New Year is a time for new beginnings and resolutions. While we may not be the best at sticking to these changes, setting goals and tracking our progress helps to keep us on track.
Dr Eileen Forrestal of Get Up and Go Diaries, believes that goal setting and journaling can be life changing habits. Her company creates inspirational diaries that help to keep people on track, while providing daily words of wisdom and encouragement.
"When I think of goals I always think of football games," she explained. "You have to be playing the game, and the goals show you you're winning or losing. You might have a bigger vision, and the goals are steps on the way to that vision. If you see something in your mind's eye you have that vision to get there. Goals are not exciting if they're not part of a bigger picture. I’m always putting the balls in the net, they’re not all going in the net, but I’m loving the game. But I think in order to keep you excited about life you need to feel the goal is getting you somewhere. My goal is to have a diary in everyone's hand, but I have lots of little goals along the way.
"You're guided by that vision in your mind's eye. That’s where people get a bit lost, they don't have the vision."
Dr Forrestal, a former anaesthetist, first discovered the diaries in 2006 when she returned to Ireland after spending several years working abroad. "When I came back my marriage went pear shaped and I had this diary to keep me ticking over," she recalled. She later reached out to the founder, Glenda Devlina, a South African woman living in Co Sligo, who had begun creating the diaries to help her through her husband's illness and death. When Devlina decided she no longer wanted to produce the diaries, Dr Forrestal began running the company.
Now, she believes the diaries can help others to get through tough times, particularly by journaling about their thoughts and experiences.
"I could write something this week if there's something upsetting me, and I could go back next week and say, is that what it was like?" she said. "It’s gone. It's to get it out. We can get it out writing, or in front of someone, just get it out.
"The problem with people if they’re not expressing enough, it’s like they can’t get it out. To me it's a process, journaling is good to get that going, get your thoughts into something you can see. It become real on the paper. You think a lot of stuff that’s not anything to do with anything, so get it down on paper."
For more information see www.getupandgodiary.com
