I’ve made up my mind; 2011 is going to be a great year. 2010 was a year of being ill. So thanks for coming 2010 (there were some lovely days), but don’t come back! I did accomplish a few things (which makes me feel good), but I had much bigger hopes for last year. That’s the problem with setting goals in January. The year stretches before us like a calm ocean promising an easy sail into the horizon. We forget that storms whip up out of nowhere. We don’t know we’re going to develop a thyroid problem, lose half our hair, turn into a vegetable and spend months watching TV because anything else makes our brain hurt. At least that’s all I have to complain about. Some people really did suffer last year…many died! I’d rather be a vegetable watching Waking the Dead than actually be dead! (For those unfamiliar with English TV, that’s a cold case murder mystery show) I understand the temptation to set unreachable goals. We turn on the TV and there on Oprah is some smiling wretch who’s done it, achieved the impossible. Surely that means we can do it too even if we don’t have the same resources, talents, time, energy, health, friends etc. as the person on the screen. At the beginning of January we look up at the Mt Everest in our lives and decide we must climb it because it’s there…because that’s what you do with the highest mountain in your life, or so we’re led to believe by all the people making money out of our momentary insanity. This year I’m setting goals I know I can reach. All the rest are going into the great Filofax in the sky (or in my case under the bed). Those goals that tempt us up the big mountain (the mountain we know we can’t climb – the one that will turn us into a frozen corpse with our boots sticking out of the snow), those goals I won’t be making. So here’s to 2011 and attainable goals. Now I know I can finish three stories, but four would be so much more impressive…though not as impressive as five…
I refuse to make resolutions for much that exact reason. I make goals as I go along through the year, but I refuse to let a tradition lure me into setting myself up for failure.
Have a Happy (and much better than last year) New Year!
@Jennifer
Thanks Jen! Wishing you a Happy Year back!!!
Just bought a white board for that exact reason and it is already full of things to do – what kids need before going back to school (Australia – Jan – Dec year); party prep for one of the kids parties; a list of things I have lost and want to find; and of course the endless shopping list…. good luck with your writing! Happy New Year.
I didn’t write for years because I was so busy earning a living that I couldn’t find the time or energy (physical or emotional) to spare. Now that I’m finally writing again, I’ve set a goal of just one satisfying sentence a day. I know, that doesn’t sound like much, but it is a huge step. Like you, I hope for more, but I’ll be happy with just one sentence, because that means that for every day I accomplish my goal, I’ve made the attempt and taken the time to do the one thing in life that makes me happiest. And it also, hopefully, means that I will not become discouraged and walk away because I’ve set goals that are realistically unobtainable.
I hope you have a glorious, healthy, happy and fruitful year and I look forward to sharing your journey and reading your wonderful stories.
@Sariah
I need a good white board. I’m spending a fortune in heart shaped post-it notes. I hope you don’t live anywhere near that flood in Queensland! I feel sorry for those poor deluged people. The amount of land affected is mind boggling!
I like the idea of making a list of lost things to find…my problem is I’d have to list them before I lost them. With me it’s almost always out of sight – erased from mind. Come to think of it, my brain would make a good white board!
@Teresa Thomas Bohannon
I love your goal of one sentence a day! I think I may copy that. Thanks for your kind wishes and words! Wishing back a fantastic healthy year your way!
No we are not flooded in just lots of rain! However my friend went to her mother’s farm for Christmas, was flooded in the next day and finally was able to get home this week by taking a route 90 km out of her way…. Her father (who was meant to get home for Christmas, has not yet been able to leave the town he was visiting!
Thanks for asking