Setting Goals for the 44th Year of Tessa

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Mapping my Big Hairy Audacious Goal of the Year

Many years ago, I read an article about setting Big Hairy Audacious goals, breaking them up into smaller steps and then breaking the smaller steps up into yet smaller steps to make them more doable. That is exactly what I have done with this year's birthday goal.

The news that the doctor gave me this week was that my Cortisol levels were "normal". Given that I had the test done AFTER 8 and the result was at the upper limit of what the 6-8 test would have been (20 mmol/liter), I reckon that the test shows that I am still under a truckload of stress, but he reckons that it's something I should still be able to handle. Besides, I don't do "normal". I'd rather be optimal!

I'm currently busy reading a book by Ian Breck, Refreshed! In it, he highlights how much stress is f*cking up modern society and gives some ideas on how to keep stress from killing you. Most of those ideas are taken up into my goal map. To be honest, nothing is really new - it is just a matter of applying these principles properly. And I have been planning on doing many of those actions for a while now, anyway.

Why only five big action steps?

Five seems to be the number of items that people remember the best, and also a number of goals that I can juggle comfortably without them getting the better of me. Personally, I reckon that these specific five steps are totally doable for the next "Tessa Year", running from 7 November 2019 to 6 November 2020.

I'm not going the usual "get thin, get fit, stop smoking, be nicer to my neighbors" route this year. Simply, because those kinds of resolutions never, ever work! AND I haven't smoked in years, anyway! Instead, I have decided to make my Big Hairy Audacious Goal (Doesn't he look pretty in pink?) this year all about serious stress relief. If I can't remove the things that stress me, then I'd better get myself in shape to handle those issues better!