Are You Making The Most of Your Time

Do you ever daydream? I’m sure I already know the answer to this… of course you do. We all daydream and have small glimpses of what we want to accomplish. One of my mentors, Greg Justice, defines a daydream as “a shift of attention or wandering of the mind from ongoing tasks that take up past memories, present wishes or fears, and future plans or fantasies. They last for but a moment, to over a minute, but their average length is about 15 seconds.”

These daydreams can be used to gather information about ourselves. Many times, this so called mindless wandering, can allow us to really see what we want and who we really want to be. We can learn a lot from these daydreams if we actually write things down. Give it a try. The next time you catch yourself in one of these so called daydreams, write it down. This can be a great self visualization technique if used properly.

Most of us do not self visualize enough. How are you ever going to get to where you want to be in life if you do not create a picture or working image of it? Self visualization techniques, like writing down your daydreams, can help us achieve our goals at a much quicker rate and stay focused on the desired outcome. This technique can be used for every aspect of life. Write down your vision of who you are and make a plan based on that.

First, you need to start by making your goals SMART. If you use this popular method, you are going to have a much higher chance of actually following through and achieving your goals. Let's start by understanding what SMART goals actually are.

S – Specific. Try not to create a goal or vision of that is too open ended. An example of a popular open ended goal is losing weight. Get more specific and really think about what you want to lose… 10, 20, 50 pounds. The more specific you can be; the better.

M – Measurable. “If you can't measure it, then how can you determine its success?” Losing 25 pounds, lowering your cholesterol 30 points, or going to the gym three days a week are all goals that have a measurable variance in them.

A – Attainable. Making smaller, more frequent milestones will help you reach your long term goal. Losing 25 pounds may definitely be attainable; however it seems like a rather large number when you look at the goal long term. Making each 5 pounds a small milestone makes the 25 pounds seem a lot less. Hitting these milestones will help motivate you and continue your progress toward that final goal.

R – Realistic. Your goal must be realistic. It can be a big, long term goal but make sure it is something you can honestly see yourself achieving.

T – Time Sensitive. Set a time limit for your short term and long term goals.

Hopefully that can help clear up what SMART goals are. Let’s take a look at a goal or vision using that system.

“I want to lose 25 pounds by the end of the year.” That is a specific goal (lose 25 pounds) w/ a measurable variance (weight) and is time sensitive (before the end of the year).

Now let’s see if it’s realistic. Research shows that we can safely lose 1-2 kg per week or approx. 2-4 pounds. From now until the end of the year, we are looking at about 13 weeks to hit this goal. In order for us to hit our goal of 25 pounds by the end of the year, we will need to lose 1.92 pounds per week. As you can see, this would definitely be realistic.

Finally, let’s make the goal attainable. Instead of looking at the 25 pounds as a whole, try to look at the weight loss in smaller increments. We should be hitting our goal as long as we can lose approx. two pounds each week. Breaking the 25 pounds down into small two pound increments make the goal seem much easier. Also, these smaller intervals give us a good chance to evaluate if our plan is working.

Do this for every area of your life. If you want to own your own house, than visualize what you want. “I want a two story house, brick, with a large yard so my dogs can play, in a quiet neighborhood, and easy access to the bike paths. I want to have this house two years from now.” Go through each step and make sure each one of your goals is SMART. Make an action plan and take control. We have the power to do extraordinary things if we are focused. Take the time to do this and see the results.

It’s Go Time ;-)