Plan of Attack

I've been doing a bit of research on keeping New Years resolutions and achieving goals and other such nonsense (if you call googling research).  Most of them say to not be overly ambitious, not to take on too much, and to be specific.  Looking back at my list, I have 13 very large, very vague goals for the year.  Hmm...

Also, via one of those Facebook "Like" trails, I happened upon the fan page for Michele Connolly, who runs some company called the "Get Organized Wizard".  Now I don't know who Michele Connolly is, but I like her because she's running some sort of special where you can download what is, essentially, a Organize-Your-Life-And-Achieve-Your-Goals yearlong planner-esque journal thing (a $29 value) absolutely free! (Cue dramatic infomercial voice).  If you knew me at all in my junior and senior year of college, you know how I like me some planners.  I had one of those notebook-sized, really intense planners that break the day down into 15 minute segments, allowing you to plan your life down to the amount of time it will take you to walk from your car to your building and accomplish other non-planner-worthy activities.  It was legit.

I've known from the beginning that making lasting and significant changes to practically every area of my lifestyle will require some serious planning.  Furthermore, I acknowledge that there is no way on earth that I will have everything down pat by the end of January.  I fully expect this to be a yearlong project...a good realization, since it apparently takes 66 days to change a habit.

So now I have this journal from this Michele Connolly woman...and it seems quite promising.  And it's full of places to write and fill-in-the-blanks and other journal-y things that make me all excited.  Starting off is a page to list up to 20 goals for the year.  Then, like a planner, it breaks down into consecutive months.  Each month starts off with a page to list five specific goals to work toward during the month.  Each day of the month then has space to list 3 more specific steps to reach these specific goals.  At the end, there's a place to list rewards and such for achieving said goals.  It's crazy, and a bit intimidating in the amount of commitment it will require, but it'll kill the vagueness thing and let me take things in baby steps instead of trying to do everything at once.

At this point, I'm both nervous and excited to have this tool in my hands - nervous about the amount of critical self-examination it will require and excited about the possibility to actually make my goals more achievable.

But, before I do any of this, I need to go back and prioritize those goals in the order I want to work on them. Right now, I think that rejuvenating my relationship with God, getting involved with a church, and exercising more are going to be at the top of the list.

In the meantime, as a practice tool for long-term commitment and dedication, I'm committing to writing on this blog every day of this year (barring extreme unforeseen circumstances where I've been banished to the wilderness and don't have internet access, of course).  So check back often and make sure I'm staying on track!

PS: If you're feeling all ambitious and goal-oriented yourself, you can find the link to Michele Connolly's free journal download here: http://www.facebook.com/GetOrganizedWizard .  We can be insane planning buddies!

See you tomorrow!