In January, it’s easy to be gung-ho about goals for the year ahead. By this time of year, I just feel like thinking about next years goals. Frankly, I don’t want to look at where I fell short of my aspirations for the current year.
I do have a practice of reviewing the previous year as I’m working on my goals for the next year, and it’s always a valuable experience. I take time to write down my accomplishments in the same categories I used to make my list of goals at the beginning of the year (health, relationships, finances, work, creative pursuits, fun, etc.) I also make a list of things I am grateful for from the year.
When I really take the time to review the year there are always areas where I also had progress and accomplishments I never would have imagined. For example, at the start of this year my house in Socorro had been on the market for months while we were renting a place in Albuquerque. Our rental was not meant to be a permanent place. The most ambitious I could get with my goals was to ‘Do something with my Socorro house.’ For various reasons, the whole situation felt overwhelming and complicated.
Now we’ve been living in my dream house for months. We’ve settled in. Last night, I was sitting in the living room thinking how it felt like home.
While I think it’s important to contemplate our goals, dreams, hopes and intentions for each year, we also have to accept that we’re only part of the equation. Life happens. The universe does it’s thing. We have to be fluid.
Even if it’s hard, it’s also important to take time to reflect on those areas where you didn’t see the progress that you wanted. Are they things that just really aren’t that important to you? Did you pick a strategy that wasn’t going to work? Did you have too much on your plate? Do you want to drop the goal entirely or make tweaks so that you’re more successful with it next year? Were there things you learned from your attempts?
I started this post to say: there is more than a month left in 2018. It’s the perfect time to review your goals from January and see where you can make a bit of extra progress as the year winds down. Finish strong. Think about what you can do now to kick-start your success for next year.
Related posts: New Year’s Reflections and 2018 Goals.
