Category: Goals

Are You Interested Or Committed?

by EvieBurke, posted in Goals

I was thinking about what to write this week when this quote popped into my head:

Interested people do what is convenient. Committed people do whatever it takes.

I’ve heard this term applied to entrepreneurs who want to have a successful business. Basically the question is – are you interested or committed to have a successful business?

However, the real question is:  Are you interested or committed to achieving your goals?

And that question is for everyone.

Do you have a list of goals? Pull them out or if they’re in your head – write them down. Look at each goal: are you interested in achieving that goal or are you committed to achieving it?

Interested says: I’d really like to achieve this goal, it’d be cool!

Committed says: I will achieve this goal and here is what I’m doing.

Which ones do you think you’ll achieve? The one’s you’re interested in or the one’s you’re committed to? Yep, you’re most likely to achieve the goals that you’re committed to.

Take another look at those goals that you’re interested in.  Be really honest with yourself – why do you want to achieve those goals? Because your friend or colleague did? Because someone else told you that you should? Or because you think you should? Do you really need me to tell you that those reasons probably won’t motivate you?

Can you move from interested to committed? Yep! But you need a better reason than “I want to keep up with the Jones’s”. What does achieving that goal really mean to you? What will change by achieving that goal and how is that different from where you are now?

Motivation for a goal you’re committed to comes from within you and not from someone else. It gets you fired up and willing to step outside your comfort zone. It’s powerful.

What goals are you committed to?

2012 Word Of The Year

by EvieBurke, posted in Goals, Word of the Year

When the year changes many people set resolutions – things they will do (or not do) to make this year different. I stopped doing resolutions a few years ago and started doing a word of the year instead, a word to inspire and guide me through the year. In 2010 my word was intention and in 2011 it was engage. I’m sure I had one in 2009, but I didn’t have a blog then to help me remember what my word was.

I started thinking about my word for 2012 about half way through December. In the past picking my word of the year involved dedicating a chunk of time to the process. I sat down with a worksheet, thought about it and reviewed my choices and decided what felt right for the New Year.

This year the process was completely different. Each time I the concept of a 2012 word of the year popped into my head it was immediately followed by the word “create.” Since it continued to happen, I knew that “create” was my word for 2012 and didn’t do the longer process with the worksheet.

I don’t exactly know why my word of the year process was different this year. Perhaps I’m hearing that small quiet voice and recognizing it as something to pay attention to, instead of ignoring. And I’m not as tied to needing a process laid out by someone else to pick my exact right word of the year. I trust myself more than in previous years.

Regardless of the process, my 2012 word is “create.” And in December it appeared in my vocabulary in a significant way even before I started thinking about my word of the year. It popped into my head one day in the form of a question: “What do I want to create today?” And I was able to answer it with clarity and enthusiasm!

“What do I want to create today?” is how I start each day now and sometimes how I end my day. It gives me a direction or a path to follow each day and energy for it too!

Last year I set several specific strategies about how I could be “engaged.” Right now my only strategy is to ask myself “What do I want to create today?” each day and be open what comes up.

There’s a lot of energy behind the word “create.” So, I’m excited to see how this word (and the energy) will appear for me in 2012.

Have you selected your word for 2012? I’d love to know what it is! Leave it in the comments below.

Year-End Review of “Engage”

by EvieBurke, posted in Goals, intention, Word of the Year

My 2011 word of the year was “engage.” You can see the other posts about it here and here. Today is a year-end review of “engage.”

Looking back, the funny thing about my 2011 word of the year being “engage” is that I learned the most from where I wasn’t engaged or when I stopped being engaged. My coach says “who you’re being anywhere is who you’re being everywhere.” And it’s certainly true.

Many of my strategies for being engaged revolved around setting intentions and goals. And that’s a great way to tackle being engaged (or any goal). I apparently am very tied to how I see things going. Meaning – when I set intentions or goals I have a very clear idea how I see them working out. Which is ok and probably to be expected. However, when things don’t work out quite the way I thought they would I’d disengage.

Yep, instead of re-evaluating the situation I’d throw my hands up and say “well that didn’t work. I guess I should try something entirely different.” And set a new intention or goal without really reviewing why things didn’t go the way I expected or thinking about what could be slightly tweaked or changed to allow it to still work – or work next time. Apparently I was an all or nothing type girl this year.

I’ve struggled this year with things not going the way I expected and beat myself up over it quite thoroughly. Negative self-talk – ohh, I had a lot of that this year. High expectations with little wiggle room with how to reach those goals, yep, got that too! Do you see the problem? I didn’t for quite a while and when you add high expectations with no flexibility and negative self-talk you end up with a lot of beating yourself up!

The past month has been the best and worst month this year – and I type that with a smile on my face. I looked back at the year and saw the patterns – beat myself up about it and then forgave myself. That last part can be the hardest part to do – forgiving yourself – and it’s the most important. It lead to me to letting go of a seemly small and insignificant obligation that I’d been thinking about letting go of for months. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it because of what I perceived as other people’s expectations of me. Letting go of that one obligation seems small, but was huge. I was actually putting myself first and letting go of expectations (mine and others).

That’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned this year is that I don’t know what the future will hold and despite my best efforts, I can’t plan it into exactly what I want it to be. So, maybe I can enjoy the ride a bit more. And enjoying the ride means letting go of how I think things should go and enjoying them as they are.

This doesn’t mean I’m not going to set goals, intentions or make changes. It does mean that if those goals, intentions or changes don’t have the exact end result I anticipate then I’ll spend less time being disappointed and upset about it and more time enjoying the unanticipated outcome.

Part of the process this month was done with my coach (the friendly different perspective and prompting was invaluable) and resulted in me writing about what happens now after all the self evaluation, disappointment, anger and (of course) forgiveness. I’ll end today with the last line of the page I wrote:

I don’t know exactly what the future will hold or exactly the path I will take to reach my goals – and that’s ok – the path will unfold as I go and I can stop and look around and enjoy it a bit more.

Goals, Setbacks and Roses

by EvieBurke, posted in Goals

Pink RoseI watched “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” the other day. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a fun kid’s movie starring Dick Van Dyke. The song that I particularly noticed the words to was sung by Lionel Jeffries (he plays the grandfather). Some of the lyrics go like this:

So every time you stumble never grumble.
Next time you’ll bumble even less!
For up from the ashes, up from the ashes, grow the roses of success!

Last time I watched the movie, I noticed these lines too. I love that this song reminds us that when we don’t to reach our goals on the first try, it’s perfectly fine, because you’ll know what not to do next time and have a better chance at success.

I know it’s something I have to remind myself of. One setback or failure doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t try again. It doesn’t mean that I can’t reach the goal. And if you have a setback or a failure, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try again either.

Later the song it points out:

Disaster didn’t stymie Louis Pasteur! No sir!
Edison took years to see the light! Right!

Depending on which number you believe, it took Edison 1,000 to 10,000 tries to invent the light bulb. And he’s reported as saying:

I have not failed 1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb.

Whatever your goal is, you can do it. Setbacks are opportunities to learn what doesn’t work for you and give you a better chance at success next time. Also, remember you have resources around you for help. Resources can come in the form of books, websites and people. If you need help or are stuck let me know!

What resources do you use when you have a setback?

You can go here to see a clip of the song.
Photo credit: Pink rose without frame by Candie_N via flickr