Everyone says it: Good enough is good enough. But what does that mean? And how do we know we are good enough? Meeting our goals is one way to know we are doing everything we can to be good enough. But meeting goals isn’t always easy, especially if our goals are not constructed well. Unrealistic goals lead to failure and failure leads to negative thinking about NOT being good enough. So, let’s look at setting realistic goals. It’s one thing to say our goal is to be the best at anything or everything, after all, everyone should want to be the best – but think about it. Is being the best always realistic? There’s a strategy, first proposed by George T. Doran in November 1981, called SMART goals. This strategy will help you reach any objective – as long as the objective is SMART. Let’s take a closer look at SMART goals: (Achieve More With Smart Goals, n.d.) S: Smart Goals are SPECIFIC Now, let’s take a goal and apply the SMART strategy to it. For example, set a goal that looks something like this: Learn New Things. This goal may be admirable, it may help us to become enough, but what is wrong with it? If we apply the SMART strategy to this goal, we will be able to refine it to something that we can achieve. First, SPECIFIC. Learn New Things is NOT specific at all. What kind of new things? To make it specific we need to determine whether the new things will be personal development, physical tasks, mental processes, or something that will help us in our daily endeavors. Second, MEASUREABLE. So, let’s say we are going to learn to ride a bike. How do we know when we have learned this new thing? When we no longer fall, or when we ride in a race? There needs to be some element of the goal that will tell us when to stop learning the new thing because we have mastered it. Third, ACHIEVABLE. Back to the bike riding thing we are learning. Do we have a bike or access to one? Do we know where we will ride the bike? Who will teach us? Do we need to hire someone? Are we physically capable of achieving this goal? Fourth, REALISTIC. Does learning how to ride a bike make sense? Is it something we need to do in order to achieve our daily tasks, etc.? Or is it something we just want to do so we can say we did it? Is it a realistic goal? Fifth, TIMELY. How long will it take us to do this? Is there a time limit on when we need to have it accomplished? Can we achieve it in that time limit? By applying the SMART strategy to our goal, we can now modify it to: Learn to ride the bike in the garage before the summer so we can go riding with the kids/friends. Applying this strategy to all goals will greatly improve their achievability, thus making sure we are enough! References
Achieve More With Smart Goals. (n.d.). Retrieved from The Tony Robbins Blog: https://www.tonyrobbins.com/career-business/the-6-steps-to-a-smart-goal/
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According to Merriam-Webster, journaling is “a record of experiences, ideas, or reflections kept regularly for private use: DIARY.” There is no right or wrong way to journal. Sometimes your journal entries may be a list of goals and objectives, other times they may look more like diary entries. Some people even add pictures and drawings to their journals. The key here is to use your journal in the best way for you. It can be one of the best self-improvement tools you have at your fingertips. There are five different kinds of journaling: 1. Daily journaling As the name suggests, this is a journal that you write in every day. The contents differ from other types of journaling, however, as you focus on sharing what you did and how you felt about it each day. 2. Visual journaling When most people think about starting a journal, they think of writing. But visual journaling is mostly made up of images. Each entry uses drawings to tell your story. These can be simple line drawings, storyboards, comic strips, or stylized sketches. 3. Stream of consciousness/free writing journaling Many writers use free writing as a warm-up before jumping into their novel or other long-form text. But it can be a useful tool for starting a journal, too. With stream-of-consciousness journaling, you write down thoughts as they flow through your mind. 4. Gratitude journaling You can structure your gratitude journal in different ways. You can list the things you’re grateful for, weave them into a larger entry, or format them as short thank-you notes. You can then choose to keep these private or share them with others. 5. Bullet journaling Bullet journals are highly customizable. They can be used to track everything from your mood to your daily steps. Or you can use one page as an agenda with bullets for reflections such as “one thing that made my day today” or “my intention for today.” (Eatough, 2023) If you find yourself anxious or depressed, thinking you are not enough, journaling can help waylay those feelings. The research on journaling shows that change or relief from anxiety or depression will not happen overnight, but the practice of writing down your thoughts and feelings should be carried out over 30 days or more. Some guidelines for starting and maintaining your journaling habits include:
For the next four days, write down how you feel and think about your most traumatic experience or a significant emotional issue that has profoundly impacted you. References
Eatough, E. (2023, March 21). Learn How to Start Journaling. Retrieved from BetterUp: https://www.betterup.com/blog/how-to-start-journaling Sutton, J. (2018, May 14). 5 Benefits of Journaling for Mental Health. Retrieved from PositivePsychology: https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-of-journaling/ |
AuthorI am a Performance Enhancement Specialist with a background in Emergency Psychiatric Medicine and Community Addiction. Archives
December 2023
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