3 tips by Meera Gandhi on how to keep goals realistic

1.Evaluate your goals: A goal must excite you, not overwhelm you.

2. Keep your goals exciting: The drive to accomplish a goal should motivate you.

3. Nurture goals: Remember that goals are important for survival and a healthy self-esteem. So, nurture your goals carefully and stay focused.

Goals are a simple way of organizing our desires, ambitions and aims in life. It is easy to be swept away in the whirlwind of life and lose track of what we want to build towards. We make goals to remind ourselves to stay true to the decisions we take in our psyche.

In January 2018, I decided that I needed to set a multitude of goals for myself. Each goal I set would have taken a year each to complete, but I decided that I would work on all of them simultaneously. After all, each goal was connected to the other in some way. Each goal was intensive: the first was developing branding and packaging for a new mission-based fragrance line I wanted to launch, the second was renovating my home in Manhattan, the third was renovating another home in the country, the fourth was spending time with my grown kids who by then had their own apartments across different cities in the US, the fifth was responding to a television show sizzle that some producers had approached me for, and lastly, maintaining a healthy weight and planning to get enough sleep every night.

To these, I also added another goal. I wanted to explore another partnership for the Giving Back Foundation in upstate New York. I was very happy when I wrote down my goals, but as I went through the year and started achieving some of them, I realized that I was putting less time into my health, sleep and exercise. I had listed my goals, but I had not prioritized them well enough. I began to feel tired, even though I was quite excited that I was making good progress with the things I had set out to do earlier in the year. So, I went back to my list and started reorganizing those goals. Prioritizing them better. Putting family, health and wellness first. The year was super smooth after that! The excitement of the journey was back and I was no longer focused on the destination. The key is to do our best every moment, and the outcome will automatically be good. I felt good. I knew that my goals and life were back on track!

(Excerpts from 3 TIPS: The Essentials for Peace, Joy and Success by Meera Gandhi)