Happy, healthy couples strengthen their marriage bond through the pursuit of shared goals and by encouraging and supporting one another in accomplishing those and their individual goals.
Goals harness and order the energy required to follow the associated structured activities that will result in achieving those goals. Sharing a goal with your mate can be a wonderful way to connect and invest in personal and couple growth and avoid the boredom and monotony of aimless efforts that can often result in fussing and disagreements.
Why not set aside some time or better yet, plan a weekend away when you and your spouse can dream and discuss goals that you would like to pursue together and individually.
“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” Will Rogers.
1) Be specific. Instead of saying, “We will learn to play tennis, be specific and say: “We’ll spend 30 minutes a day hitting balls three times a week and take a tennis lesson on Sunday afternoons at the Tennis Club.” The goal now expresses not only a desire, but the means to accomplish it.
2) Be realistic. Consider your time and resources and set goals that you can accomplish and feel good about. If you make them too easy, they will be meaningless and if you make them impossible to obtain, you will lose heart and become discouraged. Strive to create positive versus negative energy!
3) Include a way to measure your success. A good goal will answer the questions of what, how, and when; it’s measurable. Instead of saying, “We will learn new recipes and cook meals together, say: we will research recipes online and find a mutually agreeable one, grocery shop together at Whole Foods and cook together on the first Saturday evening of each month.”
4) Think short-term and long-term. Short-term goals (cleaning one closet a week) allows us to experience success at smaller intervals while working toward long-term goals (de-cluttering an entire house.)
5) Review periodically and be flexible. Goals are the defined destination of a journey. If you don’t know where you are going, guess what? You are already there! Remind yourself that life is a journey, and developing a passion for the process is the key to embracing and enjoying each day and learning to live in the moment. Priorities arise that will take precedence over structure you have established to accomplish a goal, which may require taking a detour, adjusting expectations or putting a goal on hold for a while. Utilize the power of prayer when setting daily priorities, which will result in PRAYORITIES, which will keep you in line with your dreams and the heart desires of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment