Goal Setting - Gone to the Dogs
October 16th, 2007 by Liz Fuller
I’m doing my goal accountability check on Tuesday this week due to Blog Action Day on Monday. I could say that I finally caught up with my goals that I set two weeks ago so it was a successful week. And that would be true. But I could also say that I got sick this week for the first time in over a year. And that would also be true.
So, despite the fact that I am making progress at my goals, I decided it was time to look at the cost of that success.
For the past few years I have been neglecting my own personal health in order to focus on achievment in my job, education, business and family. I have given up sleep, and exercise and developed unhealthy eating habits. I’ve been too busy to see a doctor or dentist. I still had a lot of energy - based mainly on caffeine and adrenaline. Although I felt fine, I was really using up all of my body’s resources.
Finally, this week it all caught up with me. And forced to slow down, it began to dawn on me that no success is worth my health. At the risk of dating myself - it’s like those old Geritol commercials used to say “If you have your health, you have just about everything!”
So now, I’m reassessing my goals and prioritizing my health along with career aspirations. I am struggling to determine what are reasonable goals to set that would also allow me to get enough sleep and exercise and to eat in a healthier way.
I’ve decided I need to set a direction of where I want to get to - and trust that my natural ambition will get me there. The goals I need to set are around the things that don’t come naturally to me: getting 8 hours of sleep, exercising and eating healthily.
I’m going to experiment as to whether if I focus on those goals, the amount of progress I need to make on my business will happen naturally.
So, this week’s direction: continue to expand the visibility of my blog.
This week’s goals: 8 hours sleep each night, healthy eating, 30 minutes of exercise per day.
What about you? Do you risk your own health in order to achieve your business goals? If not, how do you balance health and achievement?
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 6:07 am and is filed under goal setting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 20th, 2007 at 3:16 am
Health has to be one of your long term goals with a regular maintenance routine on a continuous basis! It is the foundation for being able to enjoy the fruits of success.
Steve Pavlina’s Blog (www.stevepavlina.com) has a great deal of valuable info, like about his multi-phasic sleep experiment. He slept two hours a day only for half a year, … He did not stop this experiment, because of health problems. Actually he said his health was perfect during that time. You might want to check out his forum as well. There I have posted, how I currently try to accommodate clients in two different time zone blocks. Some may call it unhealthy, but it works for me. (Search for User: johnw)
By the way: I found the hardest to control part is family. You are confronted with unexpected situation very often. Rational doesn’t always work.
Best way to deal with it, is to plan for generous resources (time and money) and adopt a family friendly life style. –John (I hope you don’t mind the long comment)
P.S.: Visibility of your blog: Don’t you want to submit an article to the next CoSMI edition. I am not sure, but I think you haven’t so far. That’s how I found out about your site.
October 20th, 2007 at 8:02 am
Hi John
Loved the long comment!!
I agree with your observation about family - if only we could schedule in the crises ahead of time!
I’m also starting to see how taking care of my health needs to be the primary goal and everything else leads from that - otherwise any success just isn’t sustainable.
Thanks for telling me about Steve Pavlina’s website and forum - I checked it out and looks like there is lots of good info there.
And lastly, I’m not sure I’ve heard of CoSMI? Perhaps I’m not recognizing the acronym - any additional info would be appreciated!!
October 20th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
Sorry for the acronym! And I spelled it wrong, too.
I meant the “Carnival of Small Business Issues (CoSBI)” at blogcarnival.com. But you have found out what I mean anyway. Thanks.
October 20th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Thanks John - submitted my article and looking forward to the next issue - to be hosted on your site!!!