I forget who it was that taught me this little gem but in my experience, it has turned out to be true. If you want to insure that you accomplish things, write them down on a list. It doesn’t seem to matter whether you write them on paper with a pen or pencil or you type them into a computer. The relevant thing is that you’ve spent the time thinking about them and formulating them into words and as you write or type them, you are, in effect, programming your brain to accomplish them. I often don’t even bother to check the items off the list as I accomplish them. Just making the list is enough to focus my intent. I occasionally run across lists that I’ve made, either in old notebooks or in files in some obscure sub-directory of my Documents folder, and I’ll look at them and discover that I’ve accomplished most, if not all, of the items on the list.
So, I want to make some goals for myself. There are three categories of goals that I intend to attempt to capture today:
- Health goals
- Project goals
- Financial goals
Let’s take Health goals first.
- I want to lose at least 10 pouinds between the initial weigh in and the final weigh in of the “Scale Back Alabama” competition.
- I want to get my daily fasting blood sugar down below 130 mg/dL.
- I want to get my cholesterol panels all within ADA recommendations (that means boosting my HDL and getting my triglycerides down).
- I want to stop spilling protein (that means mostly exercise, I think).
- I want to get back on a schedule of daily exercise.
- I want to quit reflexively eating everything on my plate.
- Long term, I want to weigh less than 200 pounds.
Now some Project goals:
- I want to maintain my habit of writing for at least 30 minutes a day (nominally between 10:00pm and 10:30pm).
- I want to start posting to my blog, Occasional Comment (here) at least five times a week.
- I want to finish the Radiosonde data analysis project for Bob.
- I want to present at least once a quarter to the lunch and learn at work for a total of five times this year.
- I want to write at least a science fiction short story and perhaps even a novel.
- I want to finish the pilot of The Gentry.
And finally, some Financial goals:
- I want to get completely out of debt.
- I want to start a successful small consulting business to retire to.
- I want to be able to save at least 20% of my income while paying all of my bills and having a comfortable lifestyle.
- I want to have the money to get the house fixed up.
- I want to be independently wealthy so long as it harms no one.
So there are my lists for now. I’m putting them out there. I’ll come back and check periodically to see how many items I’ve accomplished. I’ll probably write some more posts about them as events unfold.
