It’s challenging to meet all our daily challenges and unexpected emergencies, let alone devote energy and time to achieving our long-term goals. We seem to run out of day before completing anything non-essential.
We push less urgent things to tomorrow, next week, next month. Sometimes we get to them, but rarely do we give them the attention they deserve.
The truth is, we under-prioritize goals no one is counting on us to achieve.
These long-term goals, which often include our personal aspirations, are the things we most often allow ourselves to delay.
Soon they may even disappear off our radar entirely.\
How To Find Time to Work Toward Long Term Goals
Do you want to learn a new skill, how to use a new app, or software?
How about trying a new hobby? Do you dream of starting your own business?
How long have you put off taking a step towards your long-term goals?
Knowing it’s a problem is one thing, but with all the chaos around us, how do we ensure that we make time to work towards our long-term goals?
How do we begin to view them as our highest priorities?
We don’t always regard our time as what it is: a finite precious resource.
We’re more likely to view money as a limited commodity. Accordingly, we spend a fair amount of time deciding how to spend it.
But the truth is, time is even more precious than money. Because we can’t make more time.
When was the last time you put energy into deciding how to spend your time?
When was the last time you felt as though you had invested time instead of spending it all?
We’ve all heard the expression “pay yourself first” regarding money.
This conventional wisdom says we should strive to make a deposit into our savings each time we receive income or gifts before we spend any of it.
So maybe it’s about time that we started to pay ourselves first with our time, too.
So, let’s try to take this approach to our days.
Before we begin the madness, let’s do one thing that DOESN’T have to get done.
We may have to get up 15 minutes earlier.
Or we may find that we can just make it the first thing we do, before checking e-mail or phones, or tending to anyone else’s needs.
Another approach is to prioritize those things we consider “investments” in ourselves and build them into our time budget as “mission critical” activities.
It sometimes works for me to make it my first morning appointment, or as a mandatory mid-afternoon break – but do whatever works.
Find Time to Work on Long-Term Goals
Do you dream of being a photographer? Schedule time to take some photos.
Want to write a book? Pencil in a standing morning “meeting” for writing a paragraph or two.
Do you dream of playing piano? Take 10 minutes now to find a teacher in your neighborhood.
Because somehow, everything that has to get done, will get done. Later.
Let’s begin to put our personal long-term goals first, without guilt.
The world will be a better place when we are kind to ourselves. And doing one thing that helps us make progress towards our own personal, ultimate goals, is good for us.
Thank you as always for reading.
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Joan Senio is the founder of KindCompassCoach. Joan’s career includes clinical healthcare plus 20+ years as an executive in a nationwide health care system and 15 years as a consultant. The common threads throughout Joan’s personal and professional life are a commitment to non-profit organizations, mental health, compassionate coaching, professional development and servant leadership. Joan has had the privilege of mentoring early and mid-career professionals as well as current and future executives and leaders. She is a member of the International Organization of Life Coaches, serves as a thought-leader for KuelLife.com and is also a regular contributor to PsychReg and Sixty and Me. You can read more about Joan here: Joan Senio.
2 Responses
Love this post! It’s so easy to focus on simpler short term goals instead of those big ones. I needed this reminder to refocus. Thanks, Joan!
I’ve got something going on at the moment with goals. In the sense of I’m feeling some kind of emotional disconnect from them but different posts, articles, conversations keep popping up and I’m kind of being forced to recgonise it.
You’re right though, it’s about setting some time for ourselves – kind of like self-care. I think I need to spend some time reflecting on this and myself. Lovely post, Joan