Setting goals: rewarding yourself

Acknowledge your success in reaching milestone.

Select certain dates reward dates during the process so you can celebrate your accomplishments as you progress.

Choose something that makes you happy and feels like a reward.

When you accomplish the goal, do something even bigger to celebrate.

Let all of your friends know when you achieved your goal.

But no time to rest on your laurels.

Give yourself a week’s holiday; pick another goal; repeat.

Remember, SMARTER goals are ethical and replicable!

Keep a master list of goals you reached so you can look at what you have accomplished!

Let Joe the Life Coach help you with transitions, important life aspirations and goal planning! One step at a time. Call 202.328.7414, Skype to sandpdc or tweet @aprayerdc.

Setting goals: notifying your network

Another step in goal planning is notifying your network.

Updating your supporters and advocates on your actions is a good way of garnering support and encouragement and ensuring your success.

Send out a few updates to your accountability buddy, friends and family as you work toward your goal.

Let Joe the Life Coach be your accountability buddy. Call 202.328.7413, Skype to sandpdc or tweet @aprayerdc.

Are you a good judge of people?

Do you focus on extrinsic markers — academic scores, net worth, social status, job titles?

Social media has added new layers of extrinsic scoring:

How many friends do they have on Facebook?

Who do we know in common through LinkedIn?

How many Twitter followers do they have?

These extrinsic markers, however, only tell one part of a person’s story. They are necessary, but not sufficient.

What happens when you’re disorganized or worse?

Are you getting it together?

Think about these questions before addressing the problem:

+ Why is it important to be organized?

+ Do you understand why?

+ Do you feel that organizing isn’t important?

+ Are you habitually disorganized?

+ How aware are you of your disorganization’s effects on those around you?

+ Are you going through situational disorganization due to traumatic or one-time exceptional situation or even?

+ How do you thrive on your disorganization?

+ How do you create artificial crises to keep yourself interested in what you’re doing?

+ Do you have an untreated medical condition that can cause moderate to severe disorganization?

Being disorganized can be stress enducing!

Remember, being organized at work and home adds to your work-life integration.

Are you experimenting with changes?

As you experiment with changes in your ways of doing things, attitudes and beliefs, get help and support from people around you.

Tell people you trust about what you want to do and why you want to do it.

Share your learning agenda and ask for support as you move forward.

Getting the support you need?

Your friends, family, colleagues, peer groups, networks and your community can give you support and help you navigate white water — those challenging or problematic times.

Seeking to change yourself?

Learn to get support!

You are not alone.

Your friends, family, colleagues, peer groups, networks and your community — whether of identity, social, local or global — can encourage you.

A professional life coach, your advocate, can be there too as part of your support group.

How will you combat terrorism?

After a massive manhunt following the Boston Marathon bombing, we can ask ourselves many questions. Many will want to know why.

The act of terrorism causes stress; adversity and trauma strike. You will experience anger, grief and pain.

How do you combat terrorism?

You become resilient.

You keep functioning — physically and psychologically.

Resilience isn’t about toughing it out, being stoic or going it alone. In fact, being able to reach out to others for support is a key to your resilience.

Are you a caregiver needing care?

As a caregiver, you can feel overwhelmed by your responsibilities as you care for a family member or loved one.

Regrettably, you may have feel a significantly higher level of stress than other family members or the general population.

Surveys show that caregivers believe they are doing a poor job of managing and preventing their stress. In fact, caregivers also often perceive themselves to be in poor health.

Take care of yourself.

Mindfulness for modern living

Metro mindfulness, commuter-train guided meditation, peacefulness in express bus busyness or subway silence.

Take a step toward clarity.

Photo courtesy @Umo_Reyes.