Biting off More than You Can Chew

   Hi Friends!  I hope you are forging ahead into the new year and working on the goals you have set for yourself.  If you're anything like me though, you may have made a classic mistake going into the new year.  I have been chasing down goals for a lot of years now, and I still tend for fall for this one.  It's so easy to do, because when you write your goals down, you feel hopeful and excited about all you want to accomplish, so naturally, when you lay out your action steps, you immediately try to work on them all at once.  For example, trying to work on your health goal, your relationship goal, your financial goal, your personal goal, and your career goal all at once. Just me?  No?  

    I've talked to you before about how to eat an elephant. You take one bite at a time (ie, small actionable steps towards your big goals.)  But what happens when you decide, "I can eat the elephant faster if I just take bigger bites."  Sounds logical right?  Unfortunately, this is a self destructive pattern.  Any parent will tell you that taking bigger bites doesn't generally lead to eating faster, it leads to choking.  

    Terri Savelle Foy says it this way, "If you focus on too many priorities, you will become one fragmented mess, incapable of completing your purpose and carrying out your vision."  (Live Your Dreams:  A 90 Day Dreams and Goals Devotional) I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like how I want to live. 

    The experts (you know, the people who actually have achieved their dreams and goals and been deemed successful), say you should focus on no more than one to three goals at a time.  Yikes!  That's a hard one for me.  I'm preaching to the choir here, believe me.  I generally write out ten goals for the year, and I attempt to work on all ten at once, then get frustrated and have to scale back.  Wouldn't it be better to just focus on one at a time?  Even if you spend one month focusing and building a habit related to each of ten goals, you would still have two months left over to spare for slip ups.  (Not that you have any of those, right?)

    So here it is.  If you are feeling overwhelmed by your goals already (or if you meant to set some goals and didn't yet), take some time and decide which of your goals is the most important to you first.  After all, you only have so much time, mental energy, and will power.  Then, commit to a habit related to that goal for one month.  Once you have established that habit, move on to the next one.  

    If you're feeling stressed out, fragmented, or overwhelmed by your goals already this year, it's ok.  Take a step back. Breathe. Stop trying to do so much.  You're only human. Pick one goal and get focused on that.  You can eat that elephant, one SMALL bite at a time.  Make it your best year yet, friends!  I can't wait to see you succeed!

~K.L.W.