Archive for July, 2011
055 Creative Journey
by Charles on Jul.29, 2011, under Creative Journey Blog
Hello my friend,
Welcome to the 55th installment of The Creative Journey, the experience of one Charles Yerkes, Eadarian Poet, perpetuator, and otherwise mildly creative and excessively modest personage.
Goals Part 3:
So, back to our travel analogy, the goal here is to travel Europe for an uninterrupted month. The first piece of information needed may well be… where you want to go. Europe is a pretty big place, more or less, and you could spend many months wandering around and be disappointed with your experience and have not seen much that was worth your time and effort.
So step 1, what places do you want to see? What areas do you want to visit? If you only want to visit Stonehenge why would you go to Bosnia? Both are part of Europe are they not? Yet if nothing in Bosnia attracts you, then how will this help you in your tour? Going where you really do not want is actually a distraction from you main goal.
As we go along, remember this travel analogy is only an illustration, you can take these steps and apply them to any goal, in business to generate more income, to get a promotion, and at home… to keep the house clean, to open your home to more social engagements, or what ever. See if you can find the first piece of info you need to obtain. Whether that info is who new potential customers might be, what skill sets need to be mastered, what improvements to the house need to be made, or… etc…
Step 2. Now that you know where to go, you will need to decide how best to travel there. Will it be by car, bike, hike, train, or plane and a combination of the rest?
Step 3. Where do you want to stay while in Europe? In five star hotels? In bed and breakfasts? In hostels for hikers?
Step 4. Where do you want to eat on this tour? In restaurants, on granola bars, or something in-between?
Step 5. Determine how much money you will need to make this happen.
Notice how I’ve prioritized the needed information. I listed everything that the dream needs to be accomplished, and then I looked at what I needed to make this happen. I listed every thing I wished done (where to go, where to stay, etc), and then I could take a realistic look at what was needed to make the dream happen (how much money would be needed).
And now you can establish a game plan: how to save (sacrifice amenities, take a second or third job, etc.), determine how long it will take to save, what travel arrangements need be made, the obtainment of a passport or visa, the use of travel agencies or not, and on and on. And by addressing the smaller pieces of information that you have listed under your big goal, you can get the answers you need without being overwhelmed by the size of the goal.
An additional benefit of listing everything, you can see if your goal needs to be modified. Perhaps you discover that one full month of travel, no matter how you approach it will simply be too expensive, so, by having all the information, you can make the changes needed. Perhaps two weeks touring is feasible. Perhaps one month of touring but with restricted destinations. Who knows, but until you break everything down, you really don’t know. And there is nothing worse than making arrangements and being dreadfully disappointed in your tour, having to call it off in mid tour, or abandon it all together after spending money on it because of some unforeseen, but easily planned for piece of info that you simply did not take to time to account for.
There is some good news here for us non – type A personalities; meaning here, those who thrive on goal setting. You know the type, those who set goals for how to eat, do laundry, and walk down the street on a daily basis. ( And please, I am not being disparaging to the type A folks, just recognizing that we are not all of that personality type.) By choosing to set goals on things that are important to us, we can enjoy these times, because they can now become bright spots, shining moments of clarity for us that help us along, and to thoroughly enjoy, our rather intuitive life style.
Andrea, I hope this answered you desire for discussion of this topic.
I think next time I shall talk about the difference between being meek and being mousy. That is a fun thought and my next goal.
Grow in peace.
Charles Yerkes
Eadarian Poet, Perpetuator, Photographer, and Fiddle Player
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To choose a past installment(s) of The Creative Journey click here. To view a Quote of the Week, click here.
054 Creative Journey
by Charles on Jul.26, 2011, under Creative Journey Blog
Hello my friend,
Welcome to the 54th installment of The Creative Journey, the experience of one Charles Yerkes, Eadarian Poet, perpetuator, and otherwise mildly creative and excessively modest personage.
Goals: Part 2.
In part one of this blog entry, we ended with the statement that knowing why you have a goal helps determine how much time and effort to invest in its attainment. Which is another way of saying that it helps produce endurance. Knowing why you want this goal, knowing the importance of attainment to you, will help you endure the sacrifices that you must make to attain this goal. You may even have to change your plans for attainment… more than once, but if it is important to you, you will change the how you get there without changing the goal itself. For the attaining of the goal is worth more than the sacrifices and inconveniences needed to get there.
For example, say you want to spend a month touring Europe. Why do you want to tour Europe? Is it simply a fun idea for you, one that might be nice to do? Or is it a passionate dream that you want to accomplish as soon as possible?
See the difference?
Is this something that if you miraculously win Powerball you will do? Or is it something you will choose to sacrifice that noon coffee shop, eating out, new cloths, and a big screen tv in order to be able to afford to go? How important is this goal?
Is it important enough that if your plan of doing with out the items mentioned above does not generate the savings needed, will you be willing to change your plan and add a second job for its attainment? These are questions that need to be answered otherwise the tendency is to run yourself ragged chasing goals and to not invest your energies in attaining them.
Ok, speaking of plans… we now come to the second part of Andrea’s request, the subdividing of big goals into little ones.
Here is my approach: 1) Identify the first piece of information needed to obtain this goal. 2) Identify the next piece. 3) Continue steps one and two until all needed information is identified and written down. 4) When all conceivable information, steps are listed, prioritize these steps and form a plan to obtain these pieces of info, these become the smaller goals, and advance through them step by step.
An interesting thing about this is that once all the known pieces of information are written down and prioritized, the order of these can change as real world situations dictate. There may even be some information that you did not know you needed until you are progressing on your plan. It is easy to incorporate this into your plan and/or re-prioritize if you need. But (and I can’t say this enough) without one (a plan), your dreams will only ever be daydreams, fantasies that will not come to life.
To be continued…
Grow in peace my friends,
Charles Yerkes
Eadarian Poet, Perpetuator, Photographer, and Fiddle Player
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To choose a past installment(s) of The Creative Journey click here. To view a Quote of the Week, click here.
070 Weekly Quote
by Charles on Jul.26, 2011, under Weekly Quote
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Meek not mousy.-The Eadarian Poet
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To see past “Quote of the Week”(s) click here.
Or to choose an installment(s) of our blog, The Creative Journey, click here.
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053 Creative Journey
by Charles on Jul.24, 2011, under Creative Journey Blog
Hello my friend,
Welcome to the 53rd installment of The Creative Journey, the experience of one Charles Yerkes, Eadarian Poet, perpetuator, and otherwise mildly creative and excessively modest personage.
The setting of Gaols: Part 1
On our facebook page, Andrea asked to have the topic of setting goals as a topic for a blog entry. Thank you Andrea for this request. Having just gone through some re-evaluations here at The Eadarian Network, I will be happy to share some of the thoughts I’ve had concerning goal setting.
A goal comes from something that is desired. Whether the goal is on a small scale, such as keeping your house clean from week to week, a big scale, such as generating a business and earning a certain amount of income, or something larger still, the attainment of a life long dream. Goals come from desire and give direction to our purpose, they help us attain the desired end. And there are as many ways to set, subdivide, and attain your goals, as there are people who attain them.
The first thing I’ve discovered is the importance of knowing WHY you are setting the goal. Is the reason one you find compelling, or has it been set simply because it sounds good to have this particular goal? That it sounds like a goal you should have?
Do you want to start that exercise program because you have a passionate drive to be healthy, to have your body be able to respond to any demand you may put upon it? Or is it just to look good at the pool this summer?
Not knocking the desire to look your best at the pool, but if that is your only reason for setting this goal you are, in all probability, not going to maintain the discipline needed to reach this goal. You will soon decide that the second or third ice cream cone is much more satisfying than this vague, nebulous, poolside body.
If, on the other hand, this goal is from the desire to be active as long as possible, to be able to enjoy the freedom a healthy body allows you to have, for as long a humanly possible; when you encounter the opportunity for that extra ice cream, you have an easier time saying no. Because it truly does not help you get where you deep down want to be. You count it a small sacrifice because of the greater satisfaction you will receive as a result of attaining your goal.
Also, knowing why you are setting the goal will help you evaluate how important it is to you. I’m now talking about organizing your goals. Which are more important than others? This is important in order to avoid becoming too stressed over being committed to too many goals. The important ones you hang onto and see through to fulfillment, the others you can put on back burners, or discard altogether, but you will not know which you can discard (without great detriment) if you don’t know which is the most important.
Also, knowing why you have a goal helps you determine how much time and effort to invest in the goal’s achievement, and when enough of each has been given and it is time to let go and set a different goal. For, while goals are wonderful tools, we may or may not attain all of them. Sometimes the wisest thing is to be able to evaluate and say, “Enough, time to move on.”
This is also known as prioritizing your goals. Prioritize… big word, but in need not be too scary to contemplate when you realize that all it means is that the things you want and need most are more important than those that would be nice to attain but no big deal if you don’t.
To be continued…
Grow in peace.
Charles Yerkes
Eadarian Poet, Perpetuator, Photographer, and Fiddle Player
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To choose a past installment(s) of The Creative Journey click here. To view a Quote of the Week, click here.
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Worth Quoting
Never be so libelous as to call a man perfect; once a person is so labeled it is too easy to tear him apart for being what he is, a human being.
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