Creating Lists as a Primer for Goal Setting

The process of making lists can be very therapeutic. It can be employed for organizing thoughts, assigning priorities and ensuring we stay on task/budget. Lists provide us with a sense of control and power in addition to giving us the opportunity to take a different perspective. They can help us to see what we truly may want to do with our time and can help us identify goals and create change. We must be willing to question everything on the lists that we write down. "Is this what we really want?" "Is this what we really need?" "Is this essential in executing the task(s) at hand?". These are just a sample of the questions we can ask ourselves when creating our initial lists. A list of things to do and goals associated with these activities are important. Even something as simple as a shopping list can have a goal attached-such as "This list enables me to have all the ingredients necessary to create new dish, of which I can evaluate how much I like that dish and potentially add it to food plates I like to make routinely". Other lists help us to identify the experiences we may want to achieve from engaging in the activities listed. "I wish to go to a yoga retreat in order to learn new techniques that help in my meditation/relaxation practice at home". Lists help clarify our intention behind why we do certain things or why we purchase certain things. Many amazing experiences can come from creating lists. Lists should also be adaptable and change with our intent and our desires. Lists change as we evolve and want different things from our experiences.