WemonAde.com When Life Gives You…

This is a plight known to man forever.  But only with the past 100 years of technology is it much more “important”.  In America, it’s when you have the most toys, the most money, the best relationship, and all things tainted with capitalism.

I’ve never really appreciated success until recently.  Now, I actually track my “successes” via an excel spreadsheet.  Maybe others think this is silly, but I have a hard time recounting them without the glaring information on paper, or saved in a document on my computer.

This is how I’ve set it up:

1.       Create a spreadsheet right at the beginning of a new year.  Just make a worksheet, one document, and make a new worksheet each year.

2.       Separate the document out with the goals that mean the most to me:

a.       Spiritual and mental health

b.      Monetary

                                                               i.      I usually set a goal to either work on my budget, or try to find creative ways to increase my current income.  I set incremental goals. Achievable ones.

c.       Physical fitness

                                                               i.      This is always a difficult one for me, for others it’s easy.

                                                             ii.      Eating healthier, going out for fast food less, finding new healthy venues.

                                                            iii.      Quitting a bad habit.  I’ll be focusing on that for smoking in 2010.

d.       New item to learn

                                                               i.      Internet Marketing, surfing, taking a class, investing, etc.

e.      Fun, travel, creativity

                                                               i.      Places I plan to go

                                                             ii.      Items I plan to do, such as learn to wallpaper or fix up a room

                                                            iii.      What I’ve done to enjoy life, and maybe it’s spending time with friends, etc.

f.        Relationships

                                                               i.      Another difficult one, but depending on where you stand, may be spending time with friends, enjoying being single with one’s self, finding that right person, or adding a different gender to your list of people you interact with on a regular basis.

                                                             ii.      Improve family relationships, or work on appreciation and gratitude for the people that bring happiness in your life, while minimalizing the negative factors in life.  I basically had to “divorce” a friend that basically was having a very negative influence on me. 

g.       Etc, etc

3.       I then write down my goals in each of these categories, with an overall large goal for the year. (example: 2009?  SELF LOVE)…this personal goal is something that women seem to forget about and something that we don’t easily learn unless we are taught from a great role model.  Women are supposed to be selfless and take care of others.  So, I need to learn and recount things that I’ve done that prove that goal.

4.       Let it ride.  It seems if you put those things in place, it’s almost like you work on them even without knowing it.

5.       I usually check in quarterly and write down what I’ve done to achieve the goals. What had I done?  One obviously doesn’t sit around and do nothing unless there is severe depression  (and if that is there, then I’d probably put that in the spiritual category to try and find a way to counter it).

a.       I add notes at the bottom of the spreadsheet for items that may not fit into the goal sector, and for reminders of things I did and experiences I had.  It’s like a mini diary.

6.       At the end of the year, I complete the list, looking at which categories I had/had not done things in.  I hate to say it, but the healthy eating category and physical fitness category don’t get the attention the others do. 

a.       I then decide for the next year if I want to carve out another piece of a category, do less in one, etc.  I am not paying as close attention to the food/health one because I’m not really doing a good job of participating in that category.

7.       In reviewing the year, I actually feel accomplished, because I see that I did participate and have some results in pretty much all the categories.  This, I personally see as success.  It’s not really how much, but if there was anything in those categories, I see that as forward movement. 

8.       Start over with a new worksheet and a new year.  This is not like New Year Resolutions, which I’ve consistently tried to make and for some reason due to the “pressure”, I always break my resolution.

This also helps you realize your areas where you may need attention.  This I think is a fairly simple and visual way to measure success.