Goals Tied Up in Bureaucracy

“The bureaucracy is a circle from which one cannot escape. Its hierarchy is a hierarchy of knowledge. The top entrusts the understanding of detail to the lower levels, whilst the lower levels credit the top with understanding of the general, and so all are mutually deceived.”

- Karl Marx

I’ve Become My Own Bureaucracy!

It’s sad to note that my list of goals has been held up due to my indecision regarding how to group them. Do I use the ‘have’, ‘know’, and ‘do’ categories or do I break them down into ‘literature’, ‘music’, ’sports’, ‘fitness’, ‘financial’, ‘relationships’, etc?! Or do I try to combine them all? The thought of combing them all requires the creation of a very detailed and searchable spreadsheet!!

Which Way Will Get More Goals Done?

I like the idea of breakdown into detailed categories since it’ll allow me to know what I’ve accomplished in each area of my life and where I’m taking it. However, the have, know, do method will allow me to quickly and easily check of a goal and find another goal to work on from the same category meeting my need to be working on at least one item from each of these simplified groups. I’m sure many people would say “well, just read through the whole list and choose what you want to do next.” The issue is that what if I’m not choosing in a balanced manner…maybe I’ll only work on my fitness goals or I only complete my knowledge goals but don’t ever DO anything?

Moving Forward in Other Ways

As the days get darker I am in my continual search for ways to stop the coming lethargy. Thankfully, the new S&D Aquafit in Beaumont has finally opened up!! (yeah!!) It takes 10 minutes or less to walk there at a brisk meander. My list of excuses for not working out has been chopped again, though in reality my main excuse was the distance to a gym. But yesterday despite the post time change exhaustion I headed on over. I’ve even pulled out the Light Therapy light and am trying to use it regularly. And because sometimes I want to be an overacheiver I’m doing some more research into nutrition. I already eat very healthy but I want to make sure that I’m getting all the nutrients needed to prevent or at least minimize the exhaustion that the dark months bring.

Streamlining the Lengthy List of Goals

“If you are bored with life, if you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things – you don’t have enough goals”

- Lou Holtz

Aaah, a quote for my Dad, both because Lou Holtz was an NCAA Coach and because I recall many a New Years Day when Dad with start questioning what was on our list of goals for this year. Oddly or not, due to this early questioning I’ve never been truly bored due to a lack of things to accomplish. Instead I have been faced with endless distractions…Attempting Too Many Goals at Once. Last week my Mom and I were discussing ideas and things that we should do, when I looked at her and said ‘we have too many ideas‘. It is impossible to finish one idea or goal if your brain has already moved onto the next one!! My list of a million and one things to do leaves me hopping from one thing to another without every achieving anything.

Who’s Goals Are They?

My list exceeds 130 goals and continues to grow. I believe one of the biggest problems with this never-ending list is that many of the items I attempt first are the ones I Feel that I Should Do. Which items on the list are just Good for Me and not want I really desire to do? For instance, knowing a second language such as French would be great, but I am really not excited by the prospect! Maybe someday this goal will return depending on where my life leads, but right now I don’t need or want to learn French so it has now been scratched of the list. Also, which goals are there because I know members of my family hold as great ideas? While my brother may really want to learn to water ski, all I’m visualizing is the nasty water that this event occurs on and that the result does not make going into an Alberta lake worthwhile!

The Success Principles: Goal Setting

As I work through this principle, I’m trying to finally streamline and clarify what I really want. What do I really want to learn or do? What excites me? What have I included because I know others expect me to want to learn this? Specifically, what do I want to see or experience when in Maine and Georgia? When Do I want to have the goal check off by? What habits do I want to develop?

Thankfully, I at least have a list to start from though I think brainstorming ideas is the easy part. I guess we’ll see this week what gets left on the list, what gets added, and what changes direction. Even though this is a bit overwhelming at least I’m Never Bored!

The Hard Stuff

Sometimes the most difficult thing is to accept things as they are. As in Bob Burg’s post today “It is What it is“, facing things head on and stop denying the facts is a scary proposition. Despite my desire to be a proactive, realist I don’t want to accept things as they are…I’d rather put a little golden spin on things so I don’t have to make changes. I think the greatest struggle with this type of acceptance is the realization that you either need to just come to grips with things as they are or make changes.

Change isn’t neccesarily hard in everything, but it is when you’re dealing with people. You never now how long or how hard the battle will be to make changes in relationships or actions. What problems are going to arise from a confrontation? It would be a lot simpler if you knew that when you confront an issue there would be a predictable response.

A Strange Thanksgiving

For the first time in my life I have had a Turkey Free Thanksgiving!! Both my parents and my parent in laws were out of town along with my brother and sister in law. So on Sunday my husband and I went out with his brother and sister in law to OPM for ‘chinese fusion’. A bit far from Turkey dinner with stuffing!

I had actually been looking forward to this long weekend, thinking about all the things I could accomplish, but unfortunately since last Thursday I have been fighting a cold. Pretty much the entire weekend has been spent either in bed or on the couch. I feel let down and frustrated that nothing has happened. And while some people can push through colds, I can only do that if there is something that absolutely has to be done.

So now that the weekend is done and the cold almost gone, I am looking forward to a much more productive week.