Goal Setting 2: Your Ideal Work Day
This is the second in a series of goal-generating excercises, and this one is my favourite.
As I entered my senior year of high school I had to choose between two diverging life-paths: pure art and pure science, and this excercise helped me find MY ideal career from among the many art/science/both-related options in the world.
This excercise has two simple RULES:
1) You must work during your day. For the purposes of the excercise, "work" is any activity that can be monetized, or otherwise provide you with basic needs: food and shelter. When you think about what you will do for "work", dream about maximizing what you ENJOY doing (working with people? Being outside?) and minimizing what you DON'T (phone calls? travel?). Don't try to name a particular job or career just yet -- it might not even exist! -- just write out the things you do and don't enjoy doing based on the jobs/hobbies/volunteering that you've done before. What are the things that you like SO MUCH you would want to do them every day for FORTY YEARS?
2) Your lifestyle must be something statistically attainable with enough hard work. So no "winning the lottery" dreams or "marry rich" or "rock star" dreams. You can certainly play music or perform as your dream job, but very few people actually get to become rock stars. I'm not saying you can't or shouldn't go AFTER a dream of getting rich, just don't count on it. Will being a modestly successful musician who gets by playing local shows be enough for you? Focus on the JOURNEY more than the DESTINATION - your ideal DAY not your ideal LIFE.
Now,
Part One: "Imagine yourself sometime in the not-too-distant future and picture what you would consider your 'ideal workday.'
Goal Setting 1: The Bucket List
Boston, Massachussets
This is the first in a series of goal-setting exercises.
The "bucket list" is probably the first thing that most people think of when they think of making goals. The basic premise of a bucket list is "things that you'd like to do before you kick the bucket (die)." These are usually pretty fanciful, one-time events. Kiss a supermodel. Go Skydiving. Climb Everest. Get thrown out of a bar's window.
They could also be "life goals" or things that you would like to accomplish by the end of your life. Write a book. Have children. Become Trilingual. Get a PhD.
I don't personally believe that experiencing all these events will translate into your overall, day-to-day happiness. However, I do think that it's a useful excercise to go through because it's fun, it allows you to dream, and verbalizing these fanciful dreams will allow you to recognize an opportunity when it presents itself. I believe it spurs you on to take chances and do things you wouldn't normally do, and will lead to a more interesting and fulfilling life along the way. "My friends are going skydiving? Oh! That's on my bucket list! I should go with them!"
Turning your Goals into ACTIONS
Nanaimo, BC
If you've been through my list of goal-setting excercises, you should have a pretty long list of goals. Some of them might be very lofty and fanciful, and others might be very simple and immediate.
Go through your list of goals and ask yourself for each one: what will I need to accomplish BEFORE I can tackle that goal?
Make your goals SMART!
Ottawa, Ontario
You've taken a lot of time to generate goals, boiling long term goals into shorter term subgoals, and have picked a list of a few things you want to focus on first. Now you want to make sure your goals actually turn into REALITIES.
And you accomplish that by making sure your goals are SMART.
What is a SMART goal? It is a goal that is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound. A SMART goal focuses on HOW you are going to get there, rather than just your destination.
As an example, let's take the goal of "Become a better writer".
GOALS: The How and Why
WHY GOALS?
Jasper, BC