So let’s get down to business…

This week is all about setting tangible, attainable goals and creating a mission statement. Creating the system to achieve your dreams!

I already have my journal so no need to purchase one for this task. Ariel talks about the power of intention. Writing it all down. This isn’t to new to me as I’ve been doing it for years and yes there is a lot of power to this! Unfortunately my journaling has been intermittent. I do it when I’m down and need a pick me up.

However,  I really like Ariel’s lesson of writing down 5 successes each day. As a bit of a perfectionist and a very high achiever, I occasionally beat myself up inside feeling like nothings been accomplished. Now due to my blogging and journaling, I’m feeling like each day is wonderful, eventful and productive (most of the time).

Next in Ariel’s week 1 is goal setting. Again for me, this is nothing to new, I’ve been doing this for years. Creating and writing down daily, short term and long term goals. Crossing them off as they’ve been accomplished or tweaking them as things change. However her goal examples are much more focused and detailed than mine. I’ll be revisiting mine this week to see if I can break down the goal details to smaller daily tasks and time lines to attain a result a little quicker. I have so many goals that I haven’t began to start as they need to be broken into those little daily tasks. Page 16 of Ariel’s book is big for me. I’ve printed it out to read each day and for my 1st goal to make happen asap (from now to Sept.6th exactly) is to complete this 9 week journey!

It’s now day 2 – week 1 I am revising my music and money goals for the year and created my own bucket list (lifetime goals) Also today I have written my daily task schedule to tackle today.

It’s now day 3 – week 1 At first I thought… why a week to create a list of goals??? I already know what I want to do, I’ve always known. I can write this out in a few hours! Wow, was I ever wrong! Now I realize it’s not just about writing them down with a time line. I’ve just discovered that for me, this week 1 is about creating the daily process and taking the week to fine tune it. Create the system to achieve the “Bucket list”.  Create the system that works for me. (I’ve now redefined week 1 as Creating the system to achieve your dreams!

I always wondered why my dad carried around little scraps of paper in his pocket with all his daily and weekly tasks. I used to think that maybe he wasn’t good at remembering anything and was very old school in his ways however now, I totally get it! My dad has accomplished so much and works his butt off 24/7 (maybe a little too much) But I admire him and am so amazed with his achievements. My parents began with nothing and now live in a beautiful home right on the ocean. (literally) How did he do it? It was the little scraps of paper.

So, today I have fine tuned my own personal scraps of paper. I own a blackberry and created a Google calendar for me to easily update my schedule. My Google calendar and blackberry calendars are sync’d together and all is updated with a single entry. My paper scraps (daily & weekly task list) is my blackberry’s task application. It now lists my short term tasks (goals) and I have created a task I call “A1 Today’s Tasks” that contains my immediate list and estimated time line. These are the big ones that are updated and accomplish daily with time lines attached such as “Complete corporate hire me page on blog – 30min”. As they are completed, they are erased and my success journal is updated. I’m striving for Ariel’s minimum 5 successes each day and have been averaging 5 to 8. If my A1 list is looking a little thin I go back to review my big goal list to create more A1 & short term tasks. It should help keep me better focus with what needs to be done now! I’m also mindful that my A1 list includes music career progress tasks and not just my old putting out fires list. The music tasks are always the first to tackle every morning.

It’s now day 4 – Week 1 Today I’m off to Victoria, it’s a 2 hour drive and a 2 hour ferry away. The trip on the ship buy’s me a little time today to continue to tweak Ariel’s week 1 task of evaluating and fine tuning tasks, time lines and goals. Today is also a big day as I’m working on a project in Victoria that could lead to an incredible amount of international exposure.

It’s now day 5 – Week 1 Continuing to journal my day’s successes, adding tasks and removing completed tasks. Found a cool little goal/achievement app for my blackberry however couldn’t get it to activate. If I can get it to work it will be great to track tasks, time lines goals and achievements. (the app is called Dream and Achieve by Vimukti Technologies if anyone is interested)

It’s now day 6 – Week 1 Got my blackberry “Dream and Achieve” software activated this morning. I’ll be revisiting my goals, tasks & time lines as I enter everything into this app. It will track my progess in all categories I choose to excel in such as money, health, carrier, relationships, etc…

It’s now day 7 – Week 1 Time to review my first week. Although I thought I would complete this task in a couple of days, realised this weeks task is much more than just writing out goals, tasks, time lines and journaling. It was also about creating the daily system or process to breaking down each dream into manageable daily and weekly tasks that are attainable and slowly chip away at the big dreams. I’m now inching forward to my goals rather than staring at them on my wall.

Will follow up tomorrow with my Music Success in 9 weeks progress…