Displaying my goals so only I can see them.

December 26, 2014 1:50 PM

I'd really like to see my long-term goals every day, but I want to keep them private. How can I display them for myself? Decorative and phone app suggestions all welcome.

At essentially the 11th hour, what has been a terrible and terrifying year has taken a rather dramatic turn for the better*. 2015 is suddenly looking very exciting and full of promise, and my self confidence is higher than it's ever been, in part because of the struggles of this last one and the ways in which I've overcome hurdles and gotten stronger. I've finally managed to put on my own oxygen mask, and feel like I'm already coming back to life, and I'm suddenly able to see the things I want to change and to accomplish as being real possibilities. I'm not into resolutions, it just so happens that everything will change for me beginning the first week of the new year which sets a natural start date for identifying and moving towards the goals.

I'm feeling uncharacteristically introspective, and I want to get these thoughts and goals out of my head and into/onto something tangible, they're bouncing around in my head and I'm having trouble keeping them straight and focused. They are mostly long-term goals and lifestyle improvements with no clear benchmarks, so I'm not interested in tracking progress, just in keeping on track. I want to see them every day. But I want them to be private, just for me, and even in my own bedroom that's not just as easy as putting them up on the wall, as other people enter the room as well.

Any ideas as to how I can display them for myself, once I've documented them, in a way that I both see them every day and ensure that they're mine alone? I'm willing to get creative or to use an existing app (Android phone).

As an example, a craft-related idea I've had (but don't like) is to use images that represent my goals in a sort of only-I-get-it collage, but I've always had a need to keep my living space really super minimalist/modernist and I also don't like having pictures of faces in my living space (minor mental health idiosyncrasy). I would also prefer to be able to include my own words because I might want to put personal written reasons in to remind myself why they are my goals.

Any ideas? Anything neat that you've seen or made or done?

Thanks!

* Totally extraneous details included to possibly make the question slightly more interesting to read.

posted by sockless to Grab Bag (22 answers total)

If you have a gmail account, you can set up a free BlogSpot account. After you set up a blog (coming up with a unique name that has not yet been taken is sometimes a minor challenge), you can scroll down to the very bottom of the Admin page and click on "Settings." The first thing that opens should be "Basic" settings. The last item at the bottom of that list should say "Readers" and the default setting is "Public." Click the "edit" button next to the word "Public" and set it to "Private." You can make it only blog authors or only invited readers. Either way, without inviting any readers, it will not show up publically.

You can then write whatever you want, add pictures and upload film clips and anything else you feel like and it's yours, all yours and yours alone.

Best of luck and Happy New Year!
posted by Michele in California at 2:05 PM on December 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

What if you made your own "business card" that you stuck in your wallet? You could reference it daily. Good for you for starting the year off right, before it even begins! It's an inspiring mindset.
posted by hippychick at 2:08 PM on December 26, 2014

I use Habit Streak Plan on android to keep myself accountable to the daily goals/lead indicators that support my long-term goals...e.g. "did I eat healthy yesterday?" as a daily goal for weight loss, "did i write 500 words yesterday?" as a daily goal for writing a novel, etc.

Best of luck!
posted by novelgazer at 2:09 PM on December 26, 2014

Response by poster: I really like both of those ideas, and I may do those as well (especially for documenting my successes), but I was meaning something that's passive, that's always visible to me, in my line of sight in my normal activities, at least once in my day without me having to take an action, like remember to go to a site. I'll have to put the laziness issue on next year's list. :)
posted by sockless at 2:10 PM on December 26, 2014

To clarify, habit streak plan prompts me with those questions on a schedule, and I click yes or no.
posted by novelgazer at 2:23 PM on December 26, 2014

Do a private Pinterest, and make it a vision board.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 2:31 PM on December 26, 2014

Charm bracelet loaded with meaningful to you charms? I have considered this but am driven batty by wearing bracelets. The nice thing about a bracelet is that it's in your field of vision more than a necklace would be.
posted by chocotaco at 2:31 PM on December 26, 2014

If you have a private medicine cabinet, instead of the stereotypical choice of posting it on the mirror or next to the mirror, you could tape it to the back of the mirror, so it is only on display when you open it.

Any cabinet door or other type of door would work. Just analyze if a) the odds are super poor that anyone else would see the back of it and b) the odds are really high that YOU will see the back of it at least once per day. If both conditions are met, you have a winner! It isn't as secure as a members only website, but if it isn't critical that no one ever be able to trip across it, it should do.

Best of luck.
posted by Michele in California at 2:35 PM on December 26, 2014

Response by poster: I just installed Habit Streak Plan and will give it a try, I can see the value in holding myself accountable and seeing how I'm doing, and I like that it'll remind me daily, so thank you navelgazer for that!

Still thinking I'd like a visual sort of thing too, for a kind of broad "remember, here are the changes you want to make (and why)" element, if anyone's done or seen something like that before!
posted by sockless at 2:35 PM on December 26, 2014

Mine are posted on the inside of my medicine cabinet door, which is private because Mr Carmicha has his own and so never opens it. I see them every time I brush my teeth, etc. And I have a ring to remind me to eat healthy; I see it as I reach for food.
posted by carmicha at 2:36 PM on December 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

I have one of these personalized bracelets. The message of your choosing is written on the inside so only you know it's there.
posted by cecic at 3:02 PM on December 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Couple of ideas: Find images that are meaning to you and relate to your goals - one image for each goal. Combine them into a collage that will seem merely decorative to anyone else, and put the collage on your bedroom wall. Take a picture and store it as the screensaver on your phone.

OR - find an item, a small figurine maybe - and make it a symbol of all your hopes for 2015 and your reminder to keep focused on your goals. Spend some time thinking about your goals while looking at the item. It would be handy if you came up with a mnemonic - say if you had a little ceramic goat and the mnemonic was (just for an example):

*Golf practice
*Oatmeal breakfast
*Attend yoga
*Tolstoy reading
posted by bunderful at 4:03 PM on December 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

I have a container of shredded money that I have on my dresser next to my piggy bank. Every time I look at it, I reevaluate the importance of whatever I've been thinking I needed.

So I think little knick-knacks that are sort of abstract like that would work well for you as well.

(On an unrelated note, I'm glad someone else dislikes photographs.)
posted by Trifling at 4:19 PM on December 26, 2014

You could do a vision board or list, whichever is more appealing to you, and then take a photo or screenshot and use it as your phone wallpaper while your phone is unlocked.
posted by Night_owl at 4:49 PM on December 26, 2014

Yeah, I was going to suggest making a collage of images that signify these things to you, and using that as your computer wallpaper. Or your phone wallpaper, as Night_owl suggests. You could even create the whole thing digitally rather than making it and then taking a picture.

I've got a couple of little things around the place like that, which have meaning only to me. One is my desktop background, which is a picture that symbolises a particular quote I want to keep in mind. The other is a little grey blank business card which sits in my wallet, to remind me that things aren't black or white, but shades of grey.
posted by lollusc at 6:27 PM on December 26, 2014

Use a key word or mnemonic as your password (email, bank, facebook etc) so you type it all the time...yet it stays secret.
posted by jrobin276 at 6:28 PM on December 26, 2014 [3 favorites]

The related article: How a Password Changed My Life.
posted by jrobin276 at 6:33 PM on December 26, 2014 [5 favorites]

From my own practice, I endorse bunderful and jrobin276: a mnemonic is the ticket.

It sounds like you might prefer an acronym like "WMMKB" that does not bear its own meaning. That lets you more easily order goals by daily sequence or priority, plus you have the flexibility to restate your goals so as to keep them in the zone where they're challenging but not impossible. A full statement of each goal should make it measurable, like, "two chapters of Tolstoy per week".
posted by gregoreo at 6:33 PM on December 26, 2014

Response by poster: These are all great ideas - the password one from jrobin26 is interesting - nine years ago I changed a "main" component of my various passwords to a word that had the meaning for me, a goal, that I desperately needed at the time. I just realized in reading that article that I've actually, over nine years but especially over the course of this year, "accomplished" it. I've been typing it all of these years, and while I stopped thinking about why I used it originally, I guess it was there the whole time. So I'm definitely ready for a new one! Weird.

As for a physical component, I don't really have a private place to myself to put anything at the moment, so the combination of a mnemonic and some items that are placed around me but not necessarily all in one place is really compelling.

Thank you all!
posted by sockless at 8:32 PM on December 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

I've wanted this kind of thing for a while now. The best thing I can come up with is to learn an obscure language and/or script, and write your goals in that language or with that script. For example, write in English using Cyrillic characters. If you know any language that people who would glance at your list don't know, write in that language in a different script. Spanish in Cyrillic, Russian in Greek characters, Japanese transliterated to Korean.
posted by WasabiFlux at 10:28 PM on December 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

Could you make a super-minimalist tally that would only make sense to you? For example, if your goal is to learn to play the viola, maybe you could slowly fill up a vase with a decorative rock for every hour your practice/day you progress. You could even make the connection more direct by collecting something directly relevant, like making a subtle display of all the viola strings you have broken as if they were ornamental grass (obviously, replace with your actual goals).
posted by fermezporte at 11:36 AM on December 27, 2014 [3 favorites]

Stacking rings, each with written goal inside.
In the morning I am putting them one by one, reading a goal from that ring aloud. Maybe the letters inside would be too small to read in the dim light of the evening, but I would remember what is written in that ring.
Each ring have its own design and colors. Or, all look the same?
I might wear different ring/goals sets on different days, it depends on a day.

In the evening I am going to take off one ring at a time, asking: what did I do and accomplished today toward this goal?
These rings don't exist yet, I am going to make them soon.
I want them for myself now, too.
posted by Oli D. at 12:00 PM on December 29, 2014