Life is full of choices. There are millions of little influences that can steer you, but it’s easier to get where you want to go if you can direct yourself. The only way to truly do that is to create and attempt to attain your goals. If this is the first time you’ve seriously considered how your choices may change your life, then you might end up having a few questions about what sorts of goals are good to go after.
If you have never journaled before you may what to read “How to Start Journaling for Beginners” first to get some ideas on how to get started journaling. This may help as you read how to use your journal for ideas on setting goals.
The next few paragraphs will share a few ideas for the types of goals to set using your journal:
Set a Goal to Learn a New Skill
When is the last time you just decided to pick up a new skill? When you learn new skills it can be incredibly helpful to your self-esteem and confidence. Learning new skills can help you to learn to appreciate aspects of your intellect more and anything that you do that engages your mind will play a role in making you just a bit sharper. Try going online and looking at different things you can do.
There are websites that offer classes and lots of videos that are available that can get you a bit of info on whatever catches your eye long before you commit to any kind of class schedule. Once you’ve made a selection, you’ll be well on your way to achieving your first goal, if learning a new skill ends up being a goal that you choose.
Be sure to use your journal to write down the ideas that you have. If life is as busy for you as it is for me, you will forget a lot of the research you do without writing it down. Your journal is a great way to keep this information organized.
Set a Goal to Get a Certification
Did you know that there are lots of jobs and career paths that you can get involved with relatively cheap and not a lot of time? Certified jobs are usually jobs that require you to have some specialized education and involve some kind of organization (often government) that does the actual testing and delivery of your certificate.
They usually require a certain amount of time preceding the test, sometimes referred to as hours. Many organizations will require that the hours be fulfilled within a certain period, or that they have to be completed over a span of months. Once you’re done with the classes, you can take your test, and upon passing, you will have the ability to perform work in your field of choice. Jobs of this type are great options for people because they’re generally less expensive than college and can be completed in less than 2 years. What types of work interest you?
Write these ideas in your journal and come back to them in a few days to see if they still hold interest for you or if you need to continue your research. Using your journal to keep up with how you feel about new things one day as opposed to another is a great way to help you decide. You may at times get excited about something one day, only to come back later and think it not so exciting.
Reevaluate Your Boundaries
It’s a good thing to be in a good position to help others, but it can be a really bad thing if you don’t have the proper sorts of boundaries on your relationships where people take advantage of you. Take an honest look at the people you have in your life. If you’ve gotten into a lot of difficult situations because you have difficulty saying no, then it’s probably time to start learning how to do that. It’s not a bad thing to need to hold some space for yourself. That’s a healthy space that you need so that your life isn’t negatively affected by someone who is simply unaware of what sorts of things you might need. It might not make everyone happy, but people will know that you value your time as much as they feel you should value theirs.
Using your journal to write down your feelings about a person or a situation is a great way to help you reevaluate those boundaries.
Take a Trip to a New Location
When was the last time you went on a real trip to somewhere you’ve never been before? Wise people have always believed that travel is a major part of learning about the world and about other cultures. What better way to know a culture than by actually going to a specific place and spending time with the people? Pick an interesting destination that makes you feel excited and just make a goal to go there.
The chances are that you’ll probably have a better time than you expect. Just be sure to get out and away from some tourist spots. Ask people about where the real culture can be found. You can try more exciting foods and get to see many of the local cool spots. Of course, it’s always good to know about how much safety you can expect. Read reports and experiences to get a good idea of the types of things that are common to the area.
Make sure to do plenty of research on the areas you would like to visit. This is another way you can use your journal. You can even start a “travel journal” if you would like it to be separate from the one you keep up with your goals. You can also consider a “bullet journal.” One that you can keep up with a lot of various things in your life. If you would like to learn more about a bullet journal, read “What is Bullet Journaling?” to find out more.
Check Out Some Live Music
They say that music can have a profound effect on people, and it turns out to be true. Music interacts with lots of different parts of the brain, and it even engages language centers. While you can easily go online or throw on a record of some kind, there’s nothing like going to see the musicians playing in person. There’s something really powerful about the way that you can immerse yourself in a live music venue when there’s a great band on stage telling a story that everyone can understand or relate to.
The music itself is a form of communication that relies on the ability of the player’s knowledge to supply appropriate responses. It’s said to be a temporal art form because of the fact that it can be experienced or perceived during the passage of time. While finding the time to go out might take some planning, it can be extremely enriching to enjoy in a live setting. Try looking in your local paper or go online to find some venues in your area. You’ll probably really enjoy it.
Keep a separate journal for music. Although this post is about the ideas for goals you can set using your journal, nothing says you can’t have more than one journal. If you find you enjoy music and you would like to keep up with all the types of music you want to listen to or have listened to start using your journal.
Drink A Lot More Water
Drinking more water, a goal? Yes! In the last ten or more years, some researchers have begun to ask, “how much water are people really drinking?” These studies also included discussions about whether students in schools had access to drinking water fountains. The deeper they dug, the more clear it became. People just simply aren’t drinking enough water. Water is one of the most important parts of health for the human body. You can live a lot longer without food than you can live without water because many of your essential life functions require hydration to take place. Without moisture, your brain can no longer send signals to your muscles, and so you would cease to function.
If you’re looking for a health boost, then it would be a really great idea to just try drinking more water. You’ll probably feel a lot more alive and drinking water to hydrate yourself will always be the best option for that. Sugary drinks have been aimed at people for decades and despite the marketing, water will always do more for you than many of the sports drinks that are available for purchase.
These are just a few ideas of goals you can set for yourself. There are many, many more goals to be set. You just need to figure out what your interests are and go for it. And while I gave you a lot of extra information on setting goals and ideas for what types of goals to set, my main focus was to show you how you can easily use a journal to make those goals and to help track them too.
Happy Journaling and Attaining your Goals!!
Pamela
