After my last post about setting goals that I will not be flying by the seat of my pants, I received some sound advice from my mother. Yes I still take advice from my mom. It helps that she is a smart, loving fully, devoted Christian, so I know that her advice comes from her heart! Love you Mom.
Anyway… her advice was to set SMART Goals. So I am going to take my 5 goals that I set out and review them with the following in mind.
Goal 1 Eat Healthy and Exercise. My SMART Goal is to lose 20 lbs (specific) by following weight watchers (measurable) by Sept 2 (Time Bound)which is the first day of school. 2 lbs a week from now until then would be 14lbs so I think 20lbs is Attainable. I will also commit to 10 minutes of exercise a day (not a lot but it’s a start)
Goal 2 Work Towards being debt free. Step one in dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball is to put $1000 into savings. So to do this I will put $100 per pay away in a Tangerine Savings account. This will be done by October 1.
Goal 3 Crochet an Afghan. The pattern I have chosen has 378 squares. This means to have done by Christmas I need to do approximately 16 squares per week which i think is attainable.
Goal 4 Keep a Semi Clean House. To be specific I will follow a daily schedule that is posted on my fridge. This one being Time Bound is hard as it is something i want to keep going but for now I will set the date of Sept 2 to be in the habit of doing the schedule…before the kids go back to school.
Goal 5 Spend Intentional Time with God. I recently purchased A Women’s Guide to Reading the Bible in a Year: A Life-Changing Journey into the Heart of God. I like the way it is laid out and will be doing this every morning.
One of the other pieces of advice I received was from a friend. To read the book, The Principle of the Path by Andy Stanley. I have started reading it and it has been very clear to me that some of the directions I have chosen have taken me down the wrong path.
our direction, not our intention, that determines our destination. In other words, we can say where we want to go in life, and want to go there, but unless we make the right choices, we will end up someplace else.
This is so simple yet so powerful. How many times do we say How did I get here, when here is not where I wanted to go? Choices and if I don’t acknowledge that the choices I make put us on specific paths then I will continue to believe that what I want will happen whether or not I’m headed in the right direction.
Three questions to ask oneself to stay on the path you want to.
1. Why am I doing this, really?
2. If someone in my circumstances came to me for advice, what course of action would I recommend?
3. In light of my past experience, my future hopes, and my dreams, what is the wise thing to do?
If I had asked myself these questions when I made certain choice, whether it was eating junk food, buying something I really didn’t need, playing games on my phone, etc., I might be closer to my goals. I will be printing these on a card to keep in my wallet. I want them to become second nature.
So here’s to choosing the SMART Path.
Crystal
“Believe that Something Great is About to Happen because God Can do Anything”
Hebrews 11:1 Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.
my wheatfield 