What was the last thing you did that was worth remembering?
 
If you’re struggling to come up with something recent, perhaps it’s time to reconsider how you are going through life. Usually it takes some action on your part to make something memorable happen. So let’s start with this question, “What would I like to remember at the end of the year?” Now lets get to how to create goals to make that a reality.
 
If you feel overwhelmed looking at your life as a whole, use a wheel of life to look at different areas of your life and what to create in each area of life. Use the pdf as a guide. wheel-of-life-example-and-blank
 
Start with how things are now. Mark on the wheel how satisfied you are with how much time you are spending in each category. Notice that this can vary for each person. So for one person, spending time with family is very important. They spend about 30 hours a week with family, but still want more. They feel 85% satisfied with the time they are spending with family. Another person finds family time less important, so even though they only spend about 5 hours a week catching up with family, they are 100% happy with the time they spend with their family. So it’s not about how much time you spend in any one area, it’s how satisfied you are with that amount of time. Your aim is to be 100% happy with the amount of time you are spending in each of the categories.
 

Now take each of those areas and with the ideal amount of time you’ll be spending in each of those categories in mind, imagine what you’d like to be celebrating at the end of the year. What is the goal for each category? Let’s take health as an example.
 
Health incorporates all physical aspects of self care – sleep, exercise, nutrition. Now if you’re 100% happy with the time you’re spending here, then you have time to sleep the amount you want to each night, exercise on a regular basis, and provide nutritious meals for yourself.
If this isn’t the case, then what will you change? In the sleep area, perhaps a goal could be to start your bedtime routine 30 minutes earlier. For exercise, perhaps your goal is to workout regularly, or increase the amount of exercise you are doing, or spend time each week doing some meal planning and grocery shopping.
 
If these don’t seem like things worth remembering, then how could you make them so? Meal plan to include inviting friends over for dinner and create a fun weeknight evening. Put an event on your calendar that incorporates the exercise you like to do; a hike up a mountain, a marathon, a sports tournament, a charity run, a retreat focusing on your sport.
 
Imagine we’re at the end of the year, what will you be celebrating, be thankful for, or be happy with?
 
Write down your goals. See my blog post bout writing SMART PATH goals for guidance about how to write them down.
Share a few of them here.