What Are Your Goals?

We can look at this question from many angles.  Are we training for a competition?  Are we trying to lose or gain weight?  Do we need to choose a career? And this question is also relatable to health care. 

An article in The Washington Post by Dr. Mitch Kaminshi from March 9, 2015 discusses this question from the patient’s point of view.  The medical community generally wants to solve the problem for the patient.  The patient may really want to be able to reach a level of quality of life that is important to him/her.

The same goes for thinking about how we want to leave our “stuff” to our heirs.  What are our goals?  Do we want to leave our papers in order?  Have all the important information readily accessible?  Or do we want our children or friends/ family to have a difficult time finding papers, names, and phone numbers in order to settle our estate?  Do we want to allocate our money in a specific way or do we want to leave it to the state?  Do we want people arguing over our care or do we want to have our wishes carried out if we are incapacitated? 

Each of us has an idea of what we want and too often no one asks us for our thoughts.  So tell your family you want them to have a difficult time finding all your papers when the situation calls for it so they will get off your back about getting a will or organizing your papers.  Or tell them you are taking action and getting your affairs in order and insist they should do the same.  Use my form or find another one as a start.

What are YOUR goals?  

Goals

I’m about a quarter of the way through Angela Duckworth’s GRIT in which she discusses goal setting as it relates to passion and perseverance.   Yes, I’ve read about goal setting before; this time something struck a chord.  She talks about selecting an overarching goal and then creating the behaviors to help you get to where you want to be.  In looking at my life, I see that my goal is to make my life as simple as I can so that my family will not have to deal with many complications as I age.  Granted, some things are out of my hands- Mother Nature, accidents, genetics, and environment.  Duckworth helped me to crystalize my life's mission and I am                                 looking forward to learning more from her book.

And while this involves getting my papers in order and taking care of the legal and end of life issues, it also means keeping myself healthy by eating and exercising as best as I can.  I have wondered what motivates me to get to a class at the gym, to read about nutrition, to try new recipes, to cook instead of making reservations, to read books, to start a blog.  All of these interests and actions will lead me to my primary goal…dying from old age rather than from disease.  And at the same time, living the best life I can.

For the past 9 years I have been a dragon boater in the spring and summer.  And in the winter, I continue to exercise so that I will not be a basket case when I get in the boat in the spring.  Being a dragon boater allowed me to use the adjective, "athlete", to describe myself.   Even in high school, gym was my least favorite subject.  I was never on a team.   Growing up, my favorite activity was lying on the floor watching a small black and white TV.  “Naomi” and “athletic” were never used in the same sentence.  Fast forward 60 years and I became an athlete.   Entering my 70s, it became even more important to be as healthy as possible.  As I learn more about what is in our food and as I listen to my body about what foods and exercises make me feel strong and healthy, I am hopeful I can continue to make good decisions. 

In other words, I want to reach my goal of dying of old age while not being a burden to my family.  And my smaller goals of eating right, exercising, socializing, and learning will help me achieve this.

What are your goals?  Are career and personal goals in line?  Send me an email or comment below in the web version of this entry.