Newton’s first law of motion tells us that an object in motion stays in motion and an object at rest stays at rest unless acted on by an outside force. This law also applies to human motivation! When vast numbers of people were setting their New Year’s resolutions I was already rolling and then an outside force brought me to a sudden stop. This force was Covid-19. I was fiercely trotting along, checking off the small objectives that were leading me toward my dreams and just like that everything hit a bump. Switching from the routine that I had finally gotten down to working remotely, learning remotely, and living remotely brought me to a halt. My depression and anxiety took over. I was successfully going through the motions but did not feel like I was moving forward. One of the motions I was maintaining was reading each night to settle my mind from the quarantine chaos of the day.
I was reading, Now What?: A Practical Guide to Figuring Out Your Financial Future by Brian Ursu, CFP, when I was reminded of why I felt so lost.
Carefully nestled between chapters about buying and house and having children is advice on how to “Have a Plan”. While the underlying message is about how to develop a plan to save money, it can be applied to any aspect of life. Ursu introduces a concept that he learned about in Jerry Linenger‘s Book Off the Planet.
Linenger talks about setting a big, audacious goal (BAG). A BAG is not your typical goal, or your 5-year plan. Your BAG rather is an incredibly long-term goal, something that in ten years you will still be working toward. I had lost sight of my BAG! I was taking things minute by minute and forgot where I was heading and why. Did I have a BAG? Absolutely! I just didn’t have it written down.
It feels really corny at first writing down a personal goal for some reason, I am not sure why, it is a well-worn business practice. Every successful business has a plan and you should too. An article published on the Psychology Today website cites a 2015 study by Gail Matthews that says people who write down their goals reach them 33% more often than those who don’t. Forbes also backs them up saying that through the process of generating a visual representation you form a stronger memory and therefore increase your chances of success. So, I have started just that, building a visual representation of my BAG.
This is the first of a series of blogs I will be writing about goal setting and more importantly, goal achieving. I encourage you to subscribe to my blog, not to watch my progress, but to make your own.
What’s my BAG? I will open an eco-therapy center that offers a variety of mental wellness services that integrate traditional practices as well as nature assisted and creative therapies. It will provide out patient, partial hospitalization, and residential programs as well as consultations and programs for the general public. Does this aspiration make you think I’ve gone off the deep end with hope? Good that’s how big a BAG should be! See my BAG Vision Board and share yours with me!
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Ria Warner 