Sometimes we are not ready for life long goals. So plan to achieve goals THIS week! Start small, get on top of this week and go from there. Let’s see how to do it..
Why Plan This Week?
The truth is that most people don’t have a life plan, 10 year plan, or 5 year plan.
Many people don’t have a yearly plan or a monthly plan. So here we are….I am a big advocate of starting with what is truly achievable. If starting a 10 year plan is not realistically achievable, then we will start here.
We are going to look at how to plan to achieve goals THIS week. One week only! Are you going to give it a try?
‘A Cat’s Purr Conveys Enjoyment’
This is the Bujoplanner.Kim method of achieving goals. I use it myself, I have used it coaching with others, it works!
The steps are a mnemonic using the 1st letter of the sentence above.
- ‘A’ = Awareness
- ’Cat’s’ = Choice
- ’Purr’ = Plan
- ’Conveys’ = Contain
- ’Enjoyment’ = Evaluate
[The first 4 steps are involved before action, the last step is involved after action]
Awareness
- Awareness means that we know where we are at. It also really helps if we can find awareness around ’WHY’ we are where we are. For example – maybe we wish we ate more healthy food. I think we can probably all relate to that. Awareness might be – we discover that when we think about it, we aren’t really valuing our bodies, or maybe we don’t get the level of comfort from a salad as we do chips, or maybe we are blaming some other person for our food situation. There could be many reasons.
Choice
- Choice is the next step in goal setting. It means we tap into what our values are, what is important to us as a person and stating clearly what our goal is. It must be achievable! There is no point setting a goal to that is a lottery whether we make it or not. Goals should be measurable, achievable and in line with our personal values. For example – maybe we would state our goal as: ’I will be eating 5 portions of fruit or veg a day by the end of this year.’
Plan
- Plan is the next step. Many think of goal setting as making a plan, but as you can see, it is only one part of the process. Making a plan will be different for each person. For some it is going to be detail oriented and maybe written down in a very structured way. For others it will not be detailed focused but rather a series of pictures like a mood board. The important thing is to be clear how you are going to get from point A [now] to point B [achieving your goal]. For example our healthy food plan might be – ‘I will start with 1 portion of fruit and 1 portion of veg each day for September, then I will add one extra portion each month, up to the end of the year’
Contain
- Contain is the step that many people miss out. I understand because I did this too. I love planning, but unless you contain your plan – as in – find space to bring it to action, it won’t happen. You need to contain or make room for it in your life. For example – ‘I will buy 7 portions of fruit & veg with my shopping each week, I will eat the portion of fruit with my breakfast in the morning and I will eat the veg with my dinner in the evening.’
Evaluate
- Evaluate is one that comes later obviously. It is a way to keep checking in. We can decide our system of evaluation – maybe every day, or every half day. For example – ‘I found it hard to eat the fruit with my breakfast, especially as the weather got cold, so I will change and eat the fruit as a mid-afternoon snack.’
So..this is a tried and tested method for goal setting. But I want to give you some practical help, so we are now going to focus in on the ’plan’ & ’contain’ parts and see if we can achieve our goals this week.
How to Plan for This Week
So where do you start?
Well the first step is to decide on some categories for your life..maybe work | home | personal.
Then using the awareness and choice sections about decide what some goals are for each category.
Now let’s go into setting up a plan and how to contain it…
To plan to achieve goals this week you need to write our specifically your plan for this week. Here is an example =
Work = I will write and send out my newsletter.
Home = I will clean the fridge and the oven.
Personal = I will eat an apple each day and make sure I have one portion of veg with dinner.
Putting it all together
In life there are different things to accomplish. Some like the picture shows require immediate action. So when we put things into the contain section we need to be realistic. We can’t spend all our life on goals. There are for each category:
- Must do [non-negotiables]. These are appointments, or urgent action things. For example – A work meeting or getting a broken pipe fixed.
- Need to do [regular important things]. These are things like shopping, showering and things that need to be done on a regular basis.
- Should do [your goals]. This is where you put your goals in. These are important things that you want to do.
- Can do [hobbies & entertainment]. With the time you have left you put in you extra items.
To contain your goals they must have space in your week before you start having your hobby time, or your long lie in at the weekend. But here is where we can get really smart. Let’s look at how I contain the plan I have above:
Monday = 8am: After dropping the kids to school, I’ll keep going to the shop and buy the fruit and veg I need for the week. Eat 1 apple & 1 carrot for dinner.
Tuesday = 4:30pm: I will decide on the subject for the newsletter. Eat 1 apple & 1 beetroot for dinner.
Wednesday = 9am: First thing I will get the newsletter written and sent. 5pm: Before cooking the dinner I will clean the oven. Eat 1 apple and & 1 carrot for dinner.
Thursday = Eat 1 apple and for dinner 1/2 beetroot and 1/2 cabbage.
Friday = Eat 1 apple and 1/2 cabbage and 1/2 carrot.
Saturday = Eat 1 apple and 1 portion cabbage
Sunday = 3pm: I will clean the fridge before doin the shopping again tomorrow. Eat 1 apple and 1/2 beetroot and 1/2 carrot for dinner.
I hope that gave some ideas of how to make sure your goals are achieved for this week.
Before I finish up this post, I want to share some excitement. Recently I was invited to take part in a series called ’Why I love where I live.’ It’s a wonderful series that Shannon is doing on her blog happylife Safari. I enjoyed writing all about my favourite things in Dublin.
Please please go check out this amazing series…just click on the picture:
