Jason mentioned a really interesting idea in the forum last week, on the use of the term “initiatives” rather than a Someday/Maybe list. This really got us thinking, and I for one jumped on the idea. In fact I have been thinking about it all weekend.

I believe that part of the difficulty in achieving some of our long-term goals is in how we label them, and how they get prioritized in our day-to-day thinking. Or perhaps that should read “if they get prioritized” in day-to-day thinking…

I have a tracking system set up for the goals and projects that I intend to implement this week, this month, and this year – but I have been remiss in tracking the longer-term goals. The Someday/Maybes get left out of reviews sometimes, simply because they are “maybes”.

Maybe I will, maybe I won’t.

That is dangerous thinking, and certainly not conducive to making progress. This year one of my commitments to myself is to be more detailed in my thinking during periodic reviews and take more notes. This is something that really suffered last year, and I can see where things were falling through the cracks.

Like Jason says:

“I do not really divide my initiatives between current stuff and the “someday/maybe”.  The reason is that I do not want to let my dreams to ever get out of sight.  Each time I do my weekly review, I can see all of the stuff I need to do, and the stuff I want to do.”

Just thinking about something as a concrete Initiative gives it far more reality than thinking about a vague “someday”. What say you? Join the discussion thread.