Good Morning! It’s Monday!!!
It’s also June. Can you believe how fast this year is flying? Not too long ago, I sat and reviewed the past few months and compared them to the things I want to accomplish this year, I couldn’t help feeling a tad overwhelmed.
“How in the world am I going to get all of this done?!”
“Forget it, I’ll never get any of this done.”
Does this happen to you? You get to the middle of the year and feel like those resolutions you wrote in January are now so unachievable and maybe even a tad bit ridiculous. You didn’t exercise the way you wanted to, you’re still eating junk food, and you’re not getting enough rest. You’re still glued to those bad habits and your desire to be more patient flies out the window when that stupid driver cuts you off on the way to work. Yeeeah, I know, me too.
After looking at my list a second time, I decided that my goals are not ridiculous and I should give it another go. When you’ve failed at your new years resolutions, you don’t despair, you just revisit and redefine them.
So this month I’m doing a summer bootcamp for myself. I did a bootcamp in December to prep for the upcoming resolutions I was going to make (you can check out that post here.) It was a rather successful attempt at setting myself up for the new year but now it’s June and it’s time to go back to the drawing board. It’s time for another bootcamp.
This is totally experimental–I’m not writing from expertise. Over the next several weeks, on Monday morning, I’m going to write about an aspect of goal setting that I want to address in my life this summer. At the end of each post, I’ll write my goal(s) for the week.
Part of this personal bootcamp is making myself publicly accountable so I’m going to share my 4 topics right here:
- Writing a Personal Mission Statement
- Embracing the Quarterly Seasons
- Building Your Daily Routine
- Getting in Gear for the Next Season
Okay, enough of the prologue, let’s talk about mission statements and redefining resolutions!
First of all, what is a mission statement? Well, in a company or an organization, a mission statement explains why the organization exists and its focus. This is important for decision making. When you know what your focus is, you can better filter opportunities. You know better when to say yes and when to say no. For some example mission statements, check out this article.
A personal mission statement is the same. It also states a focus. When you’re able to express your life focus, you can better filter your opportunities. You also know how to better respond to unexpected situations. You know when to say yes and no. This doesn’t mean you never make mistakes, but it does give you a home base to start from and come back to when you’ve veered off course.
This statement doesn’t have to be profound or fancy, it just has to be you. It has to reflect your passions, your priorities, your beliefs, and your direction.
Now, what does a mission statement have to do with resolutions? Well, what does the word resolve mean? Resolve means to determine to do something. When you know what your life focus is, in the form of a mission statement, you can break that down or expound on it in the form of resolutions. What are you determined to accomplish? What do you want people to remember you by? What chances do you want to take? What you need less of? More of? What changes do you need to make? All of this is reflected in your resolutions.
Here’s where it’s important to not confuse resolutions with goal setting. They seem similar but I like to think that resolutions are big picture and goal setting is more detailed work. What do I mean by that? For instance,
Resolution: Commit to a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
Goal: Drink 8 glasses of water every day.
Goal: Work out at least 3 times a week.
Resolution: Spend quality time with my family
Goal: Plan family vacation
Goal: Have family fun night once a week
Goal: Eat dinner together at least 3 times a week
See the difference? And from goals, you build tasks lists:
- Bring water bottle to work
- Check off bottles finished as I drink
- Set out workout clothes every night before bed
- Make after-workout smoothie
- Don’t schedule anymore Thursday afternoon meetings
- Start family vacation fund
Goals & tasks sometimes ‘look alike’ and there’s no right or wrong, the point is to break things down into actionable items so they get done. It can be easy to get something on paper but action can be a totally different story!
So as you go through and review your failed resolutions, consider starting with the bigger picture–your life. Instead of writing another list of resolutions, write a life mission statement. After that, follow it up with a life resolution list. From there, write down the goals you want to accomplish to fulfill those resolutions. From there, you can construct your daily, weekly, monthly task lists.
For some example mission statements, check out this article
My goals for this week are to:
- Write my personal mission statement
- Write my life resolutions
- Write my goal list for the rest of the year
I’ll report my progress next Monday on my next post about using the quarterly seasons to organize and plan your goals rather than having them scattered haphazardly across an entire year.
If you’d like to explore mission statements, resolutions, and life planning further, then I HIGHLY recommend Michael Hyatt’s new book Living Forward (Amazon). I just finished the audiobook recently and it’s very good!
Have a great Monday y’all!