Life Advice
Setting Goals
Welcome to the new year 2025!
Most people begin the new year with optimism and enthusiasm for a better year than the previous one and then usually set some goals for themselves. But goal achievement is hard as most people fail their New Year’s goals by mid-February or so. The challenge is how can you be more successful in achieving the goals you set our and this article will provide two different structures to help you succeed.
One set of goal setting is to use CLEAR goals. CLEAR goals are as follows:
Collaborative – you involve other in your goals or to hold you accountable to yours
Limited – keep your goals from becoming overwhelming.
Emotional – find a way to be emotionally involved in your goal
Appreciable – break the ultimate goal into smaller steps that you can track
Refinable – adjust your goal based on realistic feedback during the course.
Another set of goals are SMART goals. SMART goals are as follows:
Specific – your goal should be as specific as possible
Measurable – you must have a measurable metric to go with the goal
Attainable – keep your goal mindset within an achievable range
Relevant – be sure your goal is relevant to your overall plan and direction
Timely – set a time table to hold yourself accountable to the goal
There are pros and cons to each of these structures above and so you should think about them for a bit before choosing one over another. In either case make sure you write down your goal and place it in a visible place where you can see it. Make sure to keep your goal a focus of your day and week to make sure you are working towards it.
It also helps to ask others what they have found to be effective in their goal setting and why. Make sure to let someone who cares about you know of your goals so that you can discuss your progress and failures with them, and they can help keep you on track.
Here’s wishing to you have a better 2025!
For more information on the pros and cons of these two goal types visit:
Tips to Navigate the Holidays November 2024
With the holiday season upon us it is a good to time to share tips on how to best get through the holidays. As they say let’s dig in and get started.
The first tip is to try and keep your regular routine as much as possible. Don’t sleep in until noon or stay up late if that is not what you normally do. Try to keep to your regular sleep ad wake times as much as possible. Keeping your circadian rhythm consistent will benefit your health overall and allow you to enjoy yourself more during these times.
The second tip is to enjoy the holidays in moderation. That includes moderation in food, drink. Regarding your diet, try to maintain your regular eating patterns and definitely don’t overdo the treats. Start your meals with eating the healthy foods first, and then go to the holiday treats to top off the meal. With your drinks make sure you stay hydrated and avoid overdoing the alcohol. A drink or two is fine especially as in a social setting, but seven or eight is way too much. Lastly stay away from processed foods, additives and chemicals as they are never good to have. Lastly make sure to finish your meals at least three hours before bedtime so that you can have better quality sleep.
Remaining active is also a good habit to maintain during the holidays. It is OK to ease up a bit or even take several days off if you are very active. Stopping for several days will not affect your overall fitness level. Try to keep moving throughout the day, rather than watching a lot of TV and not moving. A great way to keep fit and enjoying friends and family is to go for a walk after a meal, or between meals, and a great thing about this is that it’s hard to say you don’t or can’t go for a walk.
When purchasing presents for others, be realistic and don’t overspend. A thoughtful but less expensive gift can be as well received as an overly expensive one.
When conversing, try not to bring up controversial or sensitive topics. Try to find what you and others have in common. Show curiosity in what others are doing or talking about and bring others into the discussions. If someone happens to hit one of your hot buttons, practice relaxing techniques first, rather than losing your cool. Try deep breathing through the nose and out the mouth, or simply try counting slowly to 10.
Lastly, enjoy the present and presence of others. Be thankful for who you are and what you have, bestow grace, and be respectful of others.
We hope you enjoy your holidays and have a Merry Christmas.
That’s all for this year and we look forward to a better 2025!
Emergency Preparedness October 2024
Our prayers go out to those in the Appalachians who have been affected by Helene this past weekend. This update will cover basic emergency preparedness as many were caught unprepared and are without food, water shelter and/or communications.
Natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornados, winter storms and flooding can occur with or without warning and are often unpredictable. Having lived through several hurricanes, flooding, winter storms and power outages I am passing along practical lessons learned.
In disaster situations food and water come first, second is shelter and safety, third is communications and last is power. The boy scouts have a motto “Be Prepared” and I find that to be my motto to live by.
Preparedness in food is having non-perishable food for 3-4 days. Non-perishable means shelf stable not needing refrigeration or freezing. The ideal items can be eaten directly or with little preparation. It is best to keep some of these around all the time. Examples are nuts, sports bars, cereals, and fruits, canned foods, etc. Next would be foods that need only water for preparation such as cereals, oatmeal, rice, and pasta. You are not so much worried about healthiness of foods, but rather calories to keep you going for a few days. Water is your next area of focus and filling up water jugs ahead of time will help if the water system becomes damaged or compromised. A good estimate is one gallon per person per day. You could also purchase larger water containers to retain larger amounts or fill up a bathtub.
Preparedness with safety and shelter ranges from a safe room in the house for tornadoes, to warm clothing for winter storms, or a tarp to cover your house if it is damaged. Preparedness includes making sure no large tree limbs overhand your house and putting up storm shutters in anticipation for high winds. For flooding having a second floor is literally a lifesaver. If only one story then having a plan to evacuate and a place to go are key.
Personal cell phones are very popular today and many people rely on them for their communications needs. However, with natural disasters these communications systems invariably break down whether it is loss of power to charge phones or run TVs, infrastructure damage to cell towers, and or overcrowded networks. Some ways to combat these are portable solar panels or phone banks to keep phones and radios charged, a hand crank radio including weather channels as well as AM and FM bands (that doesn’t need power). If you have power but no cable service an HDTV antenna will allow you TV to receive over the air broadcast from the major networks to know what is occurring can be a big help.
Lastly there are several options for what to do when you don’t have power. Simple temporary, and easy solutions are portable battery banks which can run in size from charging a few devices to powering refrigerators and portable or window air conditioners. More complex are portable generators whether gas or propane. These can be the portable 2-kilowatt ones that weigh about 40-50 pounds to 8 or 10 kilowatt ones that usually come on wheels and can weigh a more than a hundred pounds. At the upper end are whole house generators, although these are very costly for their amount of use. Portable battery banks can be less expensive but won’t last too long unless recharged. This can be done with solar panels when the power is out. Generators need a fuel source either gasoline, propane or natural gas to keep them running. Remember if power is out, you may not be able to fill up on gas or propane at gas stations. If you have a siphon, you can utilize the gas in your car’s fuel tanks for fuel for a few days. Natural gas lines are more stable and less likely to be compromised as they are mostly underground.
Knowing this information will give you a head start in helping you be prepared. In future updates we can cover these and other preparedness topics in more detail.