Planning and Preparing for your GOALS

Thursdays this month my focus has been development...whether professional or life skills. Last Thursday I posted about the importance of knowing your purpose and being able to vocalize or write your mission statement. Today, I am going to keep building on this and touch on the value of walking through and writing down your goals in life. I’m sure many have heard that writing things helps to actualize them, which I too believe. In addition everything needs planning and preparation. We have desires for many things in this world. But are we always ready to receive them when they come??? How prepared are you to receive that big career boost or change, a free ride to continue your education, a soul mate, or move to a new city or state. Have you actually thought about what you would say or do if someone presented you with all your desires?

So in short why is it important to work on your goals?
• Writing them helps you think about your priorities
• Plan to accomplish
• Preparation for when the goal is achieve… Before/After.
• A reminder and point of focus…
• Find purpose in others, assistance in achieving your goals.

So let’s try this out... grab some paper... and get to thinking, writing, planning, and preparing for a successful life.

•Long term goals (10 years)
•Short-term goals (5)
•Immediate goals (6 months to a year)
•What is the most important? (3)
•What could get in my way?
o List some obstacles to accomplishing your goals
•What actions do I take to meet my goals?
o What resources will I need?
•Who can help me?
o List family members, friends, coworkers who can help you meet your goals
•When do I start?
•Write down a kickoff date for taking action, Indicate when you hope to accomplish the goal: Start date and End Date

Types of Goals
•Career Goals
o Getting a promotion
o Reach a certain professional level
o Learn a new job skill
o Complete a project in a specific amount time
•Financial Goals
o Earn certain amount of money in a specific time
o Get rid of debt
o Set up an investment plan
•Educational Goals
o Earn credits towards a degree
o Take adult education class
o Advance your education
•Health and Fitness Goals
o Work out three or four times a week
o Join a health club
o Have an annual checkup
o Quit smoking
o Eat nutritious food
•Community Involvement
o Volunteer with a specific organization
•Aim for greater Self-Understanding
o Work to become less anxious, jealous, or insecure.
o Meet new people and make new friends
o Personal self improvement goals
•Spiritual Growth
o Set aside time to think about what matters spiritually,
o What keeps you elevated, content, and stable through tough times
•Leisure Time
o Relax more
o Plan a trip
o Make time for a hobby
o Make time for self

a glimpse into a teacher's diary...

A glimpse of a teacher’s diary... Struggling with finding peace in knowing my small efforts will one day make sense… laboring the mind seems so much more draining than manually having the body walk the actions. Caring hurts. Frustration does not exist without emotional concern.

Concepts, theories, pedagogy, training, lifestyle, changes, solutions, questions, discussions… all this and yet we circle ourselves to the same point of existence. Depending on each other for support, for encouragement, for information, for confirmation.

Yet I fail to see who advocates for those who seem weak??? When three stand out of 100, is the 3 who are great, or the 97 whom have failed us are to blame, or are weak for having accepted the malfunctions and complacency on all levels of life. Where do you point the finger... do you even point... or just do. robotic.

And when does doing become taking on a 5 headed monster that will never die, because he seems to have eternal incarnations… with difference faces, different titles, different opinions.
When does the scale actually work for its purpose of not just weighing bi polar systematic approaches and perspectives… but actually stop titling, stop leaning, and find balance between reason, and reality. Between goals and expectations. Between truth and robotic like symptoms that seemed to have programmed us that enough is okay now. Rather than reaching for more.

I don’t understand… she told me balance lies in those that keep you standing.. yet if we examine the structure of the finest buildings.. they lean and depend on what seems to be the most ironic of pillars, steal, metal plates… but what is it that holds them in place..

There are missing links.. and one day I just hope we can see the image we aim, not accept the one we have created. The beauty behind passion fruit and pineapple is they are guarded by hard, prickly, bumpy outsides… yet tender and sweet to the core. The illusion is created to mask their beauty… without the desire one would never have experience the joy of such flavor. When will our desire to have something that works… meet our action of actually trying… when will we actually taste the flavor and sweetness of personal knowledge that a system aims to assist in developing… yet that is actually only cutting our children blindfolded…

and if your lost in the imagery of my words.. I applaud you... Yet this educational system is not gem.. We must not be afraid to be the 3 out of 100... At any moment…

Needy People

We are a needy people. A needy people. In such that we search. We search. For answers. For questions. We research ways to survive. We are a needy people. Investigating change. Hoping for progression. And making a difference. We are a people of the masses. Of the pain. And we are the solution. We, are the needy people. the birth of every country. The pride of every building. And the mold to be. The Foundation. We are needy.

We are needy. Needing justice. Needing freedom. Needing equality. Us- the needy people. Title of every story. Fighting for what we believe in. and finding cause in every meaning. And meaning in every struggle. We are in need of each other. Taking hands to scratch backs. We are the village. We raised the child. We are kings. We are queens. We rein cities, countries, continents. We are our ancestors re born. And new. Needy. Needing progress.

We are needy people. In such that we are powerful. We have this natural inclination to do whatever it takes, by any means necessary. To survive. And yet we struggle. We survive struggle. We are needy. We fight justice. We fight injustice. We fight each other. We fight. We are a powerful being. Strength. We find light in darkness. And beauty in pitch. Black. We find faith in solemn. We find peace in faith. We have hope. Ridiculed for our differences. Ridiculed for our similarities. We are a powerful, we are a power house. A needy group of people.

We are needy. We are needy people. In such that we crave change, taste victory, and eat defeat. We are needy in power. In glory. In history. A people that continue despite misfortune. Despite destruction. Despite captivity. Segregation. Miscegenation. Lack of education. Addiction. Corruption. Malnutrition. Willie Lynch them. Die for the cause, because death is easier… sometimes.
We are a needy people.

Martyrs. Symbols. Pickets signs. Separate aint equal. Thinking voting won't change, even though our needy people died to vote. Respect. Rising. Sitting. Running. They hanging. All cuz he was humming. Education. Black education. Blacks educating blacks. Let's educate them. Tenure them. Light in the dark, light better than dark complex. Complexion. The power. Writing. Reading. They killed us for it. And we still are needy. Despite the history books. The pictures. The lynching. After countless drives, sit in, voters registrations. Legislation. We make the history of the country. We make it be.

And they say we are needy people. The truth is we are. Needing love, needing stability, needing justice, community. Needing each other. To continue despite misfortune. Despite destruction. Despite the odds. To survive. And that, we will