The New Year is here! It is one of my favorite times. I love the thought that
each new year is like a blank sheet of paper ready for me to fill in with my
thoughts, activities, plans, and more. I like to reflect on the old year and see
what, where and how I can make changes and improve life.
Often you hear of people making “New Years Resolutions”. They will resolve to
change the things in life they do not like. I have always had a fundamental
problem with resolutions. Once you resolve to do something, well you either do
it or you don’t. If you don’t do it, well then you fail. Too much of that and
life becomes very discouraging.
My choice is to set goals. A goal is something that you can always be working
on, not something that you pass or fail. You can make big or little goals,
complicated or simple; the choice is yours. You can have big goals and work on
them in parts with smaller goals.
Let say you want to lose 30 pounds, you could start with the smaller goal of
losing 5 or so pounds and then lay out exactly what you plan on doing to achieve
that.
Maybe you need to save money on the grocery budget and eat better. You could
start with small goals of serving a couple very low cost meals each week. Or
maybe be a better steward at using up leftovers and so on. As the year goes on
each day you can work towards your goals but if you don’t meet them for a time
there is no need to feel that you have failed, you just keep plugging away at
them throughout the year. At the end of year you can reflect on how much
progress you have made.
An example in my own life is accounting. My husband handles all the bills and
the family household finances but I take care of my own business books. Now I
have to say that accounting and I don’t get along well at all! ~smile~ I really
would rather have hubby do it, but he is a busy man and I know this is my
responsibility to deal with. So each year one of my goals is to be more diligent
in keeping track of expenses, mileage, etc.. AND making sure I get it all
recorded. The best end to my goal will be one where I just hand him my copy of
the year end books and he can do the taxes from that without problem. Well I am
not there yet, but each year I have gotten better and better. Each year I spend
less time trying to catch up with and search for needed information. Each year I
am more and more diligent about recording my information in a timely manner,
each year I dread this job less and less ~smile~. So this goal is traveling from
one year to the next and I am pleased to see my progress. But if I had
“resolved” several years ago to have the books all ready for tax time, I would
have failed. Instead I am getting there at a rate that I can manage and I can
handle. I am encouraged to see my progress rather than discouraged at what I did
not make happen.
My basic method of
goal setting is pretty simple. First I pray! I don’t want to be setting goals
that are not in line with what the Lord would want from me. Then I begin to
write down the goals. I go back over each goal and write down what steps I can
do to make this happen. Or see if a big goal needs to be broken down into
smaller bite size pieces to make it more manageable and doable. The other
important factor in setting goals is to be realistic! If the goal is too big or
too overwhelming you won’t be able to reach it and may scrap it all.
After my goals and steps to achieve them are written down I put it somewhere
where I can review it often. I assembled a homemaking notebook last year and so
this year’s goals will go in my notebook. As the busyness of year begins I want
to be able to reassess and remind myself of current year’s goals so I can be
working towards them throughout the year.
At the end of the year I pull out my goal sheet. I can see and reflect on my
progress and the events of the year. I can see what worked, what did not, where
I want to change a goal, or move a goal onto the next year to continue with it.
Most importantly I pray over my upcoming year for wisdom as to where to put my
energy and effort. I also pray for stewardship of my time. I only have so many
hours in a day and I need to not only use them wisely but also use them in the
direction that the Lord would want me to go.
