cooking show
  • take a walk
  • play with the cat
  • raid the fridge
  • go to Starbucks
  • read a book
  • feed the birds
  • stare out the window
  • play solitaire
  • stroll through the house and make sure the layout’s the same as it was an hour ago

… basically do anything BUT work.   Unfortunately there is instant gratification in slacking off.  However, giving in a couple of times makes it far too easy to give in more times.  After a while, everything you’re working toward moves further and further away from you. You look around and you ARE now where you WERE then and the only thing around you is your “slack.”  The tv shows and the wasted trips say, “Hey, you still have us!”

Somehow, it’s just not what you’d envisioned, right? There’s an old saying, Always do what you’ve always done and you’ll always have what you’ve always had!

What does a construction crew do when they have a building to erect?  They keep going back each day until the job’s done. It doesn’t matter if they’re tired, it doesn’t matter if they’d rather be home watching tv.  They have a job to do and they keep at it until the job is complete.  One brick at a time.  One day at a time. One victory at a time.

It’s the same way with resolutions, self improvement, and goals.  We have to earn what it is we desire.  We have to show up, show up, show up, and show up again – until the job is done. It doesn’t matter if we’re tired, it doesn’t matter if we’d rather be doing (or eating) anything else.  We have to put on our proverbial hard hat and work our butts off if we want to build the future we want.

It is NOT going to build itself.  The premise is lovely, but then again so is the premise of a Tooth Fairy.

Remember to take pride and pleasure in each small victory.  If you drive right past a hamburger joint and choose Subway instead – revel in the victory! If you stay at your desk and work a whole hour longer than you expected to, celebrate the victory with a pat on the back!  It’s these small victories that lead to the finish line.   Do you watch college basketball or football?  Many teams will take certain games for granted during the season and lose a game they should have won.  They lose focus and a much less talented, but hungrier, team gets the best of them.  It may seem like a small deal at the time to most people – but those of us who follow the sports regularly know that every game counts in the home stretch.  When you’re playing for the championship, losing games you SHOULD have won count against you in the worst way.

Often, it keeps the best teams on the sidelines watching less talented teams play for the championship title.

It’s a natural law: You receive as much as you give. – Paul Karasik

It doesn’t matter if it’s sports or self growth:  Each victory counts.  Each victory is huge.  Each loss counts.  Each loss is costly.

Whatever your goal is, I hope with all that’s within me that you reach it.  I know you can – IF you keep your focus.  Focus on what it is you want and where it is you want to be.  Focus on this image daily – throughout the day.  But don’t for a second think that visualizing it is equal to realizing it.  You have to work for it.  You have to fight for it.  You have to approach each day with the mindset that you WILL rack up as many victories as you possibly can and avert any potential chocolate doughnuts losses.

When it comes to success, attract isn’t the keyword, action is.  You have to take action – and not just once.  You have to be ready to take continuous action.  The more action you take, the more progress you make.

Victory after victory after victory….

Do this and you’ll build a masterpiece that’ll knock your darn socks off.

Everything you want is out there waiting for you to ask. Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it. – Jack Canfield