Its time! The New Year is almost here and many of us, farmers, bankers, or candle stick makers, are planning our New Year’s resolutions. And in about 45 days all that planning will account for nothing since most of us won’t stick with the goals we’ve made for more than six weeks. So today I’m going to show you a way to organize your New Year’s resolutions into goals you can actually do!
First, forget about your goals being for the “new year.” These are goals for your life! Sure, start today, but being flexible with your resolutions helps you to overcome setbacks. Instead of waiting for next January when everything heads south, just pick a date and start again.
Second, break down your goals into steps. “Get Healthy” is a great idea, but how are you going to do it? Will you diet? Exercise? Cleanse? Take vitamins?
Third, get out your calendar. I like the cheapie month-in-view from Wal-Mart, but chose what works for you and your life. Cell phone, pocket calendar, desktop, kitchen calendar, whatever! Then assign the steps to your goals to each month.
For example:
In the “notes” section of each month I wrote down a reminder of the steps to take towards my goal that month. I divided my goals into various areas of my life, such as financial, spiritual, homeschool, etc. My January goal for the farm is to research and pick out my new chicks and garden seeds. For February I plan to build covers for my current garden boxes to protect the seeds from the chickens we already have and research and pick out a breed of sheep and guard dog. In March I’ll build trellises for the garden boxes and create pens for the sheep and dog, hopefully to be added to the farm soon after. In April I’ll need a more permanent chicken coop and in May I want to purchase and set up rain barrels for both the animals and the garden. All of these steps are aiming at my big goal of “Raise More of Our Own Food.”
In the next few weeks I’ll also take you through the steps we use to organize our life, farm, homeschool, and other obligations, so stay tuned, but in the mean time I’d love to hear your ideas for New Year’s Resolutions you can actually do!
Daddy's Tractor 