I used to set monthly goals and track them daily. For each goal I accomplished that day, I gave myself a sticker. You may think this makes me exceedingly goal oriented, but actually I am very sticker oriented. There is a part of me who will always be a nine-year-old little girl and if that is what it takes to get me to floss for 31 days, so be it.
At the beginning of 2017 I tried to get back into daily goal setting by creating a checklist for January, but I made it a mere six days and even my adorable heart stickers couldn’t save me.
The saddest January goal achievement ever.
Now it’s May and the phrase “better late than never get to use those cute emoji stickers you bought” comes to mind.
Last weekend the Captain turned to me and said, “Oh, wait, it’s going to be May already? NO WAY. It feels like we just got back from Paris…” and that little comment sparked my desire to drag out my goals paper and make something of the month. The days seem to fly by! And if the days are just zooming by and I’m not making progress, where will I be in my path when we wake up and say, “Holy crap! It’s almost Halloween!” and I have accomplished… nothing?
Another way to look at this is that time is passing fast, so I can be more mindful of adding in more things I enjoy (writing, walking, French lessons) if I make a goal to do at least a small amount daily. And that small daily effort, repeated for months, adds up to a lot of progress.
Some of the best advice I ever heard was: People overestimate what they can accomplish in the short term and underestimate what they can accomplish by putting forth a little effort every day over the long term.
Or maybe I made that up.
Here’s another one: In three months, you will be glad you started today!
Feel free to download my printable 31-day-goal list in PDF format:
And for those of you who like really big stickers, here is the grid broken down over two tabloid size pages:
Tabloid paper – 2 pages (11 x 17)
Since one of my goals for May is to write or blog each day … I just earned myself a sticker. Happy May Day!
