It's Leap Day! And I say we take this extra day to cram more crap into our already hectic schedules!
...or not.
Every New Year I take the time to write down goals, personal and career-based. Some are attainable, some are reaches…big reaches. Inevitably, like the rest of the world, I begin January gung-ho. I’m crossing stuff off. I’m hitting marks like a champ. I’mmmm working 9-5; what a way to make a living! (Does anyone under the age of 65 listen to Dolly Parton? No? Just me? Okay, then…)
This year I decided to do something different. Every year come June
I’ve lost my motivation to read 4 books a week. By November I’m so done with
couponing I haven’t touched a newspaper in three months. And inevitably I find
myself looking at my growing list of yearly goals, generally written in four
different colors of ink because I just kept adding (you know, on those days you
had a ton of coffee and are fairly certain you can, in fact, sew a king-size
quilt in just under two hours and have dinner on the table by six.), only to feel
like I let myself down, like somewhere in the world there is some go-getter
with shiny hair and flawless skin carefully marking off her last achievement.
Why aren’t I her? What the hell did I
do all year?!
This year I’m setting six goals— three for my personal life,
three for my career. To some this may be underachieving, and that’s fine. Those
people probably accomplish a lot more than me, and I’m happy for them. But
personally, like most people living in 2016, I have a lot of balls in the air.
I’m not just a blogger, I’m an author. I’m not just an author, I’m a homemaker.
I exercise daily. I’m learning to sew. I’m determined to take a decent
photograph before 2020. I’ve always wanted to learn sign language. I never got around to
crocheting…despite having all the supplies in my closet for a solid three
years.
…I think I lost my point somewhere. Hold on while I dig
through my purse. Here it is…
The point, my dear friends, is that when we have a goal list that
encumbers three loose leaf pages, front and back, all we see is the aspirations
we didn’t check off. We never notice
the accomplishments we did complete, maybe even mastered. It’s human nature, an
annoying trait but an inconvenient truth, that we tend to focus on the
negative. So instead of patting yourself on the back for hitting the gym three
days a week, we tell ourselves we should have gone five times. Instead of celebrating our vast
improvements in cooking, thereby avoiding chemical-laden takeout, we think about
that one hectic day where we gave in and ordered pizza (and by one day I mean,
like, twenty-five). We never give ourselves a break. We never celebrate our
achievements.
Well, I say screw it! Instead of setting myself up to fail,
instead of bogging down my already hectic schedule (because I’m, you know, alive…) I’m cutting myself some slack!
I’m setting reachable, yet important goals. The point is PROGRESS. It’s like
that Pinterest pin said, because I find most of my life’s mantras have been made
into Pinterest pins: It’s not your speed that matters, it’s that you’re moving
forward.
So, you overworked-readers you, what are some of your goals
for 2016? Are you simplifying or are you determined to take over the world?
Where do you stand in this fabulous, wondrous New Year?
By using this site, you agree you have read the full DISCLAIMER.
So, you overworked-readers you, what are some of your goals
for 2016? Are you simplifying or are you determined to take over the world?
Where do you stand in this fabulous, wondrous New Year?
By using this site, you agree you have read the full DISCLAIMER.
