Q: I would like to ask Christina Bruni whether she still keeps a "goals binder" and whether she has posted anything about it.
Hi Donna,
I hope when my second book is published to teach workshops on setting goals and on the other topics of the second book. I would like to create an audio or video version to be available online through the Learning Annex.
Before I go into the details I will tell you that it will help, starting out, to set goals you know you can achieve. After you achieve these ordinary goals, set your goals just slightly beyond your reach.
So I would tell you to set goals that you can definitely make happen. How do you make them happen? It can be as simple as doing one or two things each day to move you towards your objective.
You might think as well other people might think that a goal has to be difficult or hard to achieve in order to be a valid "goal." This is not true and sets you up to feel overwhelmed.
One goal I have now is to keep Sundays free to be on my own and rest and recharge my batteries. You might have a different goal and if it is a bigger goal just break it down into smaller pieces and tackle each sub-goal on its own.
Now let me tell you something that you might not believe or might think is unusual. I first got the idea to create the goals binder when I was 35 and now I'm 46. The interesting thing is that I wrote out the list of goals for each decade of my life: in my forties, fifties and sixties and almost exactly as planned all the goals have happened.
I think this speaks to the benefit of typing out or at least writing down your goals and re-reading them.
One thing I can tell you is to plan and prepare first. Write down the goals and even it's just for a week, commit to reading what the goals are. You don't have to take action on them until the second week. Just re-read the goals to get more comfortable with them.
This is what I do when I cook from a recipe. For each of five nights before I actually do the cooking, I read the recipe to get familiar with it so that I'm not overhwelmed when I begin cooking.
I would say that reading and re-reading your goals is the second step. The first step is writing them down.
About two weeks ago I took the goal-setting to an advanced level by determining that I had three major life goals. So I typed them up and inserted them in the goals binder.
For isntance, one of these life goals was to act as a channel of God's love and then below that I wrote: by acting with self-empathy so that I can have compassion for others; by letting my light shine so that other people can shine too.
I also by the way type up yearly goals and write down a vivid 5-year plan that lists exactly what I want to have happened five years from now.
When I tell you all this is coming true I don't know how I can account for it except to say I type everything up and re-read the goals often. Lately I have stuck my eyes in the goals binder regularly without fail.
One thing I did was buy the kind of binder with clear sleeves on the front and back cover so I inserted inspirational quotes to read. One is a Nelson Mandela quote and one is a Theodore Roosevelt quote.
I will end here with one last thing: as you know follow-through is the secret to success. I would say you need to be honest: are the goals you're setting impossible to reach? Do they involve complicated effort? Are you setting a particular goal because you think you "should" want to achieve it?
A goal that fills a need in your life is the best kind of goal to set because it will affect you personally and you will derive great benefit from it.
Start with the most simple goals and try not to concern yourself with whether or not these are "worthy" goals. Start with the goals you know you can achieve. Any goal you set that is modest and realistic is a worthy goal. I'm not in the business of accomplishing adventurous feats either. Keep it simple yourself.
I hope this helps. Feel free to let me know what you think of this.
Regards,
Christina
Lastly:
the thing about follow-through you are right is so important.
Have I followed-through on every goal I've entertained? Hardly. I got the idea to train to run a 3K race and that never happened. I put it in my head (where it remained) the idea that I wanted to take up running.
It hasn't happened and I'm OK with the fact that it might not ever happen.
Sometimes the goals we have won't happen for various reasons and this is OK too. For example I also have a Life List of the things I want to do before I die. If I don't get to doing a lot of those things that will be okay I won't be upset.
Attach a deadline to a goal yet understand you can be flexible and change the goal's achievement date as your life changes.
The question to answer seems to me: how can a person follow-through on her goals? Like I said you need to examine the nature of the goal. I worked in business and had to follow-through on seeing if certain things happened and I rarely did this. In retrospect I realized I failed to follow-through because I was working in the wrong field.
Had I found out the things to do that would inspire and energize me I would have been better at following through on achieving them.
To be honest, I focus on only the goals that are important to me. One goal I have I might not ever achieve and I will be OK with this too.
Last and most important is to frequently reward yourself for the little victories as well as the milestones. Not just pat yourself on the back, do something that gives you joy when you achieve a goal, even if the goal seems tiny.
Always reward yourself.
Regards,
Christina
Important:
We hope you find this general health information helpful. Please note however, that this Q&A is meant to support not replace the professional medical advice you receive from your doctor. No information in the Answers above is intended to diagnose or treat any condition. The views expressed in the Answers above belong to the individuals who posted them and do not necessarily reflect the views of Remedy Health Media. Remedy Health Media does not review or edit content posted by our community members, but reserves the right to remove any material it deems inappropriate.
Featuring Content From:
By using this service, you accept our Terms of Use. Please read them. The consumer health information on is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions. You should promptly seek professional medical care if you have any concern about your health, and you should always consult your physician before starting a fitness regimen. Copyright © 2012 Remedy Health Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Thank you so much for your in-depth answer. I have always had trouble setting goals, probably because I set only the BIG ones like buying a house some day, moving to the Arizona desert, working full time at a job I love, having my own floral shop, that kind of thing. I forget the little goals like taking my medications as prescribed every day for a month. That would be a worthy goal and might even lead to making my other goals more reachable, right? I think at some point, with my "breakdown", my goal-setting broke down, too, because it seemed like EVERYTHING was too hard, too complicated, too distant, required too much energy, etc. I think I will take my cue from you and start a goal notebook. One with workable, reachable goals as well as the pie-in-the-sky goals. I have a poster on my office wall that says "CHALLENGE: Anything unattempted remains impossible."