Every Herbalist Should Set Goals

We look out our windows at the bare trees and snow-covered ground, and it is evident that winter is upon us. We’re only a little over a week into the New Year, which can be both an exciting and intimidating season of life. As we map out our calendar year and set our short and long-term goals, we feel giddy and excited to share with you some wonderful new features coming to HANE. Here’s a hint: MORE OPTIONS… and that’s all we’re allowed to say right now! 🙂

Set Goals

As we’ve personally discovered over these last several years, in order to live life purposefully, you must know where you want to go! If you haven’t set your resolutions yet this year, you still have plenty of time to ponder them and set them to paper. We encourage you to start by assigning some long-term goals, which will help you establish your “where.” To avoid overwhelm, it may help to break these long-term goals into different timelines — six-month goals, one-year goals, and five-year goals. Then determine your short-term goals, which will become your roadmap for getting there. Short-term goals may be big achievements in and of themselves, or they may be the more mundane, nitty-gritty steps needed to reach your long-term goal. 

Begin by taking some time to reflect on the past year, and then refocus those thoughts towards plans and dreams you have for the future. Discover where you want to improve this year by considering each of these aspects of your life: 

• family
• career
• health and wellness
• financial
• educational and intellectual
• spiritual

Once you’ve honed in on a particular aspect of your life, you may just want to start jotting down meaningful words that describe your vision for change and create a Wordle to keep those front and center throughout the year, declaring your intention by writing a personal manifesto, or creating a mind map to get your ideas onto a page. Make these beautiful so you are inspired to look at them often!

Many of our students — and maybe you as well — are pursuing career goals this year. Perhaps your long-term goal is to get a job in the field of herbalism, so you are seeking herbal education as a tool to help you meet your goal. If your passion is to learn herbalism so you can share your passion with others, then you are in the right place! 

Make your wishes into goals…

And then start putting those goals into action. 

Begin your herbal studies in the Online Introductory Herbal Course, a recommended 6-month course, or the Intermediate Herbal Course, a recommended 10-month course; and complete your studies by the end of the year! 2015 is the year to Live Better and make a difference. Educating yourself will not only help balance your personal health and vitality, but you will also have the experience to show others the way to use plant medicine. We are all innate healers but we must learn how to use this precious gift responsibly as well as intuitively.