Tag Archive for goal setting

Can You Learn To Control Your Behavior?

June 30, 2025 John Uncategorized No comments

Can You Learn To Control Your Behavior?

You want to change and control your behavior. This is a big part of personal growth and development.

Or you might want to learn more self-control.

You want to better manage your time, lose weight, or manage your money. You can do any of these things when you change your behavior in some way.

But changing your behavior is harder than most people think. which is why so many people have a hard time sticking to New Year’s resolutions. So, what’s the best way to learn to control your behavior?

Let’s take a closer look at all the things that influence your behavior.

What Controls Behavior?

We know certain things are bad for us or not in our best interest, but we keep doing them anyway.

There’s not a person among us who doesn’t know that getting enough exercise is important for our health. Yet we’re currently facing an obesity epidemic.

So, knowing what you need to do is not enough in itself to change our behavior.

A Goal

Having a goal is an important component to changing behavior. Without a goal, there’s no clear destination to work toward.

A goal provides you with motivation and a clear path forward. Having a goal makes your behavior more important to you and helps it clarifies what you want to achieve.

Goals should be realistic and attainable. And you should set a time frame for achieving them.

A Plan

Now that you have a destination, which is your goal, it’s time to develop a route, which is your plan. To get to where you want to be, you need to determine the precise steps you’ll take.

Your goals dictate your eventual, final behavior change. And your plan includes all the incremental changes you’ll put into your life to form a daily routine.

This is the game plan toward changing your behavior.

The Right Mindset

A realistic and specific goal and a plan for achieving it are both necessary for behavior change. But without the right mindset, you’re not likely to reach permanent change.

You have to believe that you can change your behavior. Know that you have the power and will to make this change that you believe to be important.

Controlling Your Emotions

Your emotions also play a significant role in your behavior. When you’re upset, depressed, or stressed, you can neglect the behaviors you know are good for you.

You’ll lean toward the ones that make you feel better. We use our behavioral choices to help overcome negative emotions.

Learn to identify and then control your emotions. This is essential for controlling your behavior.

Otherwise, you’ll find your best efforts at behavioral change sabotaged by negative emotions.

Putting it All Together

So, if you want to change your behavior long-term and enact real change in your life, here’s what you want to focus on. First, you need a decisive, realistic goal about what you want to change.

Then you need a plan for a gradual working toward this behavioral change.

You need to track and adjust your attitude and mindset about this new behavior. Be sure to keep your thinking positive and goal oriented.

Also pay attention to your emotional state.

Learn to handle emotions in a productive way. Don’t let them get in the way of your efforts

Combine these points and move closer to making lasting behavior changes.

JohnK 6-30-2025
chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “To change a habit, make a conscious decision, then act out the new behavior”

~Maxwell Maltz

You CAN Break Bad Habits

June 16, 2025 John Uncategorized No comments

You CAN Break Bad Habits

Have you been trying to break a bad habit for a long time? You read about how to do it and give it a try.

But, time and again, you keep repeating the same bad habits.

Are you eating the wrong foods? Are you smoking and can’t seem to kick the habit.?

Before you start working on how to break your bad habits, GenuLines suggests you think back to how you started them.

What kind of mindset did you have at that point? Were you a teenager who wanted to fit in?

You could also be overeating because you’re stressed out about your job.

Once you’ve identified how your habits started, it’s time to determine how important they are in your life. The correct answer would be, “they’re not important.”

But, they are important, or you wouldn’t continue those habits.

Try to list why they’re important. In other words, why do you need to continue with your bad habits?

If you get to this point of clarity you’ve turned the corner on breaking the habit. The reasons are important but don’t dwell on them and beat yourself up.

You can’t do anything about the past. It’s best to move on and try to stop continuing the habits.

The Key to Change

Stop bad habits by replacing them them with good ones.

If you’re a smoker and you have a craving for a cigarette, go out for a jog. Jogging can work for bad diets as well by taking your mind off your cravings.

You can deal with poor eating habits by having accessible fruit and vegetables.. Ideally, you want to have these ready-to-eat, and place them right next to junk food.

Of course, getting rid of the junk food in the first place is a great way not to have it within reach.

The next step in breaking habits is to realign your mindset. You need to focus on what you’re gaining by not continuing the bad habit.

For instance, if you’re having a problem with alcohol, try to keep focused on the way you feel without alcohol. For most people, that’s better.

You can break bad habits. It does take some effort.

But, your life will change for the better, if you’re willing to put in the effort.

JohnK 6-16-2025
chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “Don’t let your sins turn into bad habits”

~Saint Teresa of Avila

Article image by Artem Podrez: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-holding-burger-smiling-4728880/

Prioritizing Your Life 101

May 5, 2025 John Uncategorized No comments

Prioritizing Your Life 101

When living your life for obligations and commitments, it can be difficult to prioritize what is truly important. Without priorities, everything becomes essential and urgent, or nothing does.

Learning to prioritize is an essential life skill that you need to learn, regardless of your age or what you’ve already accomplished in life.

Without priorities, life becomes a series of reactions and aimless wandering. With a focus on what’s important, though, you can achieve your goals and live the life you want.

For active prioritization to help your life, GenuLines suggests envisioning what you want and where you want to go. Without a clear goal, it’s difficult to know how to get there.

Vision, therefore, becomes an essential first step to prioritizing.

A popular way of prioritizing your daily and weekly tasks is to rank each regarding urgency and importance. These are two separate qualities that are important to understand.

Urgency means how quickly it needs to get done, while importance is what is meaningful for your happiness.

Here’s how tasks might look using these categories:

• Important and urgent tasks are meaningful to you and have time constraints that require immediate action. These types of activities are often unexpected, which contributes to the urgency factor.

Without proper planning, though, lots of things can end up in this category.

• Not important but urgent tasks are usually the mundane tasks that keep life moving forward. Emails, meetings, and appointments that represent obligations end up here.

Having a lot in this category means your life may be running you instead of you running your life.

• Tasks that are not important or urgent are ones you can consider eliminating from your life. If your job or personal obligations fall primarily in this category, it may be time to reevaluate how you’re spending your time and what is important for you moving forward

• Not urgent but important tasks represent areas where you should be dedicating your time and prioritizing tasks best. These represent tasks that say you are in charge of your life and doing things that matter to you.

Being clear about your goals and values will help you spend more time in this last category and remove the clutter in your life that’s leading you astray from your goals.

And understanding how to categorize your activities can help you recognize how you are spending your time to determine if it is in your best interest.

Yes or No

Remember that everything you choose to say yes to in your life is a potential opportunity for you to say no to something else. Saying no to unnecessary obligations in your life gives you more time for those things that are important to you.

Saying yes to what matters means you are spending your time on things that are a real priority for you, not something else.

It’s important that your priorities are not just for your long-term goals but also for the day-to-day activities that drive our lives.

It can be hard to avoid distraction, but being clear about your priorities each and every day will help you achieve your dreams in the long run.

Reflect often on areas where your activities are not matching with your outlined priorities, and make adjustments to eliminate distractions in your life.

By choosing your priorities, you are designing your future, your vision for yourself. If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will do it for you, and that’s no way to control your life.

If you want to start living the life you want to achieve the goals you most want, make yourself and your tasks most important.

JohnK 5-5-2025

chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “Action expresses priorities”

~Mahatma Gandhi

Taking Chances On Your New Career

April 21, 2025 John Uncategorized No comments

Taking Chances On Your New Career

When you were starting out, you might have believed you landed the right job. It seemed to match your goals, your interests—your idea of success.

But now, you’re starting to wonder if it was the right call.

You think about changing careers, and GenuLines knows that often means starting over. That’s a scary proposition.

Especially if you’ve been in a certain position for several years.

After all, you’re moving up the corporate ladder and earning a pretty decent salary. Starting over is sure to mean a cut in pay and that can be a negative for you and your family.

And there’s more to consider than the pay cut. It also means starting over as far as the pecking order or seniority you gained over the years.

But, I’m Too Old

Another factor for a career changer is age. Say you decide to switch in your forties or fifties.

You’ll have as little experience in your new career as someone starting out and younger.

It can be a tall challenge, but there are positives that you should consider too. The first is that money isn’t your only consideration.

Sometimes, getting out of a bad situation is enough to overcome a smaller paycheck.

You can make extra income, either by selling online or doing work for others. And It’s not necessary to work at a physical location to earn some cash.

If your new career is completely new for you it can be exciting as well as scary.

Think back to when you started your original career. Any new achievement made you feel like you could rule the world.

If you don’t have experience, remind yourself that you do have work and life experience to bring to the table. If you have any management experience that can carry over, too.

And you know how to handle adverse situations better than your younger colleagues.

Staying in a career that you’re tired of can make you bitter and take years off your life. While you think about switching, remember others have done it and they’ve made it work.

JohnK 4-21-2025
www.chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “It’s not too late to be what you might have been”

~George Eliot

Article image by JONATHAN PAGAOA: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-a-pair-of-dice-on-the-black-background-14997903/

Success Takes Longer Than You Think

April 7, 2025 John Uncategorized No comments

Success Takes Longer Than You Think

Big Goals. Large visions for your life.

Any major success you move toward. It’s no doubt going to take a lot longer than you think.

It’s part of life.

You get a good idea about something you want to be, do or have. And the idea captures your mind and emotions.

The honeymoon phase is awesome.

You daydream and brainstorm your exciting new idea and its world of possibilities. You’re energized and GenuLines is ready to help you take on the world.

But if you’re new to all this keep in mind that you have some work ahead of you. Scaling a mountain isn’t quick and easy.

Looks Are Deceiving

Sure, from a distance, the mountain may not look that big. It looks like pretty smooth terrain and a manageable grade when you stare at it from a distance.

So you sprint to your starting point.

That’s when the work begins. And reality starts to sink in.

MOST people don’t make it far enough up the mountain to put skin in the game.

They quit early enough that the pain of investment isn’t harsh enough. The sting of quitting isn’t harsh enough.

But if this goal is something that you REALLY want then your first step is the “investment phase”.

You have to put in enough effort to reach a point where quitting would be more painful than continuing.

Once you reach this point, you gain a whole new perspective. The struggle doesn’t go away, but it takes on a new form.

You find a sort of peace and “sense of knowing” during your struggle.

You know you’ll make it to your goal though you don’t know how long it’ll take. But it almost doesn’t matter because you no longer count the cost.

You’re only focused on the path.

This is an easy metaphor to understand. But it applies to anything in life.

Make it a point to nurture your dreams. Have big visions and give yourself permission to dream even bigger.

Then, make CERTAIN you stay with it. Get to the point where turning around is no longer an option.

Even though it’ll likely take far longer than you think to reach your peak.

JohnK. 4-7-2025
chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out”

~Robert Collier

Article image by Andrea Piacquadio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/yelling-formal-man-watching-news-on-laptop-3760778/

You Can Define Your Perfect Morning

March 24, 2025 John Uncategorized No comments

You Can Define Your Perfect Morning

As I sit down to prep this GenuLines blog post a new morning is starting. I have my own way of approaching each day.

I call it my daily regimen.

How about you? Is there something you want to do that would make a big difference?

A habit you can do on a daily basis?

It could be in any area of your life. From exercise and healthy eating to working on your relationship with your kids.

Sit back and imagine your perfect morning. It isn’t stressed or rushed.

Best of all it’s a day when you have time for everything on your list.

This could mean having time for a long shower. Or going for a run before breakfast.

Or having a few minutes to connect with your spouse over breakfast.

There are a lot of “maybes” but the key is to start with what’s most important to you. Then think about how you could fit it into your morning routine.

Dream On

Remember, you’re only dreaming and imagining at this point. You’ll work on figuring out where to find the time to fit it in and how to make it all work out later on.

For now paint a vivid picture of what your new morning could look like. Get very clear on what you want that perfect morning to look like.

Imagine it in as much detail as possible. (And I would suggest you keep all this to yourself)

Write it down somewhere so you can refer to it as needed. In short, define your perfect morning.

Why is this so important?

Because you can’t start to make any meaningful changes until you know what your goals are.

You need to know your destination before you can start to pick a route and figure out how you’ll get there.

That’s what today’s task is all about.

It’s figuring out where you want to get to. Don’t stop until you have it figured out and firmly pictured in your mind.

JohnK 3-24-2025
chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “Lose an hour in the morning, and you will spend all day looking for it”

~Richard Whately

5 Steps To Decide What To Do Next In Life

January 27, 2025 John Uncategorized No comments

5 Steps To Decide What To Do Next In Life

Are you feeling stuck in life and have no idea what to do next? Do you feel paralyzed with fear at the very mention of change?

First off, you can be proud of reaching this state. It means you sense that your life is shifting.

Yet, knowing where to begin or what to do can be overwhelming. So, if you’re facing this decision, these GenuLines points are for you.

Below are five steps to help you decide what to do next in your life.

Take a Step Back

When you’re looking at what to do next in life, it’s imperative to stop and take a step back. Take a look at the big picture to identify where you want to go and what you want to do.

Too often, we struggle with all the ways of how to get there without fully knowing where ‘there’ actually is. We don’t take the time to highlight what’s working in our lives and what’s not.

So when we reach a crossroads, we’re baffled and unable to move forward. This is when taking a step back can help you specify where you want to go as you move on in life.

Understand What Fulfills You

Get to know what makes you you. Dig deep and do some soul-searching to understand what motivates you.

Ask yourself these questions: What drives me and makes me excited? What are my values and beliefs?

And, what contributions do I want to make to my community?

What’s important to me? What are the skills and talents that I bring to the table?

Explore Your Passions

Make a list of all the things that you’re passionate about and explore those options in more detail. It’s important to analyze your options on emotional and intellectual levels.

To do this, try to imagine how each one impacts your thought processes and your emotions. Do this step without worrying about any of the whys, should-haves, and would-nots.

Instead, connect more with your subconscious. Find out what resonates with you and your core values.

For instance, let’s say you value innovation and technology. You might look for positions at industry-leading businesses.

If family culture suits you might be better off seeking a job at a small family-owned organization.

Learn New Skills

No matter how many great skills you already have, it’s always nice to learn something new. Whether it’s soft skills or hard, think about what you’d like to learn.

Look for places in your community or online where you can take classes.

For example, you want to learn more about graphic design. You may consider applying to an art program.

Or you could be interested in gardening. You can take a class in gardening and plants, then apply for a job at a garden center or arboretum.

Whatever ever you do remember to set short-term goals that follow the SMART plan. This framework ensures that your goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based.

Let Go of What Could Be

Change is scary because you don’t know what to expect from your decisions. This fear keeps you in a state of inaction and apprehension.

But what if you could let go of all that worry just for a few minutes?

To do that, you need to trust yourself and maintain a positive mindset. Have faith that whatever comes along, you’ll find a way to handle it.

Stop thinking of change as something to be dreaded and feared. Instead, you can begin to think of it as something stimulating that adds a layer of excitement and intrigue to your life.

Be open to whatever life brings your way. It may surprise you with an even better outcome than the one you first imagined.

Final Thoughts

These five steps can help your personal and professional life short term and long. It’s a tough journey, but if you’re determined to make it, it can also be extremely rewarding.

Now, all that’s left to do is take that first step to discover your purpose and get back on your life’s path.

JohnK 1-27-2025
www.chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “The purpose of life is a life of purpose”

~Robert Byrne

Article image by Yan Krukau: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-in-gray-suit-sitting-on-black-chair-covering-his-face-7793987/

Time For New Beginnings and Final Endings

December 30, 2024 John Uncategorized No comments

Time For New Beginnings and Final Endings

There has to be endings to create new beginnings. An old year ends and a New Year begins, full of promises of change and new experiences.

It’s a good time for GenuLines to look at the endings in your life. For example , the death of a loved one, will leave you sad.

But if you accept the loss and focus on the good memories the person brought you can move on.

Each step in your life

These are necessary for you to continue growing. The end of high school or college signifies the beginning of adulthood.

This might give way to a career that you’ve studied for.

Every New Year is an opportunity for you to sit down and figure out what you want to change in the coming year. What will make you a better and happier person.?

Do you want to lose weight, quit smoking, move on to another job? Now is the time to rethink and reset your goals and make the necessary changes in your life.

Endings can only come when you let go of thinking about the negative events. When bad things go beyond your control you’ve got to distance yourself.

Make space for the positive

Get a grip on the reality of endings. You don’t like all endings, but you do need to accept their reality.

If you don’t learn to accept endings to allow for new beginnings, you might give up. That could open the door to a lifetime of regrets.

Think about things in a new way. You may think of yourself as “set in your ways,” about certain things.

But you have the right to change your mind if something changes, like more facts about what happened. Sometimes it helps to gain a fresh perspective on life and let go of old beliefs.

Remember, if you don’t take chances, change isn’t possible. You can hold on to the good things in your life, but if a new idea triggers excitement and fulfillment in your life, try it.

If you don’t, you may regret it.

JohnK 12-30-2024
chiforyourself.com

Overhead: “You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down”

~Mary Pickford

Article photo by Kindel Media: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-shot-of-a-person-holding-a-plant-in-a-glass-6774951/

Self Development And Your Success

November 4, 2024 John Uncategorized No comments

Self Development And Your Success

Life experiences come and go. But, how do they impact your life’s success?

Some of us insist that every event serves a purpose. Negative events can challenge you to see the positive in them.

A “looking with new eyes” mindset might open you up to more positivity. And GenuLines has some practical tips on guiding you on this journey.

Feeling as if you’re a failure

There are no failures in life – only people moving through different experiences. How can others accept you if YOU can’t accept yourself?

Comparing yourself to media figures

Don’t compare yourself to them. The same holds true for the real people you meet.

There is no need to obsess about your looks, financial situation or anything else. Self acceptance does not depend on those things, nor does the approval of others.

Down and out

When you see that other people are feeling down about themselves, give them a helping hand. But if you find that they’re determined to stay in their negativity, leave them to it. Nobody benefits when you’re both in a tailspin.

There are no mistakes – only lessons learned

Don’t feel stupid or doomed because you failed some kind of test. See failure as a step on the road to success.

Take things one at a time

It’s fine to have big goals but split them down into realistic, simple steps. Self development means working on habits that you have built up over years or decades. You will not turn everything around overnight.

At YOUR best

Understand that self development will help you to be the best YOU that you can be. It will not turn you into somebody else. Look for your own strengths and build on them, instead of comparing yourself with others.

Little things matter

Sometimes, we don’t realize that the little things that we do are like a pat on the back. Saying “hi” or “hello”, or passing little compliments can mean a huge amount to other people.

Be sensitive to other people’s plight. Help them to see the positive in their lives. This will come back to you in a positive way.

You’re willing to accept change

But it doesn’t mean that everyone else is. It may not be the right time for them, or the method you are using may not be what they need. So do everything you can to be successful with your self development, but don’t bore others with it.

There’s a profound quote that says that “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” We’re all here to learn our lessons.

Your parents, children, friends, colleagues, neighbors, even strangers. They all have the potential to be your teachers.

Open the door to self development. You can learn from every person and every situation that you encounter.

JohnK 11-4-2024
chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out”

~Robert Collier

Article image by Zen Chung: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-pen-writing-on-a-notebook-5749155/

How to Find And Begin Your One Goal

January 1, 2024 John Uncategorized No comments

If you break New Year resolutions try making goals instead. In fact, aim for one goal.

There’s a way to do this and GenuLines has a plan that can help you.

How to Find And Begin Your One Goal

When you sleep, you dream. Even if you don’t remember those dreams when you wake up, you do still have them.

The thing about dreams is that we have them one at a time. They don’t overlap.

They’re okay with waiting in line and taking their turn.

Think about making your goals like your dreams—one at a time. Here are a few ideas from GenuLines on how you can decide on your next goal.

1. Find the ONE goal
It might be that the reason people make vague resolutions instead of New Year’s Goals is that a goal is a big thing. And it can be overwhelming.

But losing the big picture means losing the prize.

Ask yourself these questions:
· Why are you doing what you’re doing? The why provides motivation even when you’re discouraged.

Knowing the why will also help clarify your goal.

· Next year, what achievement from this year will have the most significant impact on your life. Would it get you closest to achieving your goals?

If you’re looking to become healthier, this might be becoming a non-smoker. If you’re looking to change careers, it might be going back to school for more training.

Attention Please

· What takes your full attention while you’re doing it? Where does your passion lie?

Are you consumed by cars? Does being a mechanic sound like something to look into?

· What do you believe is worth doing that other people might not? That’s a question designed to give insight into your personality.

In the 1960s Rosey Grier played pro football for the New York Giants and later for the LA Rams.

He was 6’5” and 300 pounds.

He also spent off field time knitting. It was his passion.

What makes you so passionate that you don’t mind standing alone to do it? What drives you or from what do you take comfort?

How can that be a part of the goal? Or can it become the goal?

2. Translate your goal into a number

Numbers are easier to remember. What number?

For example, your goal is to become an ex-smoker. If you smoke a pack per day at $5 per pack, that’s 5 X 365 or $1,825 spent each year on cigarettes.

That’s a good number

Call it $2,000 by the time you factor in all those trips to the gas station for cigarettes. Does that number make the goal real?

3. Keep your eyes on the prize

Get out a sheet of paper. Write down that $2,000 number in big, bold, colorful numbers.

Use crayon if you like.

Post that number where you can see it. Often.

Learn to rank your goals. By doing this you’ll find it easier to pick the one that means the most to you right now.

Then put your laser like focus on that particular goal until you get to where you want to go.

JohnK 1-1-2024
chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer to your goal.”

~ Elbert Hubbard

Article image by Tima Miroshnichenko: https://www.pexels.com/photo/metal-bar-with-net-on-the-ice-surface-6847387/

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Chi For Yourself

Raising Consciousness..Living Genuinely!

Tag Archive for goal setting

Can You Learn To Control Your Behavior?

What Controls Behavior?

A Goal

A Plan

The Right Mindset

Controlling Your Emotions

Putting it All Together

Share this:

You CAN Break Bad Habits

The Key to Change

Share this:

Prioritizing Your Life 101

Here’s how tasks might look using these categories:

Yes or No

Share this:

Taking Chances On Your New Career

But, I’m Too Old

Share this:

Success Takes Longer Than You Think

Looks Are Deceiving

Share this:

You Can Define Your Perfect Morning

Dream On

Share this:

5 Steps To Decide What To Do Next In Life

Take a Step Back

Understand What Fulfills You

Explore Your Passions

Learn New Skills

Let Go of What Could Be

Final Thoughts

Share this:

Time For New Beginnings and Final Endings

Each step in your life

Make space for the positive

Share this:

Self Development And Your Success

Feeling as if you’re a failure

Comparing yourself to media figures

Down and out

There are no mistakes – only lessons learned

Take things one at a time

At YOUR best

Little things matter

You’re willing to accept change

Share this:

How to Find And Begin Your One Goal

Attention Please

Share this:

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