Anyway, remember 2 month ago when it was the beginning of 2015? That was probably a good time to write goals for the year. But, in January, my goal was to make goals. And I've made goals, so that's one thing I can cross off!
Winning.
I sat down to share my goals for 2015 with you. But as I started writing, I realized I had learned some things about goal-making in the process and I wanted to share those too. (I'm an over-sharer....if you know me well, you're recalling a time when my over-sharing has turned a conversation awkward!)
At the beginning of 2015, I was ready for a new year! Emma was 6 months old & we had come out of our
I sat down, excited to make goals - my little notebook and favorite pen and a cup of coffee in hand, ready to dream.
But then got discouraged. I started writing all my dreams down, only to realize most won't happen in 2015. I realized many things I was writing were long-term dreams, so while it's good to dream and write things down, it's unrealistic to set my life-long dreams as goals for 2015. But, baby steps. I can make 1-year goals for this year to those ends.
Goal making principle #1: goals are not life long dreams. make short-term goals that connect to longer-term goals.
Then I got discouraged as a realized even many of those short-terms wouldn't happen this year. Many are on pause. Most of my time is taken up with taking care of little people. But I love my little people, and it is a privilege to stay home with them, and it's even a good idea to make goals as it relates to caring for them.
Goal making principle #2 - know where you are in life and be realistic about what makes sense for right now. Do you want to know a secret? I'd love to open a school some day, if God wants me to. Now is not the time for me to have that goal. It's not really even the time to take beginning steps towards opening a school. And that's okay.
I listen to a lot of Dave Ramsey's podcast (because we're working on paying down student loan debt - more on that goal another time; and because he is hilarious), and he happened to touch on goals back in early January, which as we've already acknowledged is perhaps a more appropriate time to make goals for the year. BUT, better late than never. Anyway, he mentioned Zig Ziglar's "Wheel of Life" as a good starting point for the 7 categories in which to make New Year's Resolutions.
But, there is goal making principle #3 - categories are helpful if you're not sure where to start.
My categories are:
spiritual
financial
physical
intellectual
social
marriage
parenting
non-mom career
[edited: after writing this post, I wrote an article about each of my categories for this year. I added the links above!]
Within those categories, I started to get carried away again... dreaming.
And dreaming is good.
But at some point you have to focus in, narrow down, and choose something to focus on.
Goal making principle #4 - less is more. keep it simple. i know i have 8 categories, but that's because my brain thinks in categories. i have one goal in each category for this year.
Goal making principle #5 - Goals should be measurable. And then you should measure them. There's no real explanation except I heard this one in a sermon many years ago and it's stuck with me.
A friend asked if I was taking blog post requests & said she wanted me to blog my 2015 goals.
I felt nervous to write them. Because if I share them, then you'll know if I fail. Have you ever felt like that?
They'll be here tomorrow.
