Every year we want to do better than previous year, and come up with a resolution. We do our best at improving ourselves. We plan, we explore, we learn. But why do we fail sometimes? Why do we not do as well as we want to do? These are the questions that make us think!
In our goal setting we need to be mentally prepared for change and set goals that motivates us. This is an important step because if the goals are not motivating enough then we are likely not to follow through on them. Next step in goal setting is to include manageable goals and to be specific, these are important because we can then focus on the tasks and to plan them accordingly. It helps then to break up the goals into smaller steps and write them down and lastly to make the process achievable and fun.
Another aspect that helps us achieve our goals and to help us feel good about ourselves is time management. This is to manage our time to create efficiency, effectiveness and productivity. Part of time management is prioritization – this is where we allocate right time to appropriate task. We need to set our goals, distinguish between priority tasks and assess resources and constraints while doing this. While it is important to focus on one task at a time, we need to also remember that time management works better if we don’t experience burn out, therefore if it helps to for example exercise while listening to a podcast it is better to do so.
Secret to setting goals and achieving them is to enjoy the process along the way, therefore we need to learn to utilize tools that help us achieve this. For example use of time management app. We also need to learn to say no to the tasks or requests that don’t align with our priorities or goals.
I have realised that best way to reach our goals is by being creative, to play and to rest. The reason I have chosen these topics is that they make us feel good about ourselves. They also can apply to many different situations, we can be creative, playful and have rest at home, outside, or at work. Underlying theme on these topics are to do something that makes us feel better about ourselves. It is to ensure that we enjoy the process and don’t experience burn out. Creativity is aligned with both intuitive and analytic thinking. Play is aligned with our mental health and energy. Rest is aligned with capturing and addressing our inner strengths and reflect and review our goals. Lets explore these topics:
Creativity
Creativity comes in many shapes and forms. We can take up painting, drawing, acting, course, sport and many other activities. It can be done as part of our jobs, it can be part of a simple life tasks. Also it can be used to solve challenging problems. It requires open mindedness, looking and searching for answers in a creative manner. It is important to see creativity as a process, start small and build on our knowledge. Creativity is not innate and we all can be creative. We can imagine new ways of doing something and create something expressing our ingenuity in the creation. There is a method to creativity where we would start by trying new ideas creating new choice and focusing on qualities (Divergent thinking) and thereafter we go through the process of analysing and filtering useful ideas to make decisions and coming up with new solutions (Convergent thinking).
Play
By being playful we give ourselves the opportunity to explore more, understand the issue or our task better and to have a good time working on it. We get to know our environment, to experience vulnerability and to grow when we have fun along the way. This is to experience different viewpoints, to be open to new ideas and feel good about ourselves and our productivity. This results in us being in state of flow. We need to give ourselves time to learn and to be open to new ideas, to be flexible to reconsider our standpoint and to work towards our goal. Play can be particularly useful to contributing to our wellbeing. Play increases our energy, being playful in what we do must not necessarily be frivolous, it can also be purposeful and strategic. In our goal setting we need to have commitment, persistent and learn from our mistakes. By having fun and being playful in taking actions towards our goal we can stay motivated and have a more purposeful impact and behaviour while following our goals.
Rest
An important part of our life is having rest. By resting we can refuel our mind and body. We can evaluate and reflect on our day and events. This is essential to our wellbeing, we have time for ourselves and we give ourselves attention that we deserve. Resting enables us to search for meaning and to find ourselves when we work or generally in life. This is because it provides us with time to reflect on our experience and to be ourselves. Resting is also about valuing ourselves and this means we deserve to have some time off. Resting can also be doing something we love, something we enjoy, like spending time with family or doing a hobby. There are different ways resting helps us depending on the activity. Resting can help us psychologically, physically or spiritually. Overall resting helps with our wellbeing. There needs to be a balance between rest and pursuit of our goals.
Our yearly resolution is not measured by our success. It is measured by how we deal with life. Overall goal is to feel better about ourselves, and being more productive helps with this goal. It is our wellbeing that is the most important factor, and our state of creativity, play and rest can be both intrinsic or extrinsic motivators in our life. We can do better by setting our goals and measuring our progression while being creative, play and have rest.