Podcast Ep. 50: How to Set and Achieve Goals

It’s that time of the year – we’re all thinking about goals, right? In this episode Brian shares some statistics he found on the high failure rate for most New Year’s resolutions – which isn’t too surprising really. And then we talk about what research has shown really works to achieve personal change. We share what’s worked for us – setting the right goals and the tools you can use for doing better in finances, personal health, and other important areas. We also give the latest farmhouse updates – yep, some more big milestones! Plus our family’s favorite soup recipes for cold weather and our newest cool things – including the movie I’m still talking about.

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Set and Achieve Goals

Here are the articles Brian mentioned regarding New Year’s Resolutions and long-term motivation:

• Four Simple Steps to Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions on Forbes
• The Only Way to Keep Your Resolutions at The NY Times

I also talked about one of the goals I’m most proud of – going from zero books read in one year to 31 read the next, all because I made it a priority. Here’s where I talk about that goal and what inspired it. (Oh, and I keep upping it – this last year I read 76!!).

And here are Ray Dalio’s four pitfalls to avoid when setting goals and to make sure they align with your core values: Quit These Bad Habits to Achieve Your Goals.

Tools from AOC that may help:

For setting goals and breaking them down into steps you can do easily, I mentioned (of course!) how The Flexible Planner is set up to help you do this. You can see in this article and video how I use it to help me reach goals.

If eating healthier is one of your goals, we mentioned my weight loss story as well as a couple of real food for weight loss cookbooks I created based on this that helped me.

Our main point is, just go for it! You really can achieve goals if they are just a few and you break them down into small, doable steps. If you’d like some encouragement, you can look through the goals I’ve set through the years here on AOC – and see how some were met, some weren’t, and the ones that took years.

Farmhouse Updates

As you can see, the master bedroom extension is all framed and roofed – yeah! We had to keep the odd roofline that was existing (we still don’t understand why – to us it would’ve made more sense to just come out to a regular peak instead of the hipped end…). The corner closest to us is the walk-in closet – it’s an 8×8 room!! We’ve decided to add a small square window to give it some natural light – it’s on order.

Since the ceiling was raised another 1+ foot, the 3×5 windows seem small on the inside, so I think we’ve decided to add transom windows above them since anything taller is a custom order.

The other windows that will be added to this end of the house will be next to the back door. We’ve already got a set of small single hung windows to sit side-by-side on the right side of the door. That will be our mudroom/laundry room.

Oh, and everyone asks about the siding – that isn’t just plywood, it’s an actual siding and once we’re done with all the window moldings, we’ll attach 1 x 2 battens for a board-and-batten siding.

What’s Cooking

Our Favorite Soups for Cold Weather

Brian’s: Spicy Beef, Tomato, and Corn Stew and Quick Corn & Sausage Chowder

Jami’s: Cauliflower Cheese Soup and Curried Turkey or Chicken and Rice Soup

Kid’s: Homemade Tomato Soup (served with grilled cheese of course)

 

This is Really Cool!

Brian: Heavy Duty Portable Scaffolding (that is the link to the one we purchased is at Harbor Freight – Home Depot has a similar one for the same price here).

It’s such a time saver (not walking up and down a ladder) and neck saver when working on high walls and ceilings. It’s great to be able to have all your gear with you working. Plus you can resell it on Craigslist for close to the same price when you’re done if you don’t think you’ll use it again.

Jami’s: Instant Family movie – Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne star as a couple who decide to become foster parents, then adopt them. It was based in part on one of the writer’s experience and it is really good!

 

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