a hen and pig story

Funky Chicken: Painted Quilt Sample

A Hen and Pig story

.....One day a farmer decided to eat eggs and bacon for his breakfast. On hearing this the farmyard hen clucked excitedly as she spoke to the pig. " Isn't it wonderful to be part of the farmers breakfast", to which the pig replied " well that is ok for you to say ... you are merely involved in his breakfast ... whilst I am totally committed!"

This is an old fable that has been knocking around motivational programmes for well over 50 years buts its still relevant today. What's more, its relevant to individuals as well as groups or teams of people.

The Nature of People

As adults we can, for the most part , choose which activities we want to be involved in, either at a group or individual level, but just how committed we are to completing these, or even just working on them may be a different matter. The school PTA 'committee' is a perfect example. Of the 7 or more officers only 2 or 3 do the bulk of the work. Some of that is down to mis-direction, or poor delegation on the part of the chairperson but equally these under-utilised committee members could also speak out to volunteer for more work.

Of course, the nature of 'people' is that some will push themselves forward whilst others will shrink back, something we can exhibit at an individual level too! We will push forward with some activities yet find excuses not to do others. Sometimes we can even expend alot of energy trying NOT to do something. Alot more sometimes than if we JUST DID IT ... think teenager and excuses not to clean room! Think also me ... I have a presentation I have to prepare this week. Its done in draft on paper but I have actively sought out reasons not to powerpoint it - why? Because at this point in time I am not totally committed to it. Please note I said " at this point in time". It will get done because whilst I am not committed fully to this particular activity yet, I am fully committed to the larger activity it is part of!

Our Goals

We all have goals with different priorities. Some goals will have a higher priority than others, some will rank low, some will chop and change priority rankings over time, some we will choose to put "on the back burner", some we will give false rankings too, some will be forgotten, some will become irrelevant and some will be struck off the goal list altogether!

We will have goals covering many aspects of our lives -

• work and personal goals


• life and family goals


• finance and money goals


• creative and artistic goals


• health and beauty goals


• educational goals


• your blog goals


• your travel goals


• your book-reading goals


• long and short term goals


• big and little goals


• sensible and silly goals

and so on..

At this point in time my goals are in my head. They are not written down and as a result I cannot balance the important from the frivolous. I don't really know what I am aiming for and I'm running from one activity to the other - being involved but not committed. So I am making a committment to you now..... by the end of the year I will have a working "Goal Journal". It will capture my goals at age 49. It will be flexible enough to adapt to external influences but rigid enough to give me a sense of purpose and direction- NOW! It will be mine and I will make no apologies for it!

Thats stage one - Stage 2 is to sort the wheat from the chaf ... but we'll come to that part of the farmyard later.

A Goal Journal?

Now I am not sure how this exercise is going to go...but do you fancy having a go with me?

Why don't you join me this week and think about your goals.
Choose just one 'goal area' to start - an area that doesn't take too much

thinking about ideally ... say health and beauty but whatever you choose. What are your goals in this area? Write them down. Don't think too long about them -
just write them down and get them OUT of your head and onto paper.

Make yourself a GOAL journal.

Realistic and Achievable?

Now take a long hard look at your goal list.

Are your goals REALISTIC and ACHIEVABLE?

Don't set yourself up for failure before you have even begun. For example ... I had an initial goal to make two new items for my shop each week but I know some weeks I have family commitments that stop me getting to my sewing room so I changed the goal to :

"Make and add at least 5 new items to my shop per month"

Now I have a realistic and achievable goal.

Have a go - start small but remember they are YOUR goals, no one elses so dont let anyone 'take the mickey' out of them. BUT it is good to share your goals - because once you have, you have started the process of being committed to them. (I learned that in this weeks homework from Laura Bray!) I am now committed to making 5 new items per month!

Let me know how you get on. I'm not going to come back to this until the first week of December so you have time to think about things but are you up for working on a goal journal with me?