Goals, Not Resolutions

Resolutions. They're like making a hand-print in concrete. Once done, we treat them as if they can't be changed. I say we should toss out the whole notion along with the dead Christmas tree. 

But goals, if they're smart , (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) can keep you on track to achieve what's important to you. And you can reset them and tweak them without the guilt that goes with resolutions.

I know it's practically January 1st  but there's no law that says you can't put goals in place anytime you like. First, however, you should evaluate the previous year.  Here are some great questions from Lisa McKay (a blogger and author) to help you do that. For example, Number 5, "What were the two biggest sources of joy and refreshment in your life this year?" Certainly you want to include more of those.

Number 11, "What were some ways you disappointed yourself this year?" stirs me up to self-examination. 

Being an Eeyore type of personality, I convince myself there's no point in trying to write. "That unfinished manuscript is blather!"  Futile to practice the violin. "I'm worse now than I was forty years ago." 

George Eliot said "Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure." 

my grandson learns about striving

I didn't persevere; I piddled. It's much easier to wish than to strive. 

This year's goals will be limited to the ones that stir my heart into action. Some old ones will be resurrected but reshaped. 




I appreciate your encouragement. Ask me if I'm keeping apace with the interim milestones. Remind me to keep the target in my sight. 

 I'm happy to do the same for you.

Best wishes for 2014.