Having developed your goals its important to review them at a later date, particularly after any major changes in your life, to ensure they are still relevant; you don’t want to be working towards something you no longer want. Plus it is a useful reminder to ensure you are making progress.
I only developed a first draft of my goals in August 2008, but since then I’ve given birth to my first child so my life has changed significantly. Although I wrote my draft knowing I was pregnant, I had no idea what it was going to be like being a mother, so after four months I now feel ready to review my goals. Plus I’ve now had almost half of my maternity leave and would like to spend some of the remaining time to progress my goals.
My first draft vision
My purpose – to be happy and help those close to me to be happy
My values
- build strong and supportive relationships
- exist in pleasant and personal surroundings
- be healthy and attractive for my own benefit and to benefit those around me
- be financially independent
- develop a rewarding and challenging career
- be able to enjoy the things I enjoy when I choose to
- challenge myself by trying new things and through continued learning
My review
Fortunately my first impression is that I still agree with the majority of these points; although they could be written better.
One of the two areas I was unsure about previously was develop a rewarding and challenging career because I thought this implied working for someone else or working for money, however I have since read a definition of career that says it is your chosen pursuit so I’m happy to retain the word. The second troublesome area was be financially independent as my husband thought I wanted to be independent of him while I wanted to say that I did not need to work. Therefore I’m changing this point to have multiple sources of income including passive income, I think this is clearer and the current economic situation has highlighted the benefits of having income from more than one place.
I wondered whether I should be aiming for nurturing relationships, but have decided that although nurturing and supportive are similar, I’m happier with supportive relationships. I want to be healthy and look good for my own benefit, but also for my husband and daughter so I’m around for a long time and don’t embarrass them! However, I think the wording of that point sounded odd so I’ve changed it to feeling good about myself and hopefully if I feel good my family will benefit as well. Again, the point about how I choose to spend my time sounded odd so I have written it slightly differently.
Taking all of these points I have produced a second draft of my vision. If I’m happy with this in a few weeks, I can then write the second part of my goal, the envisioned future which will describe where I want to be in 20 to 30 years.
The second draft of my vision
My purpose – to be happy and help those close to me to be happy
My values
- build strong and supportive relationships
- spend my time in pleasant surroundings
- feel good about myself, by being healthy, fit and looking good
- have multiple sources of income including passive income
- develop a rewarding and challenging career
- have time to spend on the things I enjoy
- challenge myself by trying new things and through continued learning
How often do you review your goals? Do you attach it to a signficant day such as your birthday?
How often do you consider these goals on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis?
Hi Gary,
As I’ve been developing my goals I’ve been thinking about them a fair bit over the last few months, but always in a what would I like to achieve rather than am I working towards them. Since writing this post I have noticed I am thinking about them more often when I’m looking at my to do list, but nothing formal yet. I intend to incorporate them in to my monthly review and I’ve got some ideas on how that may work.
As you get older, its amazing how your goals can change. When I was starting out in business my overidding focus was making money. I worked incredibly hard and have made a fair chunk. I wished, I had set some goals to achieve a better balance between business and family. The trouble is the difference between success and failure is so marginal in business I am not sure and never have been where to draw the line. I think you need to constantly evaluate what and why you are doing anything.