Tagged: Goal Setting

Apr 20

Nothing goes according to plan

life_is_a_mazeThat doesn’t mean I stop trying to plan. The plans are always loose, and I really subscribe to the plan-as-you-go philosophy, in life as much as business. But that doesn’t mean when things don’t go the way I had hoped or expected them to go, that I don’t feel the disappointment.

I’ve been feeling a little disappointed all month actually. Kicking the freelance business into full gear proved more difficult than expected and while I’ve got some pretty good leads, the income is not nearly where I want it to be. Good news is that a couple projects and clients came through, so my panic was abated by the results of the hustle.

But there was another plan, one that involved international immigration and marriage and spending the rest of my life with the man I love. Unfortunately, that plan just isn’t going the way I expected. And so tonight is the last night David and I will spend together for the next six to eight months.

And its gonna suck.

You know what I’ve learned though? Nothing goes according to plan and things take twice as long as you expect them to. ‘Tis the case in both life and business.

And in both business and life, you have to have patience. I mean I was frustrated about the contracts not coming through based on the timeline I had established in my head, but they came through nonetheless.

While it would be really nice if David didn’t have to go home, we know that when he comes back, it will be to stay. And its certain he will come back.

So despite my disappointment that our loose plan didn’t work, I’ll be patient until the plan works itself out.

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Jan 17

Doing the Work

The other day I talked about it being time to make a plan. I’ve been reading the posts from the 30 Days series and there’s just one problem; I haven’t been following through. I haven’t been doing the exercises and enacting the strategies.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve been doing things, but part of the 30 Days commitment is working through the challenges. They are practical steps to help me map out my goals (you too if you want to start now!).

So today I’m going to take some time to work through some of these exercises and create my map.

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Jan 16

Check Me Out at Escaping Mediocrity! (Change Your Mind, Change Your Game)

Welcome Escaping Mediocrity readers!

It’s day 6 of 30 Days to Changing Your Game! Pop over to Escaping Mediocrity for my guest post: Change Your Mind, Change Your Game!

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Jan 15

It’s Time for a Plan

Tomorrow is day 6 of the 30 Days to Changing Your Game and yours truly is the guest blogger for the day. Check me out tomorrow at Escaping Mediocrity

Changing the game is scary. Not just scary but a little overwhelming. There are new people encouraging me, I’m doing new things and for all I can tell, I’m going to new places.

What I need to do now is get specific. I’m starting to realize that while I wrote down a basic outline for what I want to do, I haven’t implemented any plan.

And guess what, people have been telling me this for months.

“What’s your plan Kimberlee?”

“Kimberlee, you need a plan.”

“Take baby steps.”

“Choose a project.”

“What’s does it take to get to your goal?”

So I’m thinking I need a plan.

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Jan 13

No More Mediocrity for Me

Today is day 3 in the 30 Days to Changing Your Game Series. The subject? Sabotage. As I read what Carla Young had to say about the lies we tell ourselves and being afraid of success, I realized that I have sabotaged myself over and over. And right there in the comments, I admitted that failure is familiar territory for me.

Why should I be so closely acquainted with failure? I consider myself an overachiever. In college I was disappointed when I got anything less than an A, I even negotiated a D to a B all because I thought the professor was trying to grade me based on her dislike for me personally. Mediocrity is not something I aspire to.

But somehow I’ve often gotten paralyzed with the fear of what might happen if I tried and didn’t succeed.

It’s so much easier to just get by, to do just enough. It takes real courage to push through the fear and jump off the ledge trying to accomplish your goals.

So today’s commitment: I’m going to stop sandbagging. I need a little discomfort to get where I want to go. And since accomplishing my goals means embarking on unfamiliar territory, fear is par for the course.

Its time for me to escape mediocrity. I’m so glad to be part of a new tribe, a new network of people supporting my growth and the accomplishment of my goals.

I leave you with my horoscope for today:

The most important thing to remember about this Saturn transit, Leo, is that the actions you take and even more importantly the words you speak will have effects that last for a long time. Saturn, in your solar chart is in both a sign and a house where it is very comfortable. Over the quarter of a decade that Saturn remains there, you may find yourself networking with (or thrown into the neighborhood of) people who are well established, and very practical. You won’t find this time dry or dull, because many goals will be accomplished with their support.

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Dec 14

Thinking About Changing the Game

When I started this blog I had visions of grandeur and a plan to post something ever day. That quickly went away, but I had set myself up for failure by not starting at the beginning of the year as scheduled. This time I want to be ahead of myself and set a goal to write something for this blog every day.

Yep, I’m planning to blog the 365 days of 2010. I’m setting this goal in part, because it’ll force me to write something unrelated to work at least once a day. The other part is because I want to push myself to write more and to prepare myself for other goals I have for the year.

Another thing that got me thinking was this concept of changing the game. See, Sarah Robinson (Escaping Mediocrity) asked me to contribute an article to a project she’s working on, a project about changing the game. It got me to thinking about everything I’ve learned this year and how every mistake is a hint that its time to change your game.

This year was full of changes for me and things in my world look very different from how they looked last year. I accomplished many of the things I had planned, but still, on others, I floundered. I learned that I can sometimes be very self-righteous and petulant. For all of my interpersonal skills, I sure do know how to put my foot (or digital footprint, as it were) in my mouth. I was also reminded that others do not usually see me with the same eyes through which I see myself.

It wasn’t until I decided to look within that I saw the solution staring me right in the face. It was time for me to change my game and change my own perspective. So I made up my mind that I was going to be happy and productive and be a positive ray of light, no matter how tough things got. With this in practice for all of a week–maybe two–I have already felt begun to feel more calm and contented.

I’ve also decided that I need to be more diligent in working my program and work toward some of my longer term goals. To wit, I declare that starting January 1, 2010, I will write for this blog at least once a day, for 365 days of the year.

I hope you’re in the ride. I imagine it could get interesting around here.

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