Sustainable Goal Setting for the New Year

What I Want to Be, Do and Have

Here we are, many of us, back in front of that blank piece of paper, wondering what to resolve for the new year. Some of us will set our goals out in the stratosphere, so high that we court failure. The pessimists among us will not even bother with goal setting, “bah humbug.” The realists among us will choose goals which are a stretch but within reach. And year after year our successes will build upon themselves. Subtle differences often set these 3 groups apart, and with some simple coaching dramatic shifts of perception may occur.

What do coaching, purging, clutter control and space planning have in common? These are just a few of the functions shared by professional organizers. Not every organizer performs each of these services, but most do. The universal benefit of working with a professional organizer is stress reduction.

There are many roads to Rome.

A road I’ve taken for each of the past 33 years goes like this. On or before December 31st I write down “What I want to BE in 2012,” “What I want to DO in 2012” and “What I want to HAVE in 2012.” Then I list some goals under each heading. I challenge myself, but reasonably. After all, if I meet my own challenges, next year I will want to up the ante another notch and bit by bit I will get to Rome! I keep these yearly lists in a journal and each Dec. 31st I revisit the list from the current year, noting my progress. This reinforces the process and serves as a guide for the following year.

What do New Year’s Resolutions have to do with Organizing? Everything. An organizer is so much more than a person who sorts items into piles by categories. While the sorting process is indeed important, organizers are teachers, coaches, counselors, motivators, and encouragers. Teaching of prioritization and time management are hallmarks of a professional organizer. The organizer-client relationship is one of collaborative support. The basic concept of goal setting for a New Year encapsulates the very soul of organizing.

May your dreams and reality be one and the same. Happy New Year, and I’ll see you in Rome! 2012.

Yoga - Baby Steps

Back to when I wrote about New Year's resolutions. It took me 8 years of making a resolution to do yoga to actually do it. Now I do yoga with two friends once a week. We would always remark that we never do it on our own. So we decided to hold ourselves accountable to doing at least 3 poses a day. These baby steps have worked. Now we email each other daily to say we've done it. We sometimes slip, but the main thing is we're all feeling better from the added stretches. This can apply to any goal. Begin with baby steps.

Making New Years Resolutions

For 25 years, I have made 3 small lists on Dec. 31st in a journal. They are: What I want to do, what I want to be, and what I want to have in the coming year. I set goals that are a bit of a stretch, but doable. That way I have a good chance of achieving them, and my succeesses build upon one another. I haven't always accomplished everything on the list, but I do accomplish most things. Practicing yoga was on my list for 8 years until I finally developed a practice. Having it on the list helped. Someone today told me he is only having one resolution: to get in great physical shape. However you choose to set goals, be it several goals or just one or two, having the pure intention of accomplishment is, in my belief, a good predictor of if it will happen. May you, my reader, set just the right goals for yourself, and accomplish them with ease and grace! Happy New Year World!