You have big things you want to accomplish in your life. How do you decide what’s first and get started? As a life coach, I like to have some creative fun with my clients.
Make life a picnic. Imagine that your life is represented by a picnic plate. You may remember these plates from your childhood: the ones that have three compartments, so the food does not touch. There is one large central compartment for the main course, and two smaller ones - for the side dish and the dessert.
Look at the next 3-6 months of your life as being divided into these picnic plate categories. Put your life goals in front of you, and think about what goals would really be nourishing and taste especially good. We are going to arrange one goal in each department of your imaginary picnic plate. Or, you can go to the grocery store and buy paper picnic plates that you can write on, for a better visual. I always keep a stack on hand for goal setting.
Next, just as it is not such a great idea to overload your picnic plate, you will want to put no more than one goal in each compartment, so that you can distinguish the flavors and not get indigestion. That’s where the picnic plate compartments come in.
Think about what is most important to you, right now, and choose just one most important goal as your main dish for the next 3-6 months. Next choose a smaller, nourishing side dish goal-for compartment number 2 and lastly a yummy, just for you, dessert goal-to go in compartment number 3.
One client of mine chose finishing her nutrition book as her main dish goal, moving to a bayside apartment as her side dish goal, and a monthly aromatherapy massage as her dessert. This really helped her to stay focused, motivated and balanced in achieving her goals. What will you put on your picnic plate?
So, to summarize- in order to create achievable goals:
- Determine your life goals
- Think in terms of 3-6 month goal increments
- Use the picnic plate process for balanced goal achievement
- Divide the plate into three goal portions
- Choose one main course goal
- Choose one smaller side dish goal
- Choose one sweet dessert goal
Choosing no more than three life list goals at a time, and portioning them on your picnic plate ensures that you realistically pace yourself and thereby achieve your goals. So get out your life goals and your picnic plate and I will join you at life’s extraordinary buffet!
