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These days there’s a lot of talk on achieving goals in every area of your life. How do you do that though if you’re days are unpredictable? It can be a trial and error process to see what works best. In this post I am going to teach you how to achieve goals while living with a chronic illness or another set of circumstances that make it hard to plan ahead.
Living with a chronic condition isn’t easy. You never know how you are going to feel until that day. There are some days I’m able to work on a few of my goals while also getting housework done, and possibly an errand or two. But there are also those days when I can barely get out of bed and every step is a challenge. This can bring on disappointment and frustration. I wish so much that my desire to accomplish things, and be productive matched my body’s abilities for that day. I find that using Lara Casey’s Cultivate What Matters Power Sheets helps me to pursue my goals best. It is a planner for either a year or six months. i have the six month planner which is not dated. I love the fact that I can start any time of the year. So now on to the tips!
Tips on achieving goals:
1. Limit your goals
Don’t try to be super ambitious. You’ll just be disappointed. I usually pick no more than five goals for the month. Some of them are small and some bigger. What I love about the Powersheets (The Intentional Goal Planner) is how the pages of the planner are broken down. There is a page titled “Make What Matters Happen This Month” On this page you can write down all the ideas you have for the current month. Lara calls this brain streaming. You can see mine here. I do have eight here, but some of them are small.
2. Set realistic goals
One of the mottoes Lara Casey always says is “Progress, not perfection” I love this! So many times we think we have to set these lofty goals and then are upset with ourselves when we don’t measure up. I can think of many occasions when I ask myself “Am I enough?” It’s so easy to compare ourselves to others and come up short, especially when we don’t have the energy, or are in too much pain to achieve big goals. Make sure your goals are within your reach.
3. Remember to make self care and health goals
Self care and health are so important. When dealing with a chronic illness it is so important that we do things that add to our well being. These goals can be small and easily met like drinking eight glasses of water a day. There are so many things that we don’t have control over when managing an illness. That’s why I like to make goals that I know won’t take up a lot of energy or time. I know I can accomplish drinking eight glasses of water. On the Powersheets page called the Tending List there’s a place for monthly goals, weekly goals and daily goals. The daily goals section is like a habit tracker. You can check off each day that you complete this goal. Other health habits that I’m adding are eat healthy foods and walking daily. (It doesn’t matter how far just as long as I walk!) Lara has beautiful new products to help you with your health and financial goals as well as seen below.
4. Don’t be afraid to adjust your goal
In tip number 2 we talked about setting realistic goals along with this is modification. When you are done writing your goals take a look at them and see if they need to be tweaked. You can also do this at the end of the month for goals you weren’t able to reach. There is a Month in Review page in the Powersheets planner. I love the colors. This is a place where you can record your success and what you’re grateful for. I love this part because it gives me a chance to zero in on what was good that month, and things I need to change for the next month.
5. Be kind to yourself
This is a very important step. The process of goal setting isn’t so you can beat yourself up at the end of the month for all you didn’t accomplish. It is a chance for you to record your dreams and aspirations month by month. I know it can be hard to dream when you have an illness because so many of our dreams have had to be put on hold. You can still dream and make goals even if they have to be small, or you need help from others to achieve them. There’s nothing wrong with that. There are no rules.
I hope you enjoyed this post How to Achieve Goals While Living with a Chronic Illness, and it gave you a new way to look at goal setting. What are some goals or dreams you’ve been wanting to explore?
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