Goals

It occurred to me the other day that I needed to write down some goals. Sometimes we get so bogged down with trying to stay afloat that we forget that we should be working towards something. A nice retirement, financial independence, a new roof, a new purse, even more money in the budget to spend on groceries or an occasional night out with the hubby. These are all goals. Some of them are more humble than the others and some are long term and some are short term. But you MUST have them. Otherwise, at the end of another week at the grind with nothing to show for it and barely a penny in your pocket you feel hopeless and wonder why you even bother. I asked my DH where he thought we should be in 5 years and he had no answer. He'd never thought about it, just the day to day keeping-the-lights-on nose-to-the-grindstone rut of going to work b/c you're supposed to. I proposed some goal setting.

I can't really discuss my husband's goals, because they're not mine. But I can discuss my goals. One of my goals is to get my Etsy shop up and running and successful. I've recently become involved in the Etsy Holiday Boot Camp to help artists with their shops and one of the tasks in the first weeks check list was to write a mission statement. I just sorta stared at that task and thought about checking it off without doing it. How am I supposed to write a mission statement? That's for big corporations and businesses...not for the Lone Quilter on a Quest who just wants to make some extra money. I went back to the website with the checklist and found a link on how to get started. They asked 2 simple questions to help you with your mission statement. They are:

Why am I working my butt off?
What is my motivation?

Excellent questions! Why do I want to make extra money? What are my goals? So I wrote down my motivations. It was slow going at first, but once I got that first one down on paper more started flowing out of the tip of my pen. Pay for C's college, tickets to see my son and his wife, pay off some medical bills, go to a hockey game with DH, make things easier. After a while I noticed that they all sort of had the same theme and that theme was my Mission. I HAVE A MISSION! And from that, I have a Mission Statement. And here it is:

"To use my abilities and passions to help my family and I achieve our goals and dreams and to become more independent."

Short, sweet and to the point. It encompasses everything I have on my list of goals. I learned that goals are what motivate you to work smarter, achieve greater, think broader, help more, be happier. They give you purpose. They give you hope. They give you faith.

I challenge you to write down some goals. For today, next week, next month, next year. Once you have them written down, you can create a road map on how to get there. You have to know where you're going in order to arrive.

I wish you all peace

D