Vision and Goals

Ever since I can remember, I have always kept a journal.  

I enjoy looking back on my thoughts and ideas.

My journals circa 2008-2009 are filled with visions and goals for my future. 

Some of the entries are written in future tense, describing what I believed to be a day in my ideal life. 

I found, and still find, these entries to be very powerful because they helped me SEE exactly what I wanted.

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Blogging is a lot like journaling, right?  It certainly is for me. 

I think that one of the most unifying qualities of bloggers is that we are extremely curious people...interested in the lives of others and inquisitive of details...

It's the same curiosity of reading someone's diary.

This curiosity is what lead me to find Lululemon's Vision and Goal planning worksheets online.

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Let me back up for a second: 

Planning my wedding was a very content time in my life.  Daily goals and checklists doth a happy Laura make.  Once we were married, I was overjoyed, and also in need of a new direction...and I found that in my new job.  

During this transition period, I found it helpful to, once again, look at my life with "future" goggles and see where I wanted to be. 

In finding these worksheets, I wanted to share them because I find this strategy very successful, and these are wonderfully instructional.

I completed these months ago, but they are something that you can revisit again and again, whenever you need a reset.

Here they are with some of my commentary.

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Here's the Introduction:

The second page was hard for me to get started.  

The exercise is simple, but in the way that you want to overcomplicate it.  

You are essentially filling the circles with words you find ideal to describe health/personal/career.  

 Next, this one is fairly self explanatory.  

This process is supposed to get you thinking big.  These want/don't want items are meant to be reflective of what is most important to us.  For example, I don't want to work late no matter what...because my personal life is just as valuable to me as my career.  It helps you to see your priorities.

 From here, some fill in the blank. 

 Writing the vision was my favorite part:

From here, you backtrack.

You take your 10 year vision and give it a five year goal plan, and a one year goal plan.

The worksheets provide much better instruction:

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I spent an afternoon filling these out on the back porch with a glass of wine.

It made me feel great and I think it's the perfect sort of thing for someone in a funk!

What do you think?