Happy New Year! Are you receiving all kinds of goal and resolution messages? I am! And it is appropriate to aim at a new year with new hopes, dreams, and aspirations. But we can't do that - at least effectively - if we don't first look back at how we met - or didn't quite - our goals from the old year.
As I look back on my 2007 goals - which I keep posted above my desk so they stay in my face - I have to ask myself some questions. What goals did I meet entirely? What did I make progress on? What was an unrealistic goal that led nowhere? What still needs to be done that I have not yet addressed?
Goals met entirely - not many I'm afraid. In fact, were I a tough grader like my 5th grade teacher Mrs. Malone (from whom I learned a lot!), I wouldn't give myself 100% on much. I taught three child care classes, I found other ways to make money, I cultivated professional relationships, bought a new higher resolution camera (when my old one broke on a trip to Arizona) attended my mentor Sid Simon's 80th birthday celebration, got new carpet in my living room, and kayaked the length of Canandaigua Lake! These things I did entirely! Oh - and before the end of the day (which surely counts) I will have completed a family history of my maternal grandparents which I will wrap and pack up tomorrow to be mailed out on Wednesday. Whew! Just under the wire on that one!
I made much progress on a whole host of other goals. I haven't swum 100 miles this year, but I think my count is between 60-70. I didn't get 100% on my goal of exercising 300 minutes a week either, but my annual total (not counting my swim today) was 13,602 minutes which averaged out to be 262 minutes per week. Wow! I did better than I thought I did - and way better than I'd have done without that 300 goal dangling in my face every week!
Another goal I didn't do perfectly, but which still pleases me, is writing something every month for our writers group. It has been such a good goal for me. I've probably written at least four times as much and as often just because I knew I'd be seeing my fellow writers.
And there's a whole long list of goals that I though I'd get to this year but didn't. For some the reasons were beyond my control. Other goals, written in January last year, were supplanted by ideas that held more appeal and doability. And another list - a lot longer than I'd like - fell victim to my propensity to procrastinate.
Still and all, it feels good to look back, knowing that I accomplished more in 2007 because of the goals I set. So my task in the next week is to keep reflecting - on the goals I met and those still unmet. Knowing that much of what happens in my life is not within my control - in the coming year or any other - I need to decide what things I want more of and what things I want less of in my life - and how I might exercise my self-control to get what I want.
As long as I'm doing true confessions about the things I've done and haven't done this year, I might as well confess that this goal-setting business is a bit of a chore every year. I have to psych myself up for it - because I know it's a chore worth doing.
I'll keep you posted on the chore's progress. What's your plan for setting goals in 2008? May you set goals that will stretch you and make 2008 the best year of your life - so far!
Happy and Blessed New Year!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment