Gs & Os
Now that you have a better idea of what you can expect from the book, it’s time to set some personal goals and objectives. Creating specific goals (I recommend 2 or 3) is the most reliable measure of your progress. What do you want to accomplish? How will you know if you’ve been successful in your efforts?
Keep in mind, it’s helpful to state goals and objectives in ways that articulate what you want, rather than what you want to avoid. For example, “I will journal for a minimum of 5 minutes each day.” This is a more positive goal than something like: “I won’t skip any days while journaling this week.” Framing our goals in this way helps maintain focus on the desired result. I urge you to feel free to adjust your goals and objectives along the way as you learn and grow through the process. Once you’ve completed the goal-setting process, you’ll know what success looks like when you see it!
Here are two examples to help you get started:
Goal: I will regularly assess my progress in a consistent way.
Supporting objective: I will list 2-3 successes/challenges I had implementing new skills at the end of each day.
Goal: I will attend to what I’m feeling daily.
Supporting objective: I will prioritize identifying my feelings by consistently using an app that helps me track them.
A final note: I strongly encourage you to pick up a journal before you begin this journey. It can be any kind (bound, loose, digital), as long as you’recomfortable using it. Journaling is an invaluable tool for personal growth. Recording your reflections in real-time helps clarify and organize things that can seem really confusing when they’re all jumbled up in your head. Journaling, when done consistently, helps identify thinking and behavioral patterns we might otherwise overlook. Please don’t neglect this important first step!
