Setting goals is a life-long process that changes with time. It is a powerful process for ‘thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality’. (https://www.mindtools.com/page6.html)

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Provided they are designed correctly, I have always found goal setting to be a highly motivational experience, as they allow you to focus on what you want to achieve in an ideal situation. In doing so, they allow you to believe in yourself, as you move forward, setting up strategies which not only reinforce each step you take, but they provide the motivational energy you need to keep going. It is therefore, very important to take time to celebrate each small step that you have made. After I returned from Japan in early October 2019, something changed in me, as I had adopted a mindset that was now centred on what I wanted to achieve in my new life. That is, by choosing to fight, I wanted to become the first person to survive this disease.

 

Even though I understood from the very start, that the achievement of this goal was too high a mountain to climb, it did, however, provide me with a platform from which I was able to re-set my life goals so that they were now in line with my current diagnosis. For me, goals need to be like electromagnetic waves – that is, they must be self-perpetuating. As soon as you accomplish one goal you need to start looking for the next goal to conquer, until you reach where you want to be.

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With this in mind, the goals I set in April 2021, as part of my NDIS plan are as follows.

 

• To improve my relationships with family and friends

• To return as a volunteer surf lifesaver

• To remain as independent as long as I can

• To write and complete a submission to the Royal Disability Commission about my story

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Since then, I have added the following additional goals

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• To set up my own website where I could show by example, the importance of remaining positive (positivity) in the way that I choose to manage my Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease.

• To work towards becoming an effective advocate

• Compete in Master’s Swimming and Surf Lifesaving at a state, national and international level.