How to Make and Meet your Summer Goals (Part 1)

With summer now upon us, there may be some goals–perhaps still lurking from your New Year’s Resolutions–that you’d like to conquer over the next few months.

One thing I’ve learned over the years is to be systematic when completing tasks or working towards meeting goals.

In a post about writing out your goals with a pencil, I talk about the importance of using the eraser.

In this two-part blog post, I provide another simple methodology that can help you make and meet your summer goals.

What I present below is meant to help you to focus on small goals. By making and meeting small goals, you can stay positive about your progress.

In this post, we’ll focus on making goals.

First, consider how you might complete this sentence:

I would feel better about myself if I _____________.

You might have thought:

I would feel better about myself if I exercised more frequently.

I would feel better about myself if I prayed more often.

For me, a couple of my responses are:

I would feel better about myself if I did more cardio exercise.

I would feel better about myself if I learned more Turkish.

After you consider your responses to the prompt above, consider how you might finish this sentence:

I would feel better about myself if I did not _________________.

Perhaps you’re thinking:

I would feel better about myself if I did not eat out quite as often as I do.

I would feel better about myself if I did not watch as much TV as I currently do.

The first step to making and meeting your goals this summer is to simply think about your life and the things that you believe you should do, as well as the things that, for some reason or another, you believe you should not do.

These, in part, will make up your new summer goals (I know, they don’t quite look like goals yet!). Next week, I’ll share an easy and practical way for you to transform these statements into systematic actions that will help you accomplish small (or big) goals this summer.