“The plans of the diligent lead to profit”- Proverbs 21:5

It’s January 30, 2017.  We’ve made it through the first month of the year with one day to spare and much turmoil in the country around us.  Everything has been a distraction.  Trump’s inauguration; trump’s bigoted, racist, and sexist executive orders; trump’s face has literally been an outright distraction.  You may have already fallen off the wagon-of-personal-growth-and-progression.  However, please, do not forget yourself in the fight for freedom, equity, and equality.  Do not forget your self-care.

Part of our self-care for every year is constructing achievable goals.  I stress the construction of ‘goals’ instead of making ‘resolutions’ because of the fleeting nature of resolutions and the commitment needed to complete a goal, as outlined in Kroun’s first ‘Kingdom Promises: Make Goals, not Resolutions’ post last year.  Elaborating on that sentiment, it’s time to take our goal setting steps a little further and create a plan. 

The number 1 thing people forget to do when setting new goals each year is to construct a plan to go along with those goals.  This is what I call the blueprint: a carefully constructed plan that leads to an expected outcome.  Think about how a piece of architecture is built.  Construction workers don’t simply show up and begin shoveling dirt, laying a foundation, and building walls.  A careful ‘blueprint’ is drawn.  Plans are made. Engineers are acquired (I wish I knew the real process of building a structure, but you get the idea).  The same goes for the personal goals you’ve set for yourself.  There must be a plan.  A Blueprint.  Let’s draw it out here. 

A few helpful hints:

1)     Your 7 categories of goals do NOT have to be the same as depicted here.  But I do believe in categorizing how you intend to achieve your goals.

2)     Re: SMART goals, An Example:  You may have a physical fitness goal of losing weight.  In order to turn that into a SMART goal, you’d probably write down something like this “I’d like to lose 50 pounds by December 2017 by cutting complex carbs and sugar out of my diet and engaging in vigorous exercise 4 times per week.”  Re-stating your goal in this way is smart: Specific – ‘lose 50 pounds’; Measurable – You can literally measure weight loss on a scale; Attainable – Is this attainable?  With a change in lifestyle, it certainly is; Reasonable – Losing 50 pounds in 1 year is \reasonable.  Losing 100 pounds is not; Time-bound – ‘by December 2017’.  Give yourself and end date!  With no end date, you’ll never get there.

Hopefully, you’ve been re-energized to invest in you.