Five Ways To Set Goals for 2014
It’s over now. All the
hoopla, all the excitement, planning of family gatherings, parties for
Christmas, food to make, presents to buy, wrap, and open—it’s all over. There’s
a sense of relief that the anxiety is gone, but there’s a let down too. We take
down the tree and ornaments and our homes go back to “normal.” Our lives go
back to normal.
But it’s not over—not really.
For many people it’s more of a “Now what?” Maybe that’s where New Year’s
resolutions come from. We think about what’s next. What we want to accomplish
in the coming year.
Personally, I don’t make
New Year’s resolutions because I don’t want the let down or disappointment of
falling short.
I DO believe in setting
goals though. If I don’t, I‘ll have no direction and nothing to shoot for. The
difference is I won’t beat myself up if I don’t quite get there, recognizing I
have made some progress. It also leaves room for my path to change if God wants
it to and that happens all the time.
So how do we set
realistic goals? Perhaps we could follow a few guidelines.
·
Look at the
goals we achieved in the past year and see what we did to make that happen.
·
Congratulate
ourselves on those achievements and let them spur us on toward new pursuits
this year.
·
Examine the
goals we didn’t reach. Were they realistic? Perhaps we need to revise our
goal(s) and/or set a better, more reasonable timeline to complete them,
recognizing our limitations.
·
Become more
conscientiousness of how we spend our time, focusing our efforts toward reaching
our goals instead of frittering away our time.
·
Have someone keep us accountable. Someone who will check on
us and encourage us to stay on track, or to refocus our energy with the goal(s)
in mind once again.
These
are some of my thoughts. How about you?
Do you make New Year’s Resolutions? What do you do to reach them? Don’t forget to join the conversation!
