A Goal is only a Dream with a Deadline!
Scrapbooking is about recording our lives, right? And the New Year is about resolutions, right? There was a lot of talk about the electronic Y2K bug. Honestly, we have already done whatever we could do for the computers in our house. We seem to have come through it all without incident. I am now more concerned with looking at my own personal readiness for upcoming millennium year than with my computer's Y2k readiness. I hope that the new millennium will bring me time and resolution to focus on what is really important to me.
To help keep myself on course in the new millennium, I am trying to make a personal goals album list. You can do the same. What kind of things would you like to see yourself do in your own lifetime??? Shouldn't your goals and milestones be what your grandchildren see in your personal album? If you set your goals and then achieve them and document them, what a wonderful lesson for those who come after us! After all, a goal is just a dream with a deadline. And we all have the same final deadline for scrapbook projects....the end of our own lives.
Putting the Goals Album Together
Step One: Make a List of Your Personal Goals
Make it your goal to live some of your personal dreams! Make a list of only do-able things--and not items that have to do with luck. Winning the lottery, striking oil in the backyard, or being chosen randomly to go to the moon on the next space shuttle (my non-astronaut husband's pipedream!) are not part of a goals album. Do not choose things that are out of your control either --like creating peace throughout the whole world!! Perhaps the goal of joining a Peace March in your own town is more achievable. Be realistic but daring. Use common sense but stretch yourself! Here are a few samples. Print this list out for reference. Highlight, cross off, and add to the list as you like.
Goals List
See a Broadway Show either in New York or as it travels to our nearest "big" town,
Swimming in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in the same year.
Tour Europe,
Teach a punch art class,
Visit all 50 states,
Get a layout published,
Marry Prince Charming (Well at least my version!) LOL
Get a pedicure,
Visit the Grand Canyon,
Spend a weekend in a country inn with my dear husband,
Read the One Year Bible,
Go pheasant hunting with my husband,
Go camping for a whole week.
Meet as 5 Jangle or dMarie chat buddies in person each year,
Set a goal of making 10 new cyber-buddies a year...
Run or walk in a marathon (or at least a 6K),
See an aurora borealis (Northern Lights)
Help at the Soup Kitchen or Special Olympics,
Vote (can't that be an inspiration to future generations?),
Get my name in the newspaper (in a good way!),
Meet a "movie star",
Shake hands with the mayor of the city,
Love a puppy or kitty,
Visit a country that you have always wanted to see...
Learn to knit,
Take a scuba diving class,
Stay up all night scrapping,
Learn a new crafty thing that you always thought was out of reach...(try tole painting, crocheting etc)
Have a facial/massage/pedicure/manicure/foot reflexology/seaweed wrap/spend a weekend at a spa,
Remodel my kitchen,
Learn to paper piece in my scrapbooks
Have my pet win first place in a pet show!
Ride on a Harley,
Taste ____ (fill in with an exotic food)
Go to a World Series game (or Super Bowl!)
Repaint something (redecorate) in your home that has been bugging you for years,
Take a train ride,
Bungee Jump,
Keep my faith all my life
Visit the Oprah Show,
Join Toastmasters and learn to speak in public,
Plan and attend family reunion,
Keep working,
Meet my favorite author or artist
Learn to use the computer
Own my own home
Finish /Go to college
Take a ride in a limo and helicopter.
Stay overnight in every state,
Watch the sun rise on the east coast and set on the west coast on the same day,
Have my own garden
Visit every national park in the USA
Take a factory tours to see how your favorite things are made,
Visit Niagra Falls, etc.,
Try a different restaurant every month,
Visit the birthplaces of my ancestors,
Ride a riverboat,
Take an Alaskan cruise,
Build something by myself,
Stay at the hotel/place of your honeymoon again,
Trace my mother's family tree,
Trace my father's family tree,
Take a photography course,
Learn to play the dulcimer,
Get something published,
Ride in a hot air balloon,
Have my own store,
Sky dive!
See a live volcano!
Own another Harley,
Be caught-up on my albums!!!
Take the kids to Disneyland or Disneyworld,
Go to a Renaissance Festival,
Live by the ocean ...either coast,
Go out to sea on a boat,
Go to the Holocaust Museum,
Tour Canada on our motorbikes,
Learn how to use the scanner on the computer properly!!!!
Lose 50 pounds,
Be a big brother/big sister volunteer,
Christmas carol in the neighborhood,
"Dumpster dive" in a local dump to find treasures,
Have a total homemade Christmas,
Tell a different someone every day just how special they are to me,
Write in my gratitude journal daily,
Smile and laugh more,
Accept the things I cannot change,
Turn my life back over to God,
Get my film developed quicker,
Volunteer at the local humane society,
Act in a theater production,
Go to Club Med,
Visit New England in the fall,
Find your birth mother and father,
Live to see my grandchildren grow up,
Drive a Mercedes convertible,
Own a Victorian home with a huge front porch,
Get my braces off early!!!
Have a garage sale!
Get all my photos in albums
Write a book,
See the horse races in person,
Learning to scuba dive,
Eat octopus or squid,
Learn the names of 5 new plants each month for a year and what they look like,
Get 20 photo albums done!
Lower my bad cholesterol to x/y amount,
Get the stove fixed in the kitchen,
Celebrate 20 years of marriage,
Celebrate 25 years of marriage,
Celebrate 50 years of marriage! :)
~~~
Step Two: Choose an Album
Now choose about 40 to 45 goals that reflect YOU! Purchase an album and make sure you have 40-45 blanks pages in it. Now you are ready to neatly write in the goals you decided on. Make the headline for each goal--one goal per page. The headlines should take up no more than 1/4 of the total page. Leave the rest of the page blank. You will fill the photos in as you accomplish the goals. If you live to be about 80 and have 40 goals you should be able to complete them! That is a rate of one goal every two years. Some years you will do several goals and some years perhaps none. This is one album that the pages will be completed out of order. It is also a long-term album. That is all right!
Step Three: Decide on Headlines and Style
Keep your goal headlines consistent in font, color, or style. Or use the same background paper or border throughout the album. This will give your Goals Album continuity and it will help the viewer remember the theme of the book. Go for a more classic look. That will hold up stylistically over time better than a trendy, fad oriented style. Perhaps collecting all the Beanie Babies ever made is a goal of yours. That is great. But having every headline in your whole Goal Album created with Beanie Baby title art might not make sense 25 years from now. For my goals album, I chose bright colors in a primary cheerful style and clear text font titles printed on yellow, red, and black mats. I created them all at the same time using my choices from the goals list above.
Step Four: Make an "About Me" page
Your goals album should include some of your basic information. Be sure to include on a one or two page layout the following:
Your full name
Your birthdate, birthplace, and parent's names
Your schools and education
Your place of residence now
Who are your immediate family members?
Your favorite hobbies, colors, flowers, foods, and places.
A paragraph or two on why you are making this album of goals.
Perhaps include a quote or two about dreams and goals. Here is a good website for quotes:
http://www.robinsweb.com/inspiration/fave-quotes.html
Step Five: Add A Title Poem
Many websites and poetry books offer wonderful choices for reflective and meaningful poems. These can be used as introductions to your goal album. A great poem can really tie your philosophy together for the person viewing the album. Here are a few good poems I have found. I used the first one in my own album.
Memories
by Grace E. Easley
Memories are heartbeats,
Sounding through the years,
Echoes never failing,
Of our smiles and tears.
Moments that are captured,
Sometimes unaware,
Pictures in an album,
Or a lock of hair.
Images that linger
Deep within the mind,
Bits of verse we cherished
Once upon a time.
Through the musty hallways
Of the days we knew,
Ever comes the vision,
Beautiful and true.
Memories are roses
Blooming evermore,
Full of fragrant sweetness,
Never known before.
Life must have a reason,
Goals for which to strive,
Memories are lights the heart alive
...To keep the heart alive.
~~~
Don't Grow Too Old
by Unknown
Don't grow too old for birthdays,
And fun things you used to do,
Don't give up your dreams because
you feel they won't come true.
Don't forget the sound of laughter,
Or the love in someone's eyes,
Don't trade memories for pleasures,
All that in a moment dies.
Don't give up your zest for living,
Saying you are much too old,
Is this what you feel, or is it
Something that you've been told?
There's a valley deep within us,
Where there is eternal Spring,
Where there is no sound of sorrow,
And the birds forever sing.
Hold your years up like a banner,
Wave it brightly in the sun,
When folks tell you life is over,
Tell them it has just begun.
Loneliness can never touch you,
If you don't allow it to,
And in sharing love with others,
. . . God will give it back to you
~~~
Me, Myself, and I
by Tasha Tudor
You have to see who and what you want to be.
Life does not come for free.
I realize I have to change, that's one of my goals.
I have got to put my mind to work.
Life is not a game.
I will learn from my mistakes.
Also I will take advantage of a wonderful life I will have.
I use to think life was a big joke.
Now I know I was the joke. Ü
I will become somebody,
and have a wonderful, and happy life.
It's all about me, myself, and I.
~~~
I've Dreamed Many Dreams
by unknown
I've dreamed many dreams that never came true
And seen them vanish at dawn
But I've realized enough of my dreams, thank God
To make me want to dream on.
I've prayed many prayers when no answer came
Though I waited patient and long,
But answers have come to enough of my prayers
To make me want to pray on.
I've trusted many a friend that failed
And left me to weep alone,
But I've found enough of my friends true blue
To make me keep trusting on.
I've sown many seed that fell by the way
For the birds to feed upon,
But I've held enough golden sheaves in my hands
To make me keep sowing on.
I've drained the cup of disappointment and pain
And gone many days without song,
But I've sipped enough nectar from the roses of life
To make me want to live on!
~~~
The Times of Your Life
by Paul Anka
Good Morning Yesterday,
You wake up, and time has slipped away.
And Suddenly it's hard to find,
the memories you left behind,
Remember? Do you remember?
The laughter and the tears,
the shadows of misty yester years.
The good times and the bad we've seen,
And all the others in between,
Remember? Do you remember the times of your life?
Reach back to the good and the sorrow,
Put them away in your mind.
The memories are time that you borrow,
to spend when you get to tommorow.
Here comes the setting sun,
The seasons are passing one by one.
So gather moments while you may,
Collect the dreams you dream today, and
Remember the times of your life.
~~~
There is also a nice ABC list for a goals album posted by Scrapwiz at
http://dmarie.com/asp/poems.asp?action=readpoem&poemid=2839
if you prefer to make your Goals Album in an ABC style.
And a Goal poem about Memories as well: http://dmarie.com/asp/poems.asp?action=readpoem&poemid=601
Step Six: Adding Past Events
Look behind you as well as ahead. If you have already completed any of your lifetime goals, go ahead and put in a page full of representative photos for that event. If they are already scrapped into another album, make color copies and add them into your Goals Album. I plan to do this with my wedding photos. After all, I married my Prince Charming didn't I? LOL
You may similarly want to include your first job, children's births, your first home, or another special event or trip. You don't need to re-create the whole collection of these photos...just do one page to represent that goal event. My sample at the top of this page, illustrates the day I reached my goal number eleven on my list--I met artist Mary Engelbreit last August. Even though I have more photos from that day scrapped into my yearly album, these few capture the essence of the moment for the goal album.
Step Seven: Start Doing!
Most of all, have fun! Your lifetime goals are meant to bring you adventure and joy. Once you have made your goal list, try to do at least two goals per year. The Goals Album is not meant to be another ticking time bomb that you have to feel driven 'to beat the clock" and get done. It is just a gentle reminder to go for the gusto in life and enjoy the journey. The started album itself with the goal headlines in place on "ready to go" blank pages will be a real reminder to continue pursuing those goals bit by bit. Don't just say you'll do it later! Get started now!
This January, make just one resolution for the new millennium...resolve to do a Lifetime Goals Album! Work on it a little each year. May all your goals come true! And don't forget to hand someone the camera!
