Life is filled with reasons to celebrate—reaching milestones, graduating, earning promotions, winning competitions, and plenty of other reasons to rejoice. While it’s common for people to recognize the seemingly more significant achievements, it’s also beneficial to set “small” goals and celebrate those wins when they’re reached.
“I think smaller goals serve as a stepping stone to building larger goals,” Dallas-area resident Madison Royal said. “These small goals—like waking up at a consistent time, even when you don’t have to (my current goal)—create consistency and routine to turn your goals into habits.”
Smaller goals toward which individuals work can come in a variety of forms. For Dallas resident Braden Keefer, his new short-term goal is to read more books on any topics that pique his interest and curiosity.
“I have never been the best at consistently reading but have always wanted to,” he said. “I think it’s important in order to gain new insight as well as to broaden your mind and vocabulary. This also is helping me become a better songwriter, which is something I like to do in my free time.”
Keefer said reading more consistently is allowing him to create somewhat of an “internal quiet time” for himself, as he said his mind is typically moving at about a million miles per hour.
“When I was a kid, I saw reading as a chore, as I had a hard time sitting still and quieting my mind,” he said. “When I got older, I was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and as anyone with OCD will tell you, it is really hard to quiet all of the chatter within you. I have found reading to be a good outlet for practicing this.”
Dallas resident Lucy Keith recently achieved one of her larger goals of launching her own therapy practice, so she said it currently seems like she has quite a few smaller goals spanning each area of the business and her clinical work. The most obvious goal, she said, is attracting clients.
“But the goal can’t be ‘get clients,’” she said. “I have to break that down into smaller actionable bites within the marketing category, such as ‘add/reach out to five potential referral contacts every week,’ ‘attend two networking events this month in the physical health/mental health space,’ ‘develop a July social media calendar with one post a day,’ and ‘schedule two new client consults a week.’ You get the idea.”
While Keith said she believes that setting goals helps a person live intentionally, she knows that doing so involves more than simply making a list of achievements to cross off.
“Before diving right into setting goals, I think it’s best to spend some time reflecting on your priorities, dreams, and values,” she said. “Really audit your life and see where you’re spending your time and energy, and then make any adjustments to make sure that your goals align with where you want your life to go.”
Recognizing one’s personal achievements can improve mood and increase self-confidence while also helping an individual stay motivated and form positive habits. After making a goal—whether monumental or ostensibly less life-changing—a reality, Keefer said it’s important to celebrate and cherish what you have accomplished.
“True growth happens through the culmination of all of your goals,” he said. “Something as simple as going to bed earlier in order for you to have a better day the next day is a huge win, and those little wins add up and improve your quality of life. We are all going to have days when we feel like we haven’t accomplished much. Not every day is going to be a big win, and speaking from experience, that can put you in a pretty bleak mood. Accomplishing smaller goals still gives you a sense of purpose, which is something that all of us crave.”
Royal, who worked for several years in education, knows the significance of working toward an objective and tracking one’s progress along the way.
“I think small goals are extremely important, and the best ones are SMART goals that have the ability to be specific, measured, achievable, relevant, and time-bound,” she said.
For Keith, brainstorming to categorize her goals has historically allowed her to find more success in setting and achieving them. She said one can consider goals in categories such as faith and spirituality, physical health and fitness, mental and emotional health, relationships (family, friends, romantic), finances, career, home, leisure (travel, reading, learning, and other hobbies), etc.
“Breaking things down by categories also helps you think on a more micro level and set smaller, more attainable goals,” she said. “Setting (and achieving) those small goals is great for building confidence and keeping you on track.”
Working toward smaller goals can also help people feel more at ease and put less pressure on themselves, as such goals are within reach and often allow a person to grow and develop different perspectives.
“I believe it is easy to be overwhelmed by large lofty goals,” Keefer said. “While I believe it is important to have such goals, the anxiety of not knowing where to start and where to go can become so suffocating that you might not even take them on. Small goals give you the confidence and experience to take on larger goals, and small goals might even directly help you chip away at accomplishing larger goals.”
WEEKLY PHOTO OP
.jpg)
NatNews staff members and dear readers enjoyed a weekend outing, and it's a good thing our IT department was there to help with a wardrobe malfunction for a man on the street