Focus…making a schedule!
Focus on Action Goals
So far, we’ve thought about what our big goals are for our lives in five areas–faith, family, finances, fitness & fun. And we’ve thought about what things in our lives we can cut out to make sure we have room to work on those goals. This week, I want you to create some action goals for each of these five areas.
It’s really important, especially for women, to create action goals. Many women tend to see themselves as failures when we don’t meet a goal. Feeling like a failure is certainly not conducive to continuing on our path! So, creating action goals–things we can do each day to take action–rather than on the final destination helps us to move forward.
I’ve already mentioned briefly an action goal for faith–reading your Bible each day. You can print out my planner pages for a great M-F plan, purchase a read the bible in one year Bible, or even find an online plan that gets sent to your cell phone or e-mail. That daily Bible reading becomes something on your to-do list, something that you can finish and feel great about. And if you get a little behind, you know exactly what you need to do to catch up. The key is consistency!
How about a goal for your family? It could be simple, like eating together each evening, or spending 30 minutes together. Think about something that you can take action on TODAY, and make that your action goal for your Family area.
Here are some ideas for finances, fitness, and fun…
Finances: Call 5 people each day to set up an appointment to share your business with them. If you stick with this, you’ll be calling 100 people each month! Imagine what will happen as you start making appointments and following through with sharing your business opportunity!
Fitness: It is vital that you find a way to integrate fitness into your life. Whether your goal is to walk 30 minutes each morning or do a quick 10 minute workout video, creating that action goal and sticking to it will make a difference in your life!
Fun: My fun action goal for this year is to do something creative at least once a week. Sew a skirt, make a project with the kids, etc. Allowing myself to be creative helps me to be more focused on the other areas of my life.
Have a great week!
Karen
Focus…Making time for your goals
Of course when we talk about eliminating extras when it comes to finances, we talk about budgeting and couponing. When we talk about eliminating the things that aren’t helping us towards our goals when we talk about fitness, we’re talking about cutting out all those treats. These are common sense solutions that we’re all familiar with.
But I want you to look beyond the obvious here. When you have a lot on your plate, every single second is precious. I want you to think for a moment about the things that are taking up your TIME that could be keeping you from your goals.
Let’s take finances for example–what activities are keeping you from making the time to work on your business? Did you know that the average American with a full-time job has between 4-5 hours of leisure time every day? Do you feel like you have 4-5 hours a day? Most people don’t. And yet, if they look, they’ll find that they are wasting time or using it inefficiently.
Guess how the average person spends those 4-5 hours? 1) 3 hours on TV 2) 1 hour on social media 3) 6 MINUTES on reading and 4) 45 minutes with actual people. We should be doing the opposite–spending time reading (personal development) and building relationships with the people in our lives.
Maybe you’re not watching TV or wasting time on the internet. But, chances are that you do have things in your life that could go. Take an inventory of where you are spending your time. If those activities don’t lead you toward your dreams, phase them out. Or try to figure out how you can replace certain activities with others that make better use of your time.
For instance, instead of going to the gym, maybe you can take a walk or go for a jog every morning-saving time but still achieving your goals. If you like reading, read personal development books instead of fiction.
The bottom line is to make time for the activities that will move you towards your goals.
Focus on Family
A few months ago on the way home from a company event, I was thinking about what it means to be a soccer mom. The image of the mom in workout clothes with the mini-van full of kids comes to mind. She’s the super-mom–the one who works full time, is in great shape, runs the PTA, participates in every school event, runs kids all over the place, etc. Somehow this image, which actually started out as a pejorative term, has become the goal of many moms.
Unfortunately, when we focus on all the extra activities and accomplishments and outward appearances, we miss out on what is most important–the hearts of our kids. With all the extra things we cram into our lives–and our kids’ lives–so they can be the best and have the best, it’s no wonder that kids today are feeling so disjointed.
As moms, it’s our job to bring our family together. And sometimes that means making tough decisions and saying no to some activities. Just like any other mom, I want my kids to have the opportunities I didn’t. I want them to be able to do the things they love and excel in them. HOWEVER, I also know that they don’t NEED to be in 20 different activities to be happy. What they need is time with their family.
It’s really important to choose carefully the things your kids are involved in, not only for their sakes, but for the sake of the family as a whole. It doesn’t do any of us any good to be running around here and there and everywhere.
In our family, each of the kids gets to pick one thing every year to do outside the home. And we try to make it so that only one of the three kids is in an activity at a time. (or they share an activity) This year, for example, Tristan played football in the fall. Over the next 6 weeks or so, Megan is in a play. And we’ll be signing Josyan up for a spring sport here in a few weeks. Next year, the boys will play football together on the same team, etc.
The key is to allow kids to choose something they love, but also teach them that they don’t have to do everything. You’ll all benefit from the rest from frantic activity and the time to spend with each other.
Karen
PS This looks like an interesting resource on this topic: http://www.hyper-parenting.com/
Focus on Faith
Focus on Fun
Fun? We can focus on fun?! Of course, we can! God wants for us to live our lives joyfully, but so many of us get caught up in our to do lists and forget that those lists are not the purpose of our life! We need to make time to enjoy our lives and our families–and we also need to take time to do the things that we enjoy! Creativity is an important part of productivity, and it’s something that helps us connect to God.
So, I want you to start thinking about things you can do with your family to have fun together. And I also want you to think about the things that YOU love to do. We’re going to make some time for both of these this year. After all, no one ever died wishing they had worked more!
Having fun as a family can be really simple–maybe you go for walks together or have a game night. Maybe your family loves bowling, but you haven’t gone for years. Or maybe you just love to hang out at the park with your friends. Whatever you love to do as a family, you need to be doing more of.
You can also come up with creative ways to spend time together, like my 12 Days of Christmas. I have had a blast with my kiddos over the past 10 days doing our secret missions of kindness. It was simple and inexpensive–just required a little bit of planning on my part–but the memories will last us a lifetime.
For me, being creative is what I love to do. If I can sew or crochet or craft something…I’m happy. I feel like ME. So, when I can find a way to be creative and have fun with my kids–that is amazing for me. That’s one reason I loved doing the Creatively Fit painting marathon.
So, think about your ideal life–what activities would your family be doing together? What things would you spend your time doing? I’d love to hear from you!
Karen
Focus on Fitness
Focus on Family
Focus on Faith
Hello, 2012!
