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Posts Tagged: goal setting

Who’s At the Helm? Rules for Charting a Course Through Life

Posted by Marlene Anderson, MA, LMHC, NCC

My husband and I were avid sailors. We moved to beautiful Northern Washington to take advantage of the wonderful cruising in the San Juan Islands.

We learned that, before you begin any cruise, you need to have a destination in mind. You need to know the route you will take, obstacles you might encounter, and how to find safe passages when the weather gets rough.

The same is true for navigating life. We need to know ourselves, and where we want to go.

Today on my blog and podcast, I’ll give you some tips for navigating the waters of personal development, career, family, and long-term relationships.

Problem-Solving, Step 4: Try It On For Size

Posted by Marlene Anderson, MA, LMHC, NCC

When I go through department stores, I am constantly on alert for that good bargain or unique pair of pants or top I might enjoy wearing.

If something grabs my attention, I hold it up in front of me in a nearby mirror to do a quick assessment. Does the color look good? Do I like the lines of the garment? What draws my attention to it from all the others on the rack?

If I still like it after a quick evaluation, I will try it on. Only after I have tried it on will I know whether it is right for me.

Problem solving works that way, too. When we choose an option we think will be the solution to our problem, we “try it on” to discover whether it is the right choice for us.

Read on for ideas about how to productively “try on” and assess solutions.

Step 8 in Designing a Meaningful Life: Celebrate and Affirm Your Work

Posted by Marlene Anderson, MA, LMHC, NCC

garden watering can and trowel

Gardens are never complete. Sometimes new dirt is needed, fertilizer spread, gravel replaced, old plants and bushes removed, trees trimmed, and new plants planted.

But to the gardener, once the initial design is in place, it is a joy to continue to build, refine and maintain their garden. It is an ongoing labor of love.

Your life, too, is constantly evolving. You take a vision, develop a design, and work it out with goals. You may want to alter parts of your design or add more to it. But it all becomes an exciting project because you already know where you want to go.

Today on my blog and podcast, you’ll get a toolbox of 10 essential life skills you can apply anytime, anywhere.

Step 7 in Designing a Meaningful Life: Plan Your Goal

Posted by Marlene Anderson, MA, LMHC, NCC

Goals enable us to accomplish what is really important to us. It involves ongoing evaluation and monitoring to correct time frames, remove obstacles, or break into smaller components if necessary. When replacing an established habit, for example, it takes time to put a new one in place.

Goal-setting helps us become aware of all the things we could accomplish that seemed impossible before.

Creating that goal statement and developing a specific plan of action is both exciting and keeps us on course. Goals need to be personal and have value to us.

Today on my blog and podcast, I’ll show you the basic components of any goal and give you an example of my own goal-setting process.

Step 6 in Designing a Meaningful Life: Activate Your Plan

Posted by Marlene Anderson, MA, LMHC, NCC

Why You Should Create a Formal Goal Plan | FocusWithMarlene.com

In Step 5 you reviewed the different areas of your life and wrote down the concerns and changes you wanted to make.

Look over your list. Which area will you work on first?

When you choose a goal to work on, ask yourself whether you have all the information you need to activate that goal.

  • Have you defined specifically what you want the outcome to be and why it is important to you?
  • What other goal(s) may be linked to the one you have chosen? For example, if your goal is to dimmish conflict, an associated one might be to build a better relationship. Also involved is learning how to communicate effectively.

Life Is a Dance of Letting Go and Taking Control

Posted by Marlene Anderson, MA, LMHC, NCC

dancer

Life is a dance – a process – that requires flexibility while we learn how to change position and location and still maintain our balance.

Life is movement – we are going somewhere.

Life is never static – never the same but constantly changing and evolving. We can learn the music of life; we can adjust our movements and take charge of change and our responses to it or simply be swept along with no direction or purpose.

To experience freedom and create meaning in our lives, we must let go of the past while taking control of the present and future. In this blog post and podcast episode, I’ll help you understand what “letting go” and “taking control” mean, and how problems, tragedies, and losses can help you.

You Don’t Need a Degree to be Successful

Posted by Marlene Anderson, MA, LMHC, NCC

I will

Did you know that some of today’s most famous entrepreneurs became successful without a college degree? People like Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg never completed college.

I am not suggesting that going to college isn’t important. But I also believe we should consider all the options available to us.

Today on my blog and podcast, I’ll show you a simple exercise to help you evaluate endeavors that didn’t succeed, and to clarify and prioritize the next steps you want to take.

From Smoke and Mirrors to Discovering the True Meaning of Life

Posted by Marlene Anderson, MA, LMHC, NCC

From Smoke and Mirrors to Discovering the True Meaning of Life | focuswithmarlene.com

“Write! Write! You want me to write, Lord! But I’m not accomplished enough and have not learned enough. What if I write things that expose my vulnerabilities, my fears, my stupidity, or my ignorance?”

For with all my education and learning, I have become acutely aware of how little I know. Just when I think I know a subject well, I turn a page and discover I have just begun to learn.

As I pick up pen and paper, the boldness with which I have written in the past is now tempered with a deep humbling awareness of the present.

Path? What Path?

Posted by Marlene Anderson, MA, LMHC, NCC

Path? What Path? | focuswithmarlene.com

Difficult times compel us to stop and make an assessment of where we are in life.

  • Are we achieving the ambitions and aspirations we had?
  • Are our goals and plans to achieve stated in such a way that even when faced with unexpected obstacles, we have a clear direction on how to get there?

Such an evaluation can enlarge our vision. We may need to abandon unclear goals and replace them with new, more coherent, or articulate ones.

At these crossroads, we are given the opportunity to clarify what is really important to us so we can step out with a new purpose and ending in mind.

Developing a Vision: Why, What and How

Posted by Marlene Anderson, MA, LMHC, NCC

eveloping a Vision: Why, What and How | FocusWithMarlene.com

Developing a vision is more than just thinking about what you might want to do or to have. It’s also developing a new focus. Your focus determines who you are and who you can become. It makes you unique.

On the front page of my website I have defined my platform with the following:

Focus

  • On God – let Him lead
  • On what you can do – not what you can’t
  • On choices and possibilities
  • On solutions – not problems
  • On principles and values – live them