November 2014 Goals

I was home most of the month of October. My doctor hadn't cleared me to exercise so I took that as license to eat tons of candy and cereal. (I seriously have a Lucky Charms problem!) Despite being confined to the couch, I was able to do a lot a of "when I am well" planning.  I started my 101 in 1001 list last month. Here is a quick recap of last month's goal progress and what I hope to accomplish next month. 

October Goals Recap:

1. Pray daily
2. Purposefully encourage 5 people daily
3. Finish Skillshare class (Instead of worrying about my logo, I decided my time could be better spent pattern making.)
4. Make a plan for starting my fashion line
5. Get closer to my goal weight (I gained a few pounds while I was recuperating at home.)

November Goals:

1. Pray daily
2. Stay in sync with Bible reading program
3. Save $300 towards mini emergency fund
4. Lose 10 pounds
5. Drink 8 glasses of water everyday
6. Finish Round 3 of the 21 Day Fix
7. Start Round 4 of the 21 Day Fix
8. Complete November series the "12 Handmade Days of Christmas"
9.  Launch Shopify Store

Most of my goals involve what I call the Daily Five: Prayer, Read the Bible, Exercise, Encourage Others, and Pookie Time! 

Some of my goals will require little to no effort, like sipping water all day. The rest of my goals will require a little more effort and a lot more baby steps. I will check in half way through the month in order to keep myself on track. 

I am off to work on my blog and fashion line! What are your goals for this month?

February 2014 Goals

January 2014 Sunset| Plucky Gumption Copyright 2014

 I was able to work on each of my January goals a little bit each day. I am proud to be able to strike through my initial list. The real test will be whether I keep going past the January enthusiasm. If “January is for dreamers, and February is for doers,” then I hope I cross over into the latter category.

JANUARY GOALS

1. Start the Nike Training Club Get Lean Beginner Program  

2. Lose 4 pounds.  I was able to lose 3.4 pounds! Yay! 

3. Start a family garden.  Pookie (my husband) and I started carrots, tomatoes, basil, peanuts, tangelos, and strawberries. We started everything, but the strawberries, from seed. More posts to come on our gardening adventures!

4. Revamp the Blog.  Thank you 17thAvenue Designs for the beautiful template.

5. Revamp Etsy Shop. New banner! New tags! Just a little freshening up made me feel better about my shop. Check out the GATON Etsy shop.

FEBRUARY GOALS

1. Nike Training Club Get Lean Intermediate Program

2. Lose 4 pounds

3. Sew the clothing for the spring 2014 collection 

4. Host a spring boutique party at my home for other artists, designers, and home based sellers that I know.

5. Finish redecorating "the side room"

What are your February goals? Did you survive the initial January resolution activity burst?

Day Seven: Realistic Timelines

Let’s go from dreaming to planning! You are not going  to accomplish everything or start working on everything all at once. Here is where some pretty nitty-gritty scheduling comes in so let’s stop and ask ourselves some pretty vital questions:

1. Is there anything that can be done in a day? Hour? Few minutes?

2. What on my list is going to be a gradual commitment over time?

3. What on my list can wait until next year? Next month? Next week?

4. Do any items on my list build on another item or require that other items on my list be completed first?

5. Can I put in place back-up plans if things go awry and I don’t do a certain item during its scheduled time?

This is another way of prioritizing items on your list. If something can be done in a day, then pick a day and do it! There is nothing like crossing something off a list to get you going and to build encouragement for the items that will require baby steps over time. I grabbed my calendar and decided that there were three things I wanted to work on before the end of the year; all of which are gradual in nature and will require small daily commitments. They also coincide with my thematic prioritizing: spiritual, health, and career (which is also part financial).

Number One: Pray and Read the Bible Everyday

Number Two: Lose 20 pounds

Number Three: Prepare a business plan for an idea I have been playing around with.

You don’t have to pick your top three. You can start with one item on your list. You can start with five if you realistically can time commit to five goals all at once. Whatever you plan to start with, make sure that you are realistic about how long it will take to accomplish. Also be realistic about what time you want to, should, and can commit to each day. 

REMEMBER you can always adjust and reassess your timelines, priorities, and daily commitments! The main goal is to get from dreaming to planning.

To Read 31 Days of Dream. Plan. Do. from the beginning click here. 

Day Five: Prioritzing

Today’s post is about prioritizing your goals and dreams.

You are not expected, nor are you required to be superwomen or supermen. We only have so much time allotted to us each day and only so much time allotted to us in life. This is often where I get stuck. I look at my crazy list, get overwhelmed, and my list will stay nothing more than a list. Let's push past this inclination!

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you evaluate where you should start first:

Is there anything on my list that needs to be done?

Is there anything on my list that should get done? 

Is there anything on my list that I want to get done?

Is there anything that will take little time or effort to accomplish?

Is there anything that will involve several steps to get accomplished?

What are the high, medium, and low priority items?

Are there any thematic categories that require my attention? Do yo

need to reach a health goal? Do you need to make your finances a number one on your list? 

The key is to determine what is most important to you. Let me give you an example of what I have done to prioritize and categorize my lists of goals and dreams. 

Step One: I made a list of 50 goals and dreams. They run the gamut from lofty dreams to simple goals.

Step Two: My first method of organizing was along thematic lines: spiritual, health & beauty, financial, career, artistic endeavors, and home decorating.

Step Three: Once I had my themes, I prioritized my themes. I felt the spiritual goals, praying everyday and reading at least a chapter in the Bible a day would have a positive effect on achieving the other items on my list. So not only is that category a priority, it does not take a lot of effort or time to accomplish, and I personally believe it is something I need to do daily.

Step Four: I then addressed each thematic category and the items in the category one by one.  Within each category what is most important to me, what needs to be done, what should be done, and what I want to get done. Put it another way, what is a high, medium, and low priority?

Step Five: Once I look at the items priority level, I then look at time constraints. Is there anything here that I can accomplish in the next week, month, three months? Is there anything I can do to get my encouragement up? What will have to be broken down into further little baby bite sized pieces?

Tomorrow we will talk about the baby bite-sized pieces. Today prioritize the items. Do not evaluate the merit or worth of your goals. This is not that kind of prioritizing!  The goal here is to make your list manageable so that we can go from Dreaming to Planning  and eventually to Doing.
  
To Read 31 Days of Dream. Plan. Do. from the beginning click here.

Day Three: Organizing and Categorizing

Take your list of dreams and categorize them.

 A good place to start may be thematic, such as financial, professional, hobbies, physical, mental, etc.;

     You can do it chronologically, such as, three month goals, six month goals, 1 year goals, 5 year goals;

You can categorize them by order of import;

     You can draw out your dreams in a bubble chart or web chart.

Personally, I am a girl whose lists often have sub-lists. The goal here is to begin to break down your goals into manageable bite sized pieces. Do not get overwhelmed and begin to edit your goals and cross things out. We are only at day three! NO EDITING! NO being suddenly afraid and allowing that fear to edit who you’ve poured out onto paper. Embrace hope and future possibilities. All we are doing is organizing your thoughts!

Here is what I do. I buy a really pretty notebook and dream freely. Then I categorize thematically. Some suggested categories are financial, career, spiritual, mental health, physical health, health, artistic, home decorating, or projects. Whatever categories make the most sense to you.  I also am a big fan of sticky-tabs and other office supplies that make things visually appealing and organized. Now, this may not work for you so I would encourage you to do what does work for you. Organize your thoughts. Please feel free to add to your list as new things pop into your head. 

If you want to stay here for a few days and really think about how to organize your dreams, feel free to do so. Stay on this journey with me. We will break this down into tiny pieces together.  Please feel free to share how you have chosen to categorize your lists.