Inside: This might seem like an odd time–a February discussion of goals–but I suggest that it’s the perfect time to reevaluate before moving forward into 2023.
My Goals for 2023
It’s late February, seven weeks past any timely discussion of goals. The blush of a new year is long past, and talking about goals for many people is not exactly a welcome topic. These best of intentions have been cast aside, abandoned, or if not entirely abandoned, on life support. And there it goes–another year.
But does it have to be that way?
Here are the goals I made at the beginning of this year. . .
Overall goal: To be a better steward of what I have
Practical goals:
- Finish editing my mystery novel and get it ready to send out.
- Keep working on my current novel.
- Organize and declutter my home.
- Read at least six books from my bookshelf.
- Take at least one online course.
- Post on my website without worrying about being perfect.
- Continue exercising, working on incorporating strength and balance exercises, and eating healthy.
How’s It Going?
To be honest, fair. I’ve moved the ball forward in a few areas. I’ve spent a little time organizing and decluttering. I signed up for an online course (go at your own pace) but I haven’t started it yet. I’ve been walking more, but I’ve only worked in a couple of new exercises to give me balance and strength. I am eating healthy, though. I’m posting, and I added some things to my website, but not as much as I’d like.
So far this year has felt like I’ve been putting out little fires. My focus has been scattered between water well problems and breakdowns and other distractions.
Basically life.
The Way Forward
So the question is, how do I balance regular life with this new slate of activities I hope to accomplish?
Before making my goals this year, I read an article on making vague goals, and it actually made sense for my personality. While it flies in the face of everything the experts have been telling us for years–make goals specific, measurable, etc.–when I make a goal such as “read one book per month” and I miss a month, it makes me feel like I’ve failed, which takes away any motivation I had. (I already failed, so why try anymore?) If you have an “all or nothing” approach to life, you’ll likely understand what I’m saying. But if I make a commitment simply to read books from my bookshelf and one month I don’t, I haven’t blown this goal.
This approach won’t work for everybody, but it does work for me. It’s all about moving forward. Making progress. Doing things better. One person from the article simply made it her mission to do her best, no matter what activity she did. Applying that same idea, my overall goal is to be a better steward of what I have: my health, my finances, my home, my relationships. So I take better care of my health by walking. I spend my funds wisely at the store. I take time to put things back and clean my home. I work at staying in touch with people, an aspect of better relationships.
Making Goals Doable
In reevaluating my goals, I looked at past successes and asked myself why a particular goal worked for me. Years ago I read a book called Mini Habits, which, when boiled down to its essence, shows you how to achieve habit goals by making them so ridiculously simple you can’t fail. For me, that was writing 25 words per day. Yes, 25 words. His point was that when you accomplish an easy goal, you oftentimes find yourself actually doing more. This also worked, so much so that I added 90 pages on to my novel that year. In this case, the goal was specific, yet the ridiculously easy part had me doing it. Obviously I wrote more than 25 words on some days, but only when it was easy and the writing flowed. Other days I simply put in my 25.
Along those lines, another good book, Atomic Habits, offers a great suggestion: Just do one percent better each day on your particular goal. (By the way, I found a lot of gems in this book!)
A Final Point to Consider
While considering my goals, I thought ahead to December and where I want to be by year’s end. It occurred to me that the clue to getting there was to work backward, focusing on my day-to-day activities. This quote perfectly expresses it:
“Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the everyday things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote and uncommon.” –Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery
Okay, pep talk over. Time to get busy!
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