You cannot be all things to all people all the time and also do all things at all times!
Setting true goals for 2012, means you will be making commitments. Commitments that will lead to a higher quality of life. Commitments that will positively impact others in your life. Commitments that will require you to make sacrifices.
Your life is already busy. Between what you do proactively and what you do reactively, based on the people in your life, you probably already feel stretched. Making a commitment to achieve a goal or goals, will mean that you are adding to your plate. The question you need to answer for yourself is what will you remove from your plate? You cannot reach meaningful goals in life without sacrifice.
You cannot reach meaningful goals in life without sacrifice.
Here are five things to consider, that make it easier to be disciplined in keeping commitments and achieving goals.
1. Always do what you NEED to do before you do what you WANT to do. This is why planning and prioritizing are important, because you have to have a handle on what you need to do in order to be successful in the important areas of your life. The more you do what you need to do in life, the more resources and time you will have for what you want to do. People who do what they want to do before they do what they need to do, usually end up in very poor quality of life circumstances.
2. Minimize negative influences. You are in a doing mindset when you make commitments. You are working towards positive outcomes in your life. Anything or anyone that is a negative relative to your commitments needs to go bye-bye. If there are people in your life who are negative towards your efforts, eliminate your exposure to them (this is a little more challenging if it is your spouse!! but seriously, this will be a major hurdle and you must deal with it). If you have negative habits that adversely affect what you are working towards, you need to make a commitment to mitigate.
3. Eliminate your time wasters. There are probably multiple things in your life that waste your time (meaning they don’t add value to whats truly important to you). Think about television for example. How much time do you watch tv? What does that contribute to your life? Certainly a little can be a form of relaxation or entertainment, but hours a day is simply an escape and a waste of precious time. Get real about where you escape and close the hatch!!
4. Learn to say NO! It is okay if you don’t do everything people ask you to do. If someone asks you to do something that does not fit your schedule, your priorities, or affects your commitments (outside of a true emergency) learn to say NO.
5. Take priority and time investment inventory. I do this for myself and I also walk people through this whenever I conduct life-balance coaching or work-shops. Take some time and write down all of the commitments you have in your life. Anything at all that is expected of you or where you have to do something (I call these roles). Then write down the order of priority and how much time you spend. Then consider the importance of these things, and look at how you can eliminate or delegate the things that don’t really matter so much, or where it isn’t fully necessary for you to be the one doing it. This is an excellent exercise and you can find it in depth in my book “Live Full, Live Well.”
These five points will help you to make the proper sacrifices, and help to smooth the path to achieving your goals in 2012.
