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Have your Yearly Goals Gone by the Wayside?

by Apr 7, 2017

goals

So it is April. That means it is the second quarter of the year guys!  How the heck did that happen. I mean January and February went fast, but March was a speeding arrow of a month that I didn’t quite grasp hold of until it was almost over. 

 

In our little family of four, we have birthdays in each of the first four months of the year. That means we seem to just go from one birthday celebration to the next in the first quarter of the year. Mind you, it must be worse for our extended family trying to remember it all!

 

In the last few weeks, I have had a bit of a slump. I have fallen off all my practices, including my Bullet Journaling (which helps to keep me on track). Bullet Journaling is the one thing that helps to keep me on track with what I am supposed to be doing! This feels disheartening, but I am remembering that I am human, and a human with incapacitating fatigue for that matter. So I am trying to be kind to myself and accept what is happening.

 

Goals
At the start of 2017, I spent quite a lot of time reviewing the previous year. I set lots of intentions and made goals in all areas of my life for the coming year. I have done this enthusiastically in previous years also.
One year, quite a while ago, I even came up with 200 separate goals that I wanted to achieve! Quite soon afterwards this seemed completely ridiculous. I was laughing at myself, along with some of my friends who were also laughing at me! In addition to this blind ambition (my Capricorn traits showing!), I hadn’t really formulated any plan of action that would get these things done.
Needless to say, the number of items on my list that I achieved that year were not quite into double figures. Interestingly though, on reflection, the ones I did manage were the ones that were the most important to me. I might not have picked those ones out consciously at the time but looking back on it I can see now that those were the ones that really mattered. I had completed the ones that spoke to my heart and not my head.
goals

 

 

So in recent years I have been more restrained and focused in my goal setting. Also, I am resonating with the notion of setting intentions but allowing for change and surrendering to the bigger picture of how those intentions will play out. It is interesting… and challenging.

 

Intentions aren’t much without action. Action can be so rewarding when you are in the flow. It can also be like banging your head against a brick wall at times when nothing seems to go as planned. I have wondered whether that means I am trying to go in the wrong direction. I have also wondered whether that just means I need to keep trying and persevering, like those inventors who only succeed on the 99th attempt.

Looking back on my goals for the first quarter of 2017, I have only managed four (and a half!) out of fourteen. That is a 30% success rate! Or a 70% failure rate on a bad day! However, I gave a talk to a group of 15 people, overcoming my severe fear of public speaking (to a degree), I saw more of my family (very happy about that!), and I painted 6 paintings (3 more than intended).
I might not have grown my blog to 1000 subscribers (nowhere near!), I didn’t swim weekly or do yoga, in fact, I have never been so inactive physically. My fatigue has been really incapacitating, so I have to forgive myself and move on. I have got a new supplement that will hopefully help.
Spring has sprung now, so hopefully, things will look up. I will get moving as I know this stagnation is a bit of a vicious circle. Too much sitting at the computer trying to work out how to make my blog successful I think! And I guess that is my point.
Perhaps what we most wish for, whether it is a new car, a promotion or a new house, is not actually what is best for us or what we need. In the chronic illness paradigm, we struggle with a seemingly unending list of unexpected and predictable variables that can upend the best of intentions. Acceptance and surrender are the keys here.
Goals
“We should not be discouraged at our own lapses … but continue. If we are discouraged, it shows vanity and pride. Trusting too much to ourselves. It takes a lifetime of endurance, of patience, of learning through mistakes. We all are on the way.”
Dorothy Day

Please comment below:

Let me know how you are progressing with your goals and intentions for this year.

You could even make some new ones!

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