Goal Setting and evaluation day

I know this is long chickies... bear with me.. all up it should take you about 40 mins.... you dont have to do it all at once. 

Today we're gonna talk a little about what we want, and the steps to get goals set....think about it over the weekend , maybe grab some pictures that "talk" to you, and eventually make a set of specific goals and do the steps to get there.

By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals and you'll see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind.( and hasnt it previously always felt that way Skinny Dippers !)

You will also raise your self-confidence, as you recognise your own ability and competence in achieving the goals that you've set. You just keep swimming and eventually you realise you've reached where you're going!

Why Set Goals?

So many New Year’s resolutions fail because they’re only working on the superficial levels.
 Your goal may be to lose 50 kg, but if you don’t understand why you eat the way you do
and what really needs to be healed, you’ll fail again and again at that goal. It’s not because of lack of determination in many respects; it’s about lack of understanding and awareness.


Goal setting is used by top-level athletes, successful business-people,achievers in all fields, and many many 'average'  people.
 ( what you dont know yet is that setting goals makes you more then average ;) )

It gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation.
It focuses what you need to learn about, and helps you to organise your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.


So...............
Do you know what you want?
If you don’t know what you want then how can you get what you want?
Seems painfully obvious doesn’t it?
It may seem obvious, but the first step to developing a great plan is knowing what you want.  And how do we find out what we want? WE dream!

Thats the first thing I want you to do this weekend..... 

DREAM! 

Dream about how you want everything to be. The best of every part of you and your life. What does it look like?

So sometime today or early in the weekend

sit with your morning coffee ( or when ever you have that spare second to sit and think)  and dream for 10 mins.

Come back when you've done that.

( no rush we have all weekend )

Are you back yet?

Lets Start to Set Some Goals

 
First  create your "big picture" of what you want to do with your life, and identify the large-scale goals that you want to achieve.  This is where the dreaming earlier comes back to play with you

( in relation to the aquarium these are things like -
get fit- loose weight-
concieve - feel better- look better, - keep up with xxx- gain xxx's respect)

Now grab a pen and paper, log into your blog ,or fire up the word processor. Here is where our earlier dreaming session with the coffee is going to become real

Power list your goals

Don’t worry about spelling or punctuation. Just make a long list.
Spend a good 15-30 minutes listing everything you want out of life.

Think of everything, every part of life, it doesnt have to be directly Health/Diet related, a lot of things will be when you work it back later.
Don’t settle for 1 or 2.
Get a long list.

The sky is the limit.

Shall i repeat it again?
How will you get what you want if you don’t know what it is you specifically want?
Annoying aren't I ?  and yes it seems like an annoying thing to do, but results will come and you'll know about it BECAUSE you have a goal and checkpoints ;)

At this point do not worry about how you’ll achieve them. Right now just get everything on the list. My list is at least 30 things long at the moment most of them relate back to JKS (I threw in a few financial ones)

Go on- List it out..... I'll wait till you come back.... promise!

Another side benefit of getting everything down is it clears your mind. After you complete this step, you will probably be highly motivated, excited about it all and ready for action. It puts in perspective what’s important to you vs. what’s just background noise.

You back now? having trouble coming up with a list thats a little more then the generic

look better

be skinny

prove them all wrong ?

Try thinking of the goals this way

A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic. While there are plenty of variants , SMART usually stands for:







 * S - Specific & Significant
    * M - Measurable &Meaningful
    * A - Attainable (dont be silly about it)
    * R - Relevant & Rewarding
    * T - Time-bound &Trackable



Basically there are 7 rules to goal setting

1. Make sure the goal you are working for is something you really want, not just something that sounds good.
When setting goals it is very important to remember that your goals must be consistent with your values.

2. A goal can not contradict any of your other goals.
For example, you can't buy a $750,000 house if your income goal is only $30,000 per year. This is called non-integrated thinking and will sabotage all of the hard work you put into your goals. Non-integrated thinking can also hamper your everyday thoughts as well.

3. Develop goals in all the areas of your life:

                        Family and Home               Financial and Career
                        Spiritual and Ethical           Physical and Health
                        Social and Cultural             Mental and Educational
Setting goals in each area of life will ensure a more balanced life as you begin to examine and change the fundamentals of everyday living. Setting goals in each area of life also helps in eliminating the non-integrated thinking we talked about in the 2nd rule.
but for now? just stick with your JKS goals.

4. Write your goal in the positive instead of the negative.
Work for what you want, not for what you want to leave behind. Part of the reason why we write down and examine our goals is to create a set of instructions for our subconscious mind to carry out. Your subconscious mind is a very efficient tool, it can not determine right from wrong and it does not judge. It's only function is to carry out its instructions. The more positive instructions you give it, the more positive results you will get.

5. Write your goals down in complete detail.
Start by writing A new home, define it down to a suburb, then go further  A 2 story modern tropical style home with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths and a view of the mountains on 2 acres of land.
And there you have the goal as a whole vision!
We do this so that we are giving the subconscious mind a detailed set of instructions to work on. The more information you give it, the more clear the final outcome becomes. The more precise the outcome, the more efficient the subconscious mind can become.

Can you close your eyes and visualise the home I described above? Walk around the house. Stand on the porch off the master bedroom and see the fog lifting off the mountain. Look down at the garden full of tomatoes, green beans and cucumbers. And off to the right is the other garden full of a mums, carnations and roses. Can you see it? So can your subconscious mind.

6. Make sure your goal is high enough.
Shoot for the moon, if you miss you'll still be in the stars. this is pretty much self explainable :D So Shoot for the moon!

7. This is the most important, write down your goals.
Writing down your goals creates the roadmap to your success. Although just the act of writing them down can set the process in motion, it is also extremely important to review your goals frequently. Remember, the more focused you are on your goals the more likely you are to accomplish them.

Ok so you have a list of main points now right?

Give them a time frame, and a way to measure them..... be realistic about it.... give it a feasible workable date for that goal to become reality. You're not likely to loose 10kg in a week! So that would be silly and de-motivational. 

Everything is measurable in some manner.

Now its time to think about how to get there.--- have you got another 20mins? if not save everything and come back later.

Ready? OK.

Lets break the goals down into steps and tasks to get there.

(for the moment think of it like breaking a year up into 6 mth portions)....

For me lets start with a big one on my list ( and the easiest to split up when talking examples)- 

Loose 45kg  - in 12mths

ok so a '6mth size' chunk of that is 

Loose 22kg- in 6mths

a 'quarterly' chunk is  

lose 11 kg- in 3 months

a "mth" chunk is

loose 4kg- in 4 weeks

a  'week" chunk would be

loose 1kg a week

Go on and '6 mth chunk' your list!

to do this you have to decide a few things.
How to measure the goal, and how long to give yourself to do it. 

If you still have time divide all your goals down to as manageable a small a chunk as you can, this should take about 10 more minutes. 
Remember to give yourself an appropriate sized reward at each of your "chunks" .

 

Now if you're like me and like things Pretty...... have a look at this goal sheet and write one out for each ultimate goal.

You can download it from here....

http://getbuttonedup.com/2009/12/tool-free-printable-goal-list-form/

and the master goal form..... http://getbuttonedup.com/2010/01/tool-free-printable-master-goals-form/

Once everything is cut down into manageable chunks its time to think about what needs to be DONE to achive that tiniest tiny step.

But most of all we have to remember that not meeting goals perfectly does not matter much, just as long as you learn from the experience. and JUST KEEP SWIMMING!
Remember, that your goals will change as time goes on. Adjust them regularly to reflect growth in your knowledge and experience, and if goals do not hold any attraction any longer, consider letting them go

Thank you for hanging in with me my lovies........Keep searching out pictures that speak to you and we'll sort that out next week!

Looking foward to seeing your Goal lists.....

So before we get to the goals thing......

While we  read and work through the goal setting thing let’s work on growing your awareness, finding goals that you can achieve, and building off of those successes.

Be More Mindful with Your Food

Dieting and weight loss are HUGELY popular New Year’s resolutions and goals. But changing your diet without changing your mindset is ultimately pretty futile. Either that or the changes you get are temporary. Instead of trying to fit your body’s nutritional needs to someone else’s diet system how about, for now, learning about what your body actually needs?


Start with this simple goal:
Take one meal a day to be mindful of your food. That means eating slowly. Really savor the flavors. After eating, see how your body feels. Repeat this every day. You may start to be surprised at what foods are making you feel good and what don’t make you feel good. This alone will start to shift your relationship to your food and may create a natural weight-loss program according to what your body truly needs.

Take Up a New Exercise That’s Fun

Another really popular New Year’s resolution is to get fit. It goes hand-in-hand with the weight loss thing, but it usually means that people end up doing some really intense and excruciating exercises way two quickly and end up doing them for only three weeks and then totally burning out.
So, for now, choose something that is fun for you. If it’s fun, you’ll keep doing it. Every little bit counts! And if it’s fun, in many respects that’s aligning with what your body likes to do. There’s no doubt that if you’re really out of shape, everything will feel difficult initially. But when you find something that you genuinely enjoy (like swimming, for instance), it’s easier to
work through the hard parts. JUST KEEP SWIMMING!

The spiritual aspect of all this really is coming into alignment with what your body needs. At the moment his isn’t about achieving a body image. When you do that too soon, you’re enforcing an image upon yourself that probably isn’t true for who you are. There’s a whole level of pain just in doing that. There’s so much pain in trying to be what you’re not. So let that go. And just have fun. This is a learning stage you are learning what, where , when and how you want to be  the BEST you. Notice that word there? YOU.... not claudia schiffer.... YOU!




Remember to Sleep, Relax, and Turn Off the Engine

In our go-go-go society, you always feel like you have to be doing something. But that’s burning people out left and right. If you never stop to really let go and rest, you’re getting angrier, crankier, more frustrated, more tired, and more depressed every day. It's harder to SWIM through life. Your whole being needs to recharge. This is why ensuring that you have time for adequate sleep and relaxation is so important. If you’ve been holding off on taking vacation time, set a goal to take that time this year. Set a goal for at least 15 minutes a day of relaxation or meditation and YOU time. You could also set a goal for at least 8 hours of sleep. ( thats on my list this year- sleep at a good time for the RIGHT time) I know you’ve got a lot going on, but you aren’t serving your job, your family, or yourself any better if you’re always deprived.

Choose one or all of the above goals, while we are finding the rest of the YOU specific goals, and then keep a note ( if you have a blog - blog it out- if not grab a pad and just write away)  about how you’re feeling as you keep up those practices. Sure, not every day will be perfect, but it doesnt matter, over time, you may begin to feel more energy and more overall peace in life.

Friday's Goal Setting should be up and around at about 9am QLD time...

Topic Tuesday 1--- What we say Vs what we mean.

What We Say Vs. What We Mean – Are Bad Words REALLY Bad?

 

 

Today’s topic: bad words. 

 

They say sticks and stones will break our bones but words can never hurt us? Is that really true?  

So can words be really good or bad?

We’re really, as society, very hypocritical on the subject.
We always say “it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.” But really, that’s B.S. We teach people that curse words are bad. For example, you can’t drop an “F bomb” in church, or on YouTube. You can’t say “oh f*ck!” You can, of course, say “oh crap!” or “oh fudge!”

I mean, really, are we still trying to pretend there’s any difference here? Because there isn’t. The words, are of course, different, but the INTENTION is exactly the same. Both words have exactly the same emotions, thoughts and feelings behind them. In that respect, they’re completely identical, in terms of content that is.
If you use the “F word” and you’re angry, it’s bad. But if you use it during sex, it’s good. Heck, if you don’t look at your man and say “F me harder big boy!!” then it’s probably not going to be much fun for him. Same word, two completely different contexts, and very different levels of happiness!

Skinny- Dippers we argue that it it’s time to get rid of all the hypocrisy surrounding words.

Sticks and stones will break your bones, but words can cause lingering damage that never really heals. It’s not just an issue of political correctness any more. In the old days, if someone called you names on the playground you had a fight. These days if someone does that ( esspecially in the USA) you snap and grab an assault rifle.

 

Emotion and intention is the real issue in terms of language.

“Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.”
– George Carlin, 

George Carlin is famous in large part due to his “seven ‘dirty’ words you can’t say on television” routine. The basis of this routine is the hypocrisy surrounding language, as if just the words themselves cause the damage.

Yet anyone who’s ever watched a pre election campaign can see how our Political officials have taken curse-free hate-speech to the level of fine art. They never call each other any dirty word, yet what they say, if you actually take the time to listen to it, is far more offensive than any “F bomb”.

 

So going forward, Todays TOPIC TUESDAY TRAINING is to be really aware of your speech patterns as well as your internal dialogue.

One interesting thing to do is simply take an inventory.
For a week or so, write down every emotion you feel when you say something.
eg. "yeah i'm fine" but the other side of your brain says "not that you care" or "what do you want NOW"

Do this consistently and you can start to see a pattern.
Are you always happy? Sad? Depressed? Angry? Overjoyed?
You think you know, but do you really?
I can guarantee not until you see it all there in black and white. Most of us dont consciously "hear" those other people in our head but they are the ones that have the most effect on us and what we do and feel.
It’s kind of tedious to do, I admit, but just do it. You’ll be glad you did. I promise. Seriously. You believe Dory, right? Who wouldn’t trust that face?

 

Just keep swimming!

Hello fellow  Skinny-Dippers!
Bathers, Frogwomen, Aquanauts, Snorkeller, Paddlers and Waders do join us.