We often have these big dreams, but we procrastinate as the end results seems nearly impossible. We hide behind “just being realistic” and “not wanting to be disappointed” that we end up playing it small. We put ourselves down because we have experienced too much failure in our lives to still believe that it is possible to achieve the seemly impossible goals. But too often, we are the only ones standing in our way of achieving greatness!
I decided to break the goals down into categories and each month, I will introduce 1 goal that you can follow along with us. For January, it is goal setting.
Turning dreams into tangible goals
I recently started reading The Magic by Rhonda Byrne. In it, she deals with this notion of gratitude that unlocks the door to a magical life. It is creating the habits of being grateful for what you have that your entire perspective of life changes. She also starts by asking you to write down your goals. Every single thing that you want in your life. She urges you to write down your dreams categorized in career, relationships, travel, health & body, money, or any other category that is important to you. You have to sit and think about the life you want and then live it intentionally. I urge you to go through this exercise as it helped me discover elements that I didn’t know I wanted.
Personal Goals
By December 31st, what is it that you would be thrilled about achieving? Do you have self-care, time-off, health, mental health, or even sleep goals that you would like to achieve this year? For me, this is the year of consistency. The #100daysofhappy campaign set the healthy habits in place that I want to maintain and choose consistency over intensity. I want to ensure that I do not jump back on the hamster wheel, although it is often easy to do when one aspect of your life is busy.
I also found it interesting that I am a lot more intentional in my professional life than my personal life and wondered what is preventing me from living the life I wanted. I realized that the choices I made every day may not be aligned to the ultimate dream that I am working towards. If every choice we make, is one vote for the person that we want to become, then are we making the choices that will get us where we want to be?
You can break it down even more and ask yourself what exactly you want to achieve in 2022 – make sure that it is ambitious enough to push you but achievable enough to motivate you and not leave you despondent if you are not on-track by mid-February.
Professional Goals
When last have you done an audit of your current professional competencies and existing skillset and truly think of what you would like to learn in order to be the best veterinary professional and unlock your platinum potential? Are there skills that can help you become the vet or vet nurse that you have always wanted to be? The Platinum CPD membership community is working this year to helping each of the members reach their career goals and foster the notion of lifelong learning. It is geared towards helping individuals become their best selves in the work environment.
Whether personal or professional (I urge you to review both), goals form a central role in over-all well-being and directing behaviour. It helps you make the decisions that are in-line with the life that you set out for yourself to live. Make sure that you are steering your life in the direction you want, that you put yourself back in charge of the direction that you are heading and that you take an active role in deciding the outcome of 2022.
