The journey of a thousand miles begins with a step.

It’s the first of the year. I wrote out my four goals for the year and had my kids write out their goals too. My husband thinks this makes me dorky. ;-) But he’s wrong… statistics show that people who write down their goals have a greater chance of reaching them. That was my first step. The next step was to “chunk it down” as Jack Canfield says. I figured out what I would need to do to reach my goals and then scheduled it in my planner.

If you have a goal of … “I would like to be healthier” or “I am going to read the Bible more”...those are good goals, but kind of vague. Make it more specific like… “I am going to eat at least 5 fruits and/or vegetables daily and exercise 30 minutes 4x a week.” Or “I am going to read my bible from 9:30 to 10:00 every morning.” Then put that stuff in writing and track it somewhere. There are lots of online programs where you can track your food intake. Or buy a little planner and write in it everyday. Schedule your goals and mark it off when you do it. At the end of the year, you will be able to see how well you did.

Sometimes we fool ourselves. For instance, I wanted to be on time to work last year. I tracked it. I thought I did a pretty good job. Then I crunched the numbers! I was on time 42% of the time. That’s ridiculous!! I made up the time everyday so it wasn’t stealing from the company but still that is not succeeding at being on time by any stretch of the imagination. I had set the goal but didn’t decide how I would do it. Now I am showering and putting out my clothes for the next day, the night before and making the kids do that too. I still get up at the same time, but so far have been ready WAY earlier than before. When you make your goals specific and keep track of them it really lets you see your progress (or lack of).

So that is why Monday we will be doing our fitness test and setting goals in class. Woohoo! See you there!