29 October 2012

Adding relevancy and rewards to goal setting

If you have ever attended a workshop on goal setting, guaranteed the workshop covered the aspect of SMART goals. SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-specific.

The specific part needs to be just that, specific, such as becoming more proficient at using Excel. To make the goal measurable, you need something to let you know you have completed your goal, such as participating in a three-weekend workshop on Excel that has three levels. Attainable means you have to attend those workshops on Excel. Realistic means that you don’t set the deadline for this goal to one week from now when the workshop is over three weekends, and that it fits with you. Time-specific means you set a specific end date for the goal to be accomplished, for this case, the day after the last-day of the workshops. Follow those steps, and you have a SMART goal.

Read the rest at Battleford's News Optimist.

17 October 2012

Take the Genogram Challenge: Looking back at past family habits


A family therapist, Murray Bowen, believes that you can understand a family and a person within that family unit when you investigate and analyze their past three generations.  While not everything is biologically inherited, nor is everything a learned behaviour, it is interesting to see patterns that can be found while looking three generations back.

Read the rest at Notes on Parenting.

01 October 2012

Pursuing what matters most in life; Being in the moment with those around you



It has begun to strike my heart that life is fragile, that this daily routine of striving to make a living and being with family can be gone oh so quickly. A year ago, my family relocated to a new city, we were in the process of transferring records and the like. When my, then 3 year old daughter started complaining of back pain to the point of wanting to see a doctor. And when your child, at that age asks to see a doctor, you take them.

Read the rest at Notes on Parenting