Second Cup: Make space for goal setting

Crafting smart, achievable goals takes time

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to make space for goal setting. If you
want to succeed in reaching your goals, you should make

(00:25):
sure these goals are well chosen and well thought through.
Figuring all that out requires time, but it is generally
time well spent. So I am writing this a few
weeks after I returned from a goal setting retreat in Florida.
My Best of Both Worlds podcast co host Sarah hart

(00:47):
Unger also runs a podcast called Best Laid Plans, which
is about all things planning. She hosted the retreat where
about twenty of us came together to plan out the
next year. Now, I know not everyone can carve out
three days of their lives for planning, and I know
that the next year will happen whether I set goals

(01:10):
or not. Some of my goals might not happen for
reasons I can't control. That said, thinking about how I'd
like to spend my time over the next year vastly
increases the chances that what I want to have happen happens.
With that, not all goals are created equal. Sometimes people

(01:32):
set goals like lose weight or get in shape, but
what does that mean? Life is lived in hours. How
do you intend to use your hours to achieve these goals?
What steps will be involved? What will you be doing
on an average Tuesday to work toward these goals. When

(01:53):
I set my goals for the past year, I spent
some time thinking through what I would actually do. I
have long wone to write a collection of sonnets, but
I had never followed through on that desire. Then this
past year I realized I could commit to writing two
lines anyambic pentameter every day. Two lines a day is

(02:16):
fourteen a week, which is a sonnet every week. Because
I figured out the logistics and figured out how this
goal would be doable, I did it, and I have
now written as many sonnets as there have been weeks
in the year. But I had to figure that out.
Things don't always just pop into our heads. We need

(02:39):
time and space to think about them, and to think
about what goals are appealing and which aren't, and of
the appealing goals, how we can actually structure daily life
to make them happen. So today's tip is to give
yourself that space. Figure out when in your life. You

(03:01):
can take at least a few hours to think through
any goals you would like to set for yourself. When
can you get a few hours apart from the rest
of your life. What sort of setting would be conducive
for this? You might think through some prompts so you
aren't just staring at a blank page or computer screen
the whole time. Think through your career goals. Picture yourself

(03:25):
at an annual review a year from now. What would
you like to be celebrating. Picture what you will be
telling friends and family about your amazing life. Next holiday season?
What are you toasting? Think through any pain points in
your life. Are there steps you could take to solve
these pain points? What practically might work? How would these

(03:51):
things fit into your life? Give yourself the space to
think through your goals and you will probably come up
with better ones that if you just give it a
passing thought on December thirty first, you will emerge with
a better plan. It won't just be I'd like to
write some poems. It will be twenty syllables in a

(04:14):
certain rhyming scheme every day. The latter feels a lot
more likely to happen. In the meantime. This is Laura.
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've

(04:39):
got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

(05:01):
your favorite shows.