Yesterday I was feeling rather sad. Once the Christmas holidays are past, it sometimes takes me a few weeks (or months) to find something else to look forward to. January is a time to refocus on personal goals.
It’s easy to say another year just sucked, but that would make it even more true. So look with me on the bright side of things. What was good about 2024 for you?
Here’s my list:
1.) My husband still gets to work from home even though the pandemic is finally over.
2.) I finally lost all the weight I gained after hurting my back a couple of years ago.
3.) I created a couple of guided journals, and I’ve been doing lots more drawing!
4.) My son started college online, and I’m learning graphic design along with him.
5.) I finally started my blog!
Now, it’s your turn. Can you think of at least 5 things that were good about this past year?
Forget Resolutions You Won’t Keep. Set Personal Goals Instead!
As we move into a new year, now is an excellent time to reflect on the things we accomplished, recognize the areas where we fell short, and think about goals we want to achieve this next year.
Did you use this time over the holidays to maximize your creativity? This holiday season, I enjoyed time with my family and my pets and worked on my goals for the coming year.
I think goals are better than resolutions. Goals have specific steps you need to take to reach them. In contrast, resolutions define an action you plan on continuing throughout the year.
Why We Should Share Our Goals?
Sharing goals motivates us to stick to them! Accountability is one of the reasons Weight Watchers works so well. The fear of stepping onto the scale in front of other dieters would be enough to keep many of us from buying that doughnut at the supermarket or eating those graham crackers right before bedtime.
I’ve never belonged to Weight Watchers, but I took public speaking classes in college. The result of not preparing and practicing my speech would mean me standing at the podium in a state of total fear and unpreparedness. The result – I prepared and practiced more than any of the more extroverted students. Despite my shyness, my speeches were good enough that my professor offered me the lead in his play!
Public failure, whether it’s not meeting a goal or not being prepared, is a great motivator!
Feel free to join in with your personal goals for the coming year. Share the things you achieved in 2023, as well as the stuff you didn’t finish.
Let’s do this together!
Sharing goals keeps you committed to them. Especially if we have to come back and report whether we’ve met them or not.
Who Keeps You Accountable?
And don’t say your cat! Mine sleeps most of the time so he has no idea how I spend my day. However, kids can be a good bet. Any of you with teenagers know how they can help with our personal goals. If we tell them we will complete some project, they are constantly checking on us.
“Mom, what are you doing now?” my son asks from the kitchen
“I’m just getting ready to start sewing,” I call back.
Actually, I’m playing Sims 4 on his computer. But now I’m closing the game and opening the sewing machine up again. Yeah, accountability. Sometimes it sucks! But it keeps us moving forward.
Try These Other Steps to Setting Personal Goals
1. Write down your goals.
2. Make sure they are achievable.
3. Schedule a time each day to work on them.
4. Make yourself accountable to someone.
Remember, just writing down your goals makes you more likely to achieve them. And if you review them occasionally, that’s even better! When you review your goals periodically, you can ask yourself, “Is this something I still want?” Sometimes, you will find you no longer want that goal and can cross it out, but more often, what you want has changed a little. This is an excellent opportunity to rewrite it into what you want now, not 6 months ago.
My Top 5 Goals for 2024
I’m not ready to share some of my goals yet, but here are 5 I can.
1.) Cast one of my hand-made ball-jointed dolls into resin. (I make dolls BTW)
2.) Finish all my craft projects
3.) Get my house completely organized to find missing art supplies.
4.) Start a garden to grow more of our own food.
5.) Post more Reels on Instagram.
Remember to Schedule Some Fun Each Week
With spending so much time indoors in the wintertime and cooking more family meals, there’s lots of house cleaning to do. It’s okay to share the work with others and ask for help.
That allows us to take a long walk or relax with a cup of tea and work on a word search puzzle. One of my favorite indulgences, when it is snowy outside, is to drink hot chocolate and watch an old movie in the middle of the afternoon. It’s an extra special reward.
Sometimes, we get so caught up in the stuff we must do, but we need to give ourselves a relaxation break. Then, when we come back to working on our goals, we can stay more focused.
My fun this week was taking my dog for a walk on a beach near our house, making everyone in our household afternoon lattes each day, and finishing reading Winter Solstice, a novel by Evelyn Pilcher that I read at the start of every winter.
Yes, I played a little Animal Crossing too!
However, you can live without cable TV or Netflix, I’m happy to report! And it gives me more time to work on my goals. Also, I took some photos of the trees in a nearby forest to use on my blog or as drawing/painting references.
In conclusion, keep your personal goals from starting to feel like an extra job. Take some time for yourself and do something fun, too.