February 3 Simple Goals

photo by Jill E. Williams

Back in January, I suggested some different beginning of the year rituals that might resonate with you, even if you aren’t a traditional New Year’s Resolver.  One of those suggestions was to consider setting three goals each month.

Here was the take-away:  If keeping track of a resolution all year long feels overwhelming or suffocating but you do like the idea of some vision for your days, setting three goals per month might be a nice tool for you.  At the beginning of each month, set three goals that reflect dreams you have for yourself.  You could set daily goals within the month like write a gratitude list, drink 60 ounces of water, or to read for pleasure for 10 minutes daily or you can set activity goals like have tried a new recipe, have completed the family photo album from last year’s vacation or approached your boss about taking on more responsibilities.  The nice thing about three goals a month is that there is a finite amount of time to get the goal done and so this might resonate more with people who want things in a neater timetable than having a whole year to do something.

I’ve been thinking about the three goal suggestion ever since and have decided to give it a try for February.  Though I do keep a daily to do list that I really focus on every day, I find that some bigger projects have been overlooked in recent months because the length and immediacy of the daily list really keeps me from being able to move to these longer term or more time-consuming tasks.  While tunnel-vision can be good, it can also be short-sighted.  For example, I’ve had a “next book” idea for, oh, a year and haven’t written the book proposal.  Daily grading, lunch making, laundry, lesson planning, blog post writing, etc have kept me from getting that big ole chunk of time to write that proposal.  So, for February, I am choosing three more time-consuming tasks to put on my radar for completion.  We’ll see if it helps to focus in on just three of them at a time (because what I do right now when I have a spare minute is look at ALL these long-term projects and think, well, where to start?) helps me get them tackled.

February 3 Simple Goals  

Get copies of Happy’s birth certificate (this seems like a simple task but the bureaucratic madness is more than  you want to imagine, I promise).

Write book proposal.

Finish Happy’s “early” life book.

How about you?  Do you think 3 simple goals would help you with some of those bigger projects that just get put to the side over and over again?  If so, what are your 3 simple goals for February?