Last year I identified the core six areas of my life:
- Physical/Health
- Relationships
- Financial
- Career
- Side Projects
- Personal
And then I went about setting year-long goals in each (and also 5 years goals in some). Unlike a lot of people who use the calendar reset of January 1 to kick off their resolutions/goals for the year, I just kind of put them down and hoped I’d get them all done in aboutttt a year, no matter the start date.
So it’s May 21. The 141st day of the year. We’re almost halfway through the year, internet! What’s my update then?
Ugh. No update. The ONE THING I lacked in my goal planning was assigning specific dates to complete specific parts of goals.
For example, one of my goals is to write a whole pack of thank you cards. From there I broke the goal down into EXACTLY who I wanted to send them to. But I never assigned a specific date to actually send a card to (insert name). OR a date by which I should have sent a card to (insert name).
The funny thing is, I thought the first major hurdle of goal setting was identifying the AREAS. Then I thought the hardest part was actually coming up with SMART (specific, measureable, achievable, realistic, and timely) goals. Thennnn I thought the hardest part was breaking down the goals. But apparentlyyyy the hardest part is carving out time to actually do them.
Just like Bilbo said to Gandalf in the Fellowship of the Ring…”I feel butter scrapped over too much bread.”
I know I’m constantly complaining about having to balance work and life and friends/family…all while trying to move myself in the direction I feel will make me a better person…but seriously…goals too now? (ugh ugh ugh).
Tomorrow, Friday, I took the day off though (as it’s Memorial Day weekend and I have Monday off). Instead of traveling this year (ugh ugh ugh I SOOOO want to) I’m going to stay local and work on these goals. For the ones that are easy (clean ______ or write a note to ______) I’m going to knock off easily. For longer term ones (take a ______course) I’m going to research things and estimate a completion date.
It probably sounds like a boring day off (and compared to traveling it will be!) but hopefully a (PEACEFUL) yet productive personal day is what I need to re-energize me for all that I feel I was meant to do.
