Organise your LIFE-goals!

The most effective people in the world don’t just stop at organizing their physical spaces. They also organize their goals, plans and tasks.

Goal setting is a key factor is achieving order and control. To work on your mind space and build a better life, you must set for yourself LIFE goals and create systems that help you stay in tune with those goals. I first designed the LIFE– goal plan for myself and amazingly, it is working for me, I hope it does for you too.

The complexity of life is unarguable, so to plan and keep track of our affairs, we need to break LIFE down into bite sizes. The LIFE-goals plan or LIFE-goals guide is a simple-structure of a complex-phenomenon (life) that focuses on four core areas that literally sum up all of life’s concerns. With the LIFE-goals guide, you can easily picture life as a wheel that revolves around these four areas and touching the most important aspects of our existence.

I love significant acronyms, as it makes for ease of apprehension and recollection, so with the LIFE-goals guide, LIFE is an acronym that represents L-Liberty, I-Influence, F-Finance and E-Enthusiasm. Now, let me break those down..

L- Liberty goals: These are personal fun goals or social goals. I call this the play-opportunity goals. I hope you agree that in every adult, there is still a child that needs to be given permission to play sometimes? Setting liberty goals allow us allocate time to relax, play and do the fun things we dream about. Liberty goals help us stay rejuvenated. For example, I set a liberty goal to start taking piano lessons by the last quarter of the year because I absolutely enjoy music.

I- Influence goals: Goals such as effectiveness goals, work goals, community goals can be defined as influence goals. You must first determine what influence goals you want to accomplish based on what you do, whether in business or career. Influence goals help us work towards our ability to bring about a result in ourselves and others. It helps us devote a certain amount of time periodically to accomplishing those desires that will produce positive impact and effectiveness. This goal can be measured by our level of effectiveness, whether in a smaller community or in the larger society. I started the GO-SO initiative (Get Organized-Stay Organized Initiative) because I need to raise awareness about organizing in my country. An example of my influence goal is to organize a GO-SO event in my Church/Community by the second quarter of the year.

F- Finance goals: They are investment goals, savings goals, expenditure goals, charity goals, etc. Planned management of money and assets. This covers our plans on how much we want to earn and want to spend. What you earn can be a derivative of how much effort you put into achieving your influence goals. How much to spend is as mportant. You must map out a plan of how to handle your out-going finances, how much to spend on personal maintenance/development, how much to save/invest, what goes to church/charity and so on. An example of my finance goal is to set aside 5% of my annual earnings for charity from 2014.

E- Enthusiasm goals: Interests or activities that can be broken down into personal development goals, spiritual goals, relationship goals, health goals, etc are enthusiasm goals simply because these aspects of our lives help us renew our strength, revive our spirits and keep our passions alive. Whether it is planning time for fellowship with God, spending quality time with family/friends, getting a degree, etc, it is important that you set realistic and achievable goals. I decided that from Jan this year, I will read at least two motivational books in a month to help build my public speaking skill.

Setting LIFE-goals can be done using the SMART goals guide and it could be monthly, quarterly or yearly and in short, medium and long term categories depending on what is most applicable to the user and should be reviewed as often as possible.

Often, people measure growth by wealth acquisition and end up feeling unfulfilled. If we want to stay organized, be effective and build better lives, we must understand that every single aspect of the LIFE-goals plan is important and should be given adequate attention.

 Productivity Coach

Jesmine.