A Seemingly Silly Tale

Once upon a time, there were two squirrels scurrying around in front of a farmhouse. One was on top of a mound of snow and other was below in some tractor tracks. One called down to the other, ‘Why don’t you come up here? There’s more food and you can meet lots of other squirrels!”

From below came the response, “No, that’s ok. I’m doing fine here. As for the others, well, they can pop down from time to time if they want.”

“OK then, if that’s what you want”, shrugged the first squirrel. “I’ll catch you later”.

A couple of days passed, then the first squirrel met his buddy from the tracks this time up on the snow mound.

Surprised, he asked, “What happened? I thought you were happy down in the tire ruts? What made you come up here?”

“What, are you kidding me?” exclaimed his buddy. “Didn’t you see that bloody great oil truck reverse in here?!!” :)

What drives you to make changes in your life? Do you need the equivalent to the imminent squishing under an oil truck’s tires before you make a change that will improve the quality of your life? Do you wait until something goes from being important to urgent to crisis point before you take action?

I think most of us know about goal setting: stating them in the positive, writing them out, repeating them aloud, etc. I’d like to add another couple of pointers that perhaps you may not already be doing :)

1) Write out your goal. Yes, state it in the positive and put the verbs in the present progressive. Instead of “I want to do/be/have…”, put “ I’m going to do/be/have …”

Write a paragraph comprising at least five points of why you’re truly committed to realising that goal. Write down what it will mean to you if you achieve that goal and make that change in your life.

So far so good?

2) I’m a positively motivated person, however I suggest you also do this: write another short paragraph, again comprising at least five points but this time write about what it would mean to you if you DON’T achieve that goal, or make that change in your life.

What would it mean to you, your quality of life, how you feel, how you act and what would it mean to those around you if you don’t make that change…

- within six months
- within a year
- within five years!

How will you feel in five years if you still haven’t achieved that goal or made that change, e.g. you’re still procrastinating about losing that weight (and you’ve gained even more now), you’re still smoking (and that cough’s getting worse), you’re still in the toxic relationship with that person…? What will it mean to you if you’re still singing the same song five years into the future?

Do you want to wait until change goes from important to urgent, to a crisis before you act?

Or would NOW be a good time to take a first step?

'Wishing you the best in life!
Louise Goddard