Goal Setting isn't an All or Nothing Proposition

I have a long and close-knit history with setting unrealistic goals.  It's never bothered me... I feel like the higher you strive, the higher you end up, even if it's not that extreme goal you set for yourself.

But can extreme goal setting be a bad thing?

Maybe... at times.

If you let the failure to reach the extreme goal be a reason to either quit (the "all or nothing" syndrome) or to berate yourself ("I'm worthless because I didn't reach my goal").

So I made a list... a really super long list of little goals I want to achieve, daily.  It's a crazy list.  Not even superwoman could keep up.  Why did I do it?

Because each day I will "x" out the things I didn't get to... and I will be left with a list showing all the things I *did* get to.  Accomplishments.

If I put 20 things on my list for what I want to get done in a day and I get to 12 of them.  Yes, I didn't do 8 of the things on my list, but without the list, I might have only done 4 of the things.  12 is darn good!

Not only is there really probably not enough time in a day to do everything on my list, things come up.  Like today... I had to go into Kaiser for a tetanus shot.  That was an unplanned event.

Want to see an example of a typical day?

1. Take trash to bottom of hill
2. Do laundry
3. Mop kitchen floor
4. Plan weekly menu
5. Clean cat box
6. 5 mile walk
7. Make stacker rings order and ship
8. Organize cabochon inventory
9. Charge AA batteries
10. Shred previous week's receipts
11. Water plants
12. Check car's tire pressure
13. Cook eggplant casserole
14. Organize fabric for KG
15. Inventory supplies
16. Add stuff to septic tank
17. Wash dishes, clean counters and sink
18. Process SRAJD applications
19. Work on supplies inventory 
20. Do business accounting

So I can see that aside from my normal work in my workshop (making jewelry and/or teaching), I still accomplished a lot of little things that needed taking care of.  I can feel good about that.




If something on the list didn't get done but is still important, I can just move it to the next day, etc. until it gets done.

There are some things that are there every day, other things that are only on certain days... like, I'm obviously not going to check my tire pressure every day, and still other things that are very infrequent (like putting additives into the septic system).  But if I have this list, I can see when something comes up and I might put it off for a day or two, but I'll eventually get to it and then nothing important gets forgotten about.

The air conditioner maintenance happens on schedule, there are always prepared meals in the freezer, bills get paid on time, etc.

Maybe you have to be a list person to "get this".  I am definitely a list person.  I'm also an extremely forgetful person so until things become habit I have to have reminders.