Enhancing The Good

A couple of years ago I found myself sitting in a conference room, having just started a new job, and anticipating the training my colleagues and I would be receiving that day.

As our guest speaker spoke to us about bringing more balance in our lives and setting goals to do so, more and more energy rushed through me- this was exciting!!

We were prompted to set a goal in our personal life and I knew I wanted to focus on reading, as I knew it would benefit my life in many ways and was also something I struggled to like and actually do throughout my life up until that point. I set the goal to read one page of a book every day. (Now you might laugh, but for me, this was HUGE. When I say I hated reading, I mean I HATED to read. I don’t proudly admit this, but even going through school and having projects and assignments to do that required reading, I found ways (most of the time) to get through it without having to read. But I decided that this training day was the day all of my dislike toward reading would change. If I didn’t start now, when would I??)

One page a day. I knew I could do more, and I wanted to do more, but I also knew that I would shy away from reading if I challenged myself any more. One page a day allowed for me to set a small amount of time aside among the other events in my schedule, to pick up a book, read my page, and go on with my day if I wanted to, still feeling accomplished (which is sometimes the outcome). It also gave me flexibility to continue reading if I wanted and come even more quickly to reaching my long-term goal for myself. Yes, the long-term goal wasn’t to finish a book by this or that date and it wasn’t to get myself to do something good even though I didn’t like it. My long-term goal was to reach a vision I had for myself of being someone who is always learning and enjoys doing so. My vision of myself involved me being in a healthy state-of-mind and setting a good example for my kids. It involved me spending less time in front of a screen and more time in front of what many people consider “works of art”. And that’s only part of it.

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That vision I had for myself is a lot, as are most of our goals. Telling ourselves we’re going to have a healthy routine so we can feel better, do what we’re told to by doctors, and keep our bodies functioning properly isn’t necessarily going to cut it. Instead, that goal requires us to break it down further and organize our lives in a way that we can handle the goal, and be flexible, so that we can actually eventually reach our goal.

Another reason that it’s important that our steps are broken down and flexible, is it makes it much easier to start our goal now. Like I mentioned before, if I would have challenged myself any more than reading one page a day, I would have shied away and not done it. It was enough to challenge me to reach outside of my comfort zone and get going in the right direction, but small enough where I wasn’t scared or overwhelmed.

What can you do with the goals you have set now, to break them up to be smaller, more flexible, and give you the strength to start now?

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As I began getting in the habit of reading one page a day, especially as I tried to learn from the books I was reading, I found a new passion that altered the direction of my life a little bit. Instead of working in an office, I would start my own business! And lucky for me, I was learning many valuable skills that have helped me improve my abilities to do so. Being organized, as more goals came up from this, I have been able to build up and transform without feeling too overwhelmed which has been such a blessing! More and more, I’m seeing the ways of how I’m achieving the vision I originally had for myself.

I still read “one page” to this day. Even though I can read without thinking about it, I still use my Google Calendar everyday to check off that I have done this. I use it to organize the other goals that have come from this one, as well as the smaller steps that help me to reach those. As time has aided me in this, I now prioritize reading. It’s not only something I have to do but something I want to do which definitely helps in overcoming the obstacles that try to throw me off as well as reaching my vision even faster!

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This month hasn’t been full of random bits of knowledge that will maybe help you reach your desired outcome, whatever it might be. I’m not the world’s most organized person, but I’m someone who has actually seen the value of them and enjoys making them a part of my life. As you can see, organization brings results! If results are what you’re looking for, pick up some of the things you’ve learned this month and apply them to your life starting right now! Soon you’ll see the progress you’ll make!

As always, you can reach out to me if you have questions. Or if you think taking one of my courses would be valuable to you, I invite you to click here to see if if would be a good fit for you, and you for it!

You got this!!