June 28th, 2013
100 Months
I recently read an interesting viewpoint on measuring life.
The measurement was in months. It seemed like a viewpoint specifically for me
for it chose the ages 75 and 25. The author stated that if one happens to live
to 75 years of age, they would have around 900 months of life. The author
continued this point by stating if someone was 25 years old right now, they
would have lived 300 months. This gives that person 600 months left to live. I played this idea around in my head and came to the conclusion that a specific trend of trying to analyze goals through
years usually ends up in failure due to the lack of step by step measurement. If I make any promises or goals to myself
at the beginning of the New Year that I should complete by the end of the year,
most if not all of these goals seem to be forgotten or lost in this 1 year
abyss. I plan to continue creating goals and hopes for myself in the future,
however, I hope a new strategy of measuring everything in months will create a
more efficient attitude resulting in success and accomplishment in these goals.
The end of June is approaching and July is about to begin.
This is the perfect time to begin, as it is officially halfway through this
year (sort of a mid-year crisis). I hope to create two great habits from this
new analysis:
- I will make sure that at the end of every month I will have tried something or accomplished something great and exciting to my being.
- At the end of every month I will analyze what I have done to accomplish my goals for the month, for the next 5 months, for the next 10 months, for the next 50 months, and for the next 100 months.
I hope this new way of thought helps create more structure
throughout my life instead of letting it slip past me year by year.
Others may disagree with me about what is great or what is
not, but I have started in the month of June by rescuing one kitten with Hannah
from the disrespectful harshness this city imposes upon these street cats. Even
greater to me, we will have two kittens (if all goes well) by the end of this
week that we will have adopted, the second of which may be a challenge since she has fairly severe health conditions.
As with anythng new, like a workout routine or New Year's resolution, I have difficulty in slowly working into things. I know myself well enough that I recognize how I like to jump into a 'baptism by fire' of sorts. In other words, if I want to begin a running routine in the morning (again), I find it very difficult to ease into it by running 15 minutes the first few days... then 20 or 25... then maybe up to a few miles. Instead, I lack the patience at times to ramp up - I go right for the 3 miles. As you can imagine, I end up quite sore the following day or my body gets worn down too quickly that I catch a cold or something.
ReplyDeleteEach March, my Department holds a Strategic Plan Meeting where we all get together and discuss accomplishments from previous goals, our current progress and the establishment of new goals. My initial exposure to this process was to view it as an exercise in futility - sure, we sit around and blab to each other about accompishing some silly, easily attainable goal that we set for ourselves and pat ourselves on the back for doing what we would have already done. In recent years, however, I see the value. I have set more lofty goals for my work element and I find myself thinking of those goals at certain points throughout the year to the point that decisions are made in furtherance of those goals. I have always wanted to implement that system in my personal life, but always thought I could not bring myself to.
I like the months idea as opposed to years. I would advise you to start small and set attainable goals - don't run a marathon right away. I think I'll do the same.
This is so true with you and I! I think we struggle with finding the balance between the two. We are either all in or all out, but struggle with finding the right balance in our personal lives. I think I can say with honesty that we are doing quite well with setting attainable goals & accomplishing great things at work. I find that I lower my expectations and relax at home.
DeleteHome is where I want to slow down, relax, zone out. It is funny because when I am out & about, I set goals for my personal life, but as my vehicle approaches our sweet little home, my mind begins to relax and I fall into the daily routine of keeping our household afloat.
I also like the idea of viewing life in months rather than a full year. It will help keep our eye on the prize.
I really do wish that my work involved me in Strategic Plan Meetings. One very negative thing about being an English teacher in Vietnam, particularly a part time English Teacher is that the schools never involve you in any of the progression or constructive criticism of the company. They expect that all foreign teachers just wish to show up, teach, leave and get paid. In the end, this viewpoint of the schools creates a negative vibe among the teachers in giving any sort of advice about the structure which results in the teachers numbing themselves into showing up, teaching, leaving and getting paid. It's really a bad cycle.
DeleteWhen it comes to setting attainable goals first, I understand that. In fact, I can't help but to make to do lists almost every day. Something as simple as shinning my shoes or fixing my headphones. Lately though, I understand that if I wish to accomplish some of these small goals (such as getting back in shape through swimming and jogging), my lifestyle needs to get reconstructed. I say this because if I go outside for 5 minutes I begin to sweat. I recently went to Da Lat City here in Vietnam. I gained a huge burst of energy because the weather is quite chilly since the city rests in the Highlands. We were active every single day, including one day in which we bicycled for around 35 Km and then hiked up a 2,169 meter high mountain called, Langbiang Mountain...though unfortunately we stopped about half a kilometer (on the trail) from the top because it was getting dark and rainy and we didn't have a flashlight or a phone.
The point is that I notice sometimes one MUST make larger changes to accomplish the smaller goals. I know that I must leave HCMC to create for myself a healthy, happy life.
I don't know if you guys plan on implementing this idea into your lives, but if you do plan out monthly goals, let me know how it goes and what you seem to accomplish.
Thanks for the replies so far.
I like that you guys have taken in cats. I am not a fan of cats, but taking in an unknown animal with injuries is a huge responsibility. So....You go boy and girl.
ReplyDeleteI actually find myself setting more personal goals than work goals. I like to set goals for doing things with my family or for myself. One goal may be as simple as go to six flags with the family, or as extreme as go skydiving or zip lining (I was lucky enough to do both in the last year). I think that keeping my home life interesting keeps me sane and keeps me going at work. It is times like right now, when I don't have anything major planned for personal or family fun, is when I struggle the most at work. Good luck with your goal setting and goal accomplishing.
Where did you end up going zip lining? Also, did you end up going to Six Flags with the family? Let me know if you end up figuring out your next large goal with the family. I could brainstorm with you on that... what do you think of horseback riding at the Grand Canyon or getting them to ski in Colorado?
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