Personal, Relational, and Professional Goals

Last week we talked about my maniacal dedication to the goals I take on and how I have to be careful what I commit to because I will either kill myself achieving the goal or experience bitter disillusionment in my failure. It's a wild ride. 

A few months I started using a goalsetting approach invented by Laura Vanderkam (who has the best approaches to time management in the whole world). I'm super motivated by goals, I like setting (and achieving) goals, and I want my goals to support the kind of life I want to build, so I think a lot about my goals. 

Each week, I set three goals: a personal, professional, and relational goal. I may set two in one category, but no more. The goals may be related to something coming up that week, something that simply needs to get done, or a place where I want to enrich my life. And they have to support my values. This isn't a to-do list, this is what I want to prioritize my week around! 

Here are some examples of goals I set:

Personal goal examples:

• Go outside every day
• Journal three times
• Spent solo quiet time alone
• Exercise vigorously three times

My relational goals are generally around how I want to show up for somebody or a conversation I want to have with someone. I use my relational goals to prioritize and incentivize me to invest in people in a deeper way. 

And the professional goals are generally pretty easy, my professional goals are around networking or blogging or some big project milestone I want to hit. 

In all of these, I try to choose the "important" goals rather than the urgent ones. The urgent stuff will get done without needing special prioritization. It's the important but not urgent stuff that I use these goals to focus on - the stuff that I probably wouldn't naturally organize my week around but, if I stepped back, I really want to.

Here are my goals for this week:

• Personal: Journal three times
• Professional: Write a blog (check!) and outline my posts for the next 10 weeks
• Relational: Go on a date with my husband and set a schedule for our check-ins

Your turn - how do you think about goalsetting? How do you use goals to change your mindset or prioritization?