Friday, December 17, 2010

Asking Too Much

Remember a few weeks ago when I made my 101 goals in 1001 days list? Yeah, so do I. Sort of. I wrote up a separate post that only I can see so I can keep making updates and such. So, I've realized something already in this endeavor. No, I'm not quitting. Far from it. I think there were some great goals there. However, I have noticed I may have made a few too many goals that are dependent on me completing them on a regular basis.

 
Here are all the goals I made that I was supposed to do regularly:
  1. Workout 3x per week  
  2. Drink at least 40 oz. of water a day 
  3. Call at least one family member at least once a week
  4.  Have dinner with Mom once a month
  5.  Play the piano at least once a week
  6.  Play my clarinet at least once a month
  7. Do at least one post per week on my personal blog
  8. Bake bread 1x per month
  9. Bring a treat for co-workers at least once a month
  10.  Bring my lunch to work 3x per week
  11. Vacuum & Dust once a week
  12. Clean the bathrooms once a week
  13. Clean out my work e-mail inbox weekly

So mainly the problem is, I can't remember all this stuff! I thought I was doing ok until I started going through trying to list the dates of all the times I did each of these things and realized I've pretty much already failed at all of them. Even the ones I thought I'd remembered to do.

Like I said, I think these are good goals. However, I think feeling like I HAVE to complete each one takes the fun out of it. When playing the piano or calling family becomes a burden, you know something's wrong.

So, I know when you're making goals it's best to narrow them down and be specific, but I think I'm going to do the opposite of that on these. I'm going to replace the "weekly" or "monthly" addendum with "more often." So instead of "play my clarinet once a month" it'll be "play my clarinet more often." And I think just having these items on my goal list at all will help me to think about them more. Doing stuff is hard.

2 comments:

Seth said...

"Doing stuff is hard." LOL... Indeed it is... ;-)

Rachel said...

I also really liked the "doing stuff is hard" line. :)

I have to admit, I was concerned for you when you were listing so many every day things. I think you are wise to shift from specific to vague. I have actually been making that shift myself in goal-making.