Some Categories for Personal Goals and Motivation

It’s not unusual to become overwhelmed at times when we’re trying to work on personal goals and motivation.

I know that I tend to suggest beginning with the “big picture” or ultimate end result when planning goals, the reality of becoming overwhelmed can thwart even the most confident among us.

One thing that can help at times like this is to break down and think of the process in terms of goal categories rather than the big picture.

Here are a few suggestions that might help regain the momentum for moving towards realistic personal goals and motivation. Set apart a few minutes to brainstorm about what you feel you want to get done or work on next.

Think about each category in a broad sense, and allow general ideas of what interests you within each category to help guide the brainstorming session.

For example, if you are looking at a category termed “Financial” or “Money” jot down all the thoughts that come to you in that category – or even that touch on that category. Don’t push any thoughts aside for this – just allow the thoughts to come, and write them down. You can always dismiss them later.

So, taking the category “Financial/Money” – you might have thoughts that look something like this:
– Save an extra $500 within 6 months…
– A raise of $2/hour would be nice…
– I’d like a job that pays better…
– I wish I could work at that new restaurant downtown…

Then, once you’ve gotten some ideas down on paper, you can get a bit more serious about setting and achieving your goals and objectives, which we discuss in the Personal Goal Planning Strategies Guide that is coming in 2023!

Business/Career: Is there anything in particular that you want to work toward? e.g. new technical skills to improve chances of a promotion or career shift.

Learning/Education: Has there been something you have always wanted to learn? e.g. new language, how to draw, better math skills.

Personal Attitude: Have you ever said to yourself, “I really would like to be more optimistic…” or “I need to improve my attitude about…” or “My life isn’t what I hoped for…” or “The news really gets me down…” This might be an indication that it’s time to look at working on some personal development activities. Far too much to get into in THIS particular newsletter! 🙂 I DO discuss why I feel Goal Planning is important in a post on this blog. You can read it here => Goal Planning – Why I Feel it is So Important

Financial/Money: Are you earning what you want to earn? If not, what could you do to improve your earnings?

Family/Children: How is your family life? What goals could you work toward to improve your family relationships? Are you the parent you want to be? What would you like to do better/differently?

Health/Fitness: Did you gain weight that you didn’t want to gain over the last months or year (or years)? Do you feel you should move/exercise more? If so, this is a good category to work on.

Social/Community: Are you a good neighbor? Do you have any causes that are dear to your heart? What goals or activities could you work toward to increase your participation in the things that mean a lot to you?

There are many categories you can come up with as well that might be important to you – The Arts and Artistic endeavors; Athletics; Religion/Spirituality; Travel/Leisure; Public Service/Politics; etc. Think of categories that interest YOU.

This can be a fun exercise to work on with an accountability partner or like-minded friend. Get together for tea or coffee, with some snacks, and have a brainstorming work session to get some ideas out there.

Finally, when you do this, it is critical to ensure that the things you write down are things that REALLY interest you, and not activities you feel you “should do” or that someone else thinks you should do.