Planning & Lists Archives - Your Life In Journals

It’s Crunch Time. Put a Date on Your Goals!

These past few weeks, it’s crunch time – literally – during my daily morning walk. Acorns have started to drop and leaves have begun to flutter down to the ground from the trees. Either they’re crispy from the long hot summer, or their colors change and then they fall. Almost every step results in a crunching sound of one sort or another.

The Raven Run

You may be aware that one of my business “mentors” is Darren Hardy. As editor of Success Magazine for quite a few years, he interviewed many successful entrepreneurs during that time. This summer he initiated a 90-day challenge to walk or run at least one mile a day for 90 days. It was called the Raven Run in honor of a man in South Miami Beach, Florida, nicknamed The Raven.

My sister and I completed the 90-day challenge, and are on day 25 of the second 90 days. And lately, the sidewalks are strewn with acorns and leaves. Almost every step results in a crunching sound of one sort or another. It’s definitely a reminder that summer is behind us as we enter Fall and the final months of the year.

Crunch Time for Your Goals

What does all this mean? The last quarter of the year is upon us. It’s crunch time. Put a date on your goals! Some people may reflect on their goals for the year and decide to give up and start again next January. For those in a business setting, the fourth quarter is huge. It’s time to finally get out of the red and move to be in the black by the end of the year.

Regardless of what category applies to you, I encourage you to look hard at this “crunch time”. Wouldn’t it be a shame to let these last three months go by waiting for January to roll around? Breathe life back into those goals so you can finish your year strong. The momentum from this fourth quarter will carry you full force into the new year.

Break It Down

If your remaining goals are too large to complete in three months, just break them down. Think of this as your crunch time and determine some smaller steps to break the goals into. Perhaps define one step for each of the three months left. Whether it’s personal or business goals, I encourage you to think through how you can make progress these next three months. The Hollis Company is doing a Last 90 Days Challenge (https://thehollisco.com/pages/last-90-days) to help people focus on the end of the year. If that would be helpful for you, I hope you take the time to check it out.

Put a Date On It

So yes, it’s crunch time with all the dry leaves and acorns on the ground. But let that be a reminder of something else. It’s also time to make plans now to finish the year strong. Get out your planner, set aside the time to write down your goals and then break them into smaller steps. Put a date on your goals. Keep those goals and dates in your planner so you can check it every day to stay on track. Make your planner work for you to help you achieve all that you want in life.

06/2506/26

Our Boat Trouble Can Help You Reach Your Goals

Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “the best two days of a boat owner’s life are the day they buy the boat and the day they sell it.” Well, we don’t necessarily agree at this point, because we’ve had lots of wonderful times in the past two years on our old, but “new to us” pontoon boat. However, we’ve had our moments of trouble. And this latest one, may actually help you reach your goals.

Word of the Year

How could that be possible? It starts with my word of the year actually. At the end of last year, I knew I would be closing my brick & mortar scrapbook store in January of the new year. I realized my life would be taking a whole new direction and carefully considered what my word for the next year should be. After much thought, deliberation, and prayer, I ended up with “propel” as my word for this new year.

Half-way Mark

If you follow any social media at all, I’m sure you’ve seen lots of comments and posts about doing a mid-year checkup as we are in the month of June. Not necessary for me, I thought, since I have this great word of the year and am moving forward on one of my big goals for the year, i.e. this blog. But then, as life would have it, we had boat trouble.

Treading Water

So, picture a lovely, sunny, ‘life is good’ kind of day out on the water; and then – in the middle of the lake – the boat stops moving. But wait, the motor is running; yet the boat is completely at a stand-still in the water. How is that possible? Trust me, it is. After having it towed back, being damaged in the process, and waiting for repairs; it dawned on me. This boat trouble is so similar to me trying to reach my goals. My word of the year might be the best word I’ve ever come up with. But if I don’t think through steps and have an action plan in place to “propel” my goals forward, then what good is that word? I can visualize myself moving forward with my goals, but if I’m not taking the appropriate action, I’m at a stand-still with achieving them.

boat propeller - how our boat trouble can help you reach your goals

Does Busy Equal Progress?

Just as a boat with a great motor is of little value without a working propeller; all the goals in the world will get us nowhere, if we don’t make a plan. So how about you – do you have a goal you are working on? Do you have a word of the year? Maybe now really is a great time to check your progress. If you are busy with all sorts of activities – ask yourself if they are moving you closer to your goal. Or are they just items to check off in that cute little list in your planner to make yourself feel like you’re taking action? If those actions don’t help you reach your goals, are they really worth your time? This post can be of help if you need to get your day in order: https://yourlifeinjournals.com/morning-routine/

daily check list of items to do. your actions matter to help you reach your goals

Does It Matter?

This boat trouble was a great reminder for me that goals need to be broken down into smaller steps, and then those steps need to be taken one by one. Don’t allow someone or some thing to sidetrack you into busy work, or to a totally different issue than what you’re aiming for. Stay the course. Focus. If you need help with goal setting, either of Hal Elrod’s books are a great place to start: https://halelrod.com Remember, just because you are busy doesn’t necessarily mean you are moving in the right direction, or moving at all toward your goal. Our little boat motor was working as hard as it could, but without a good propeller, it didn’t matter. Make sure your actions matter, so they help you reach your goals.

04/2406/11

Are You Ready To Commit?

So, are you ready to commit to this new adventure using a bullet journal planner? I’m so excited for you to get started. Just in case you are a little fuzzy, here’s a recap of what you’ve accomplished so far:
1) You decided you need to get certain areas of your life under control
2) You decided what topics & events that you need to capture
3) You chose your size and style of planner/journal
4) Once you purchased your inserts, you did the first two steps of Create & Plan. You created your weekly, monthly, and notes insert journals.
5) Today’s challenge is to determine the actions you are going to take for the third step of your CPR, which is Record.

Record – when and how

The obvious best choice is to do this daily. Your greatest results will come when you make your goals daily and keep track of what you’ve accomplished. The main thing for you to decide is if you want to work in your planner in the morning, or afternoon, or evening. Which will be the best time for you to be consistent and make this a habit you keep up with? After all, who needs another half-used journal, right?!

So think these through:
~ Are you a morning person?
~ Do you work second or third shift and need to do this after you’ve slept, so
perhaps afternoon is best for you?
~ Or are you a night-owl and find that evening is best for you to plan the next day?
~ Also, are you going to print photos and save memorabilia to put in your journal?
If so, will you print your photos daily or weekly?
~ How about the memorabilia? Will you tape it in each day or will you wait until the
end of the week and enter all your photos and memorabilia at once?

It doesn’t matter what your answer is. It only matters that you figure out works for you so you actually DO it each day or each week.

Follow through

So there you go! Decide which time of day is going to be your best choice for a consistent time to make plans in your journal. Decide if you will write, or add photos, or memorabilia, or all the above.

Now start! It’s as simple as that.

Remember, there’s no right or wrong way to do this. Only that you do what you’ve committed to do.

If you record daily – that’s awesome!

If you decide weekly is best – great for you! Don’t look at what the daily folks are doing and allow it to discourage you.

So are you ready to commit? Make your own goal and stick with it. Let’s get your activities and plans set in motion, so you can follow through better than you’ve ever done before. Be sure to read the next post:
https://yourlifeinjournals.com/what-interests-call-out-to-you