Thursday, August 29, 2013

Goals #AugustMoon13

There are only four months left of 2013. Have you accomplished your goals for the year?  What do you need to prioritize to end the year on a high note?

My goals always seem to get blown out of the water and not in a good way.  All to often I'm left wondering how another year passed and what happened to most of them!  This year was no different.

 
Back in January, when I wrote a long list in my journal, I was eagerly optimistic but now I sit here hanging my head in shame.
 
On a personal level I'd planned to exercise, lose weight, learn to cook something different so that we weren't stuck with the same half dozen dishes each week, walk the dogs more often, do more around the house and drink a lot more fluids (I'm always being told I need to drink more fluids).  Lets just say these were all an epic fail.
 
Other goals included learning more about my camera's settings, exploring digital collage, trying new painting techniques, finding additional venues to sell my artwork, creating something daily and working towards publication.  Many more 'fail's' . . . can you see a bit of a trend going on here.
 
At least I can console myself with the fact that I've been reading more and watching less television, visiting galleries and museums, creating from a more personal place and while I haven't written more (as I'd planned) I have continued to blog and to share my story.
 
As for what I need to do to end the year on a high note . . .  hhhmmm, think I'm going to need to do some series navel gazing to figure that one out.
 
How about you, have you been more successful in accomplishing your goals?

15 comments:

  1. I find making a list of goals quite intimidating- I never seem to achieve them! It almost seems like I'm setting myself up for failure. So I tend not to- it doesn't mean that I don't get things done but i just can't see the things I've failed at because they aren't written down. My husband, on the other hand is a great believer in goals & for him, writing them down is a great motivator. I guess everyone is different.

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    1. I hate lists and, like you, also find them intimidating. Everyone seems to love them though and appear so organized when they write things down that I thought I'd give it a try. Turns out it just ended up being a big stick to beat myself with. Next year I'll just go with the flow and see where that takes me.

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  2. 50% of my goals I've accomplished, I'd say. Now I need to decide if I'm a half glass full or empty sort of gal. :)

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  3. I find it important to have goals just as a guide. Most of the time my goals go unmet, but still I've made progress. This year I actually published a poetry collection that I'd promised myself I would do for years. Unlike you, I'm big on lists to give me a sense of direction, but learning not to expect perfection. It's taken me almost 70 years to get there, though. As I age, I've lost a lot of energy that, realistically impedes perfection, but not progress.

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    1. Congratulations on pushing your poetry, way to go. Letting go of perfection is the tough part . . . we're always so hard on ourselves.

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  4. I ain't got no goals. I think that's worse than making a list and not accomplishing some of the things on it. I especially don't like setting goals in January-too much NY resolution pressure for me.

    I think it's great that you are reading more, less TV, and feeding your creative being at museums and by creating in a way that feels authentic. These are so much better than exercising more. You're exercising your artist self.

    Now let's see if I can help....drink 2 glasses of water first thing in the morning when you get up. Big glasses. Chug 'em right down. Then you only have 4 more glasses to go during the day-EASY!

    And for dinner (I only cook really easy stuff, I hate spending time in the kitchen)....Boneless chix thighs, smear dijon musturd on the smooth side (of however many pieces you need) and put mustard side down in a baking dish-not too huge. Sprinkle top of chix w/dried onion flakes, pour some oj over the chix....just enough to cover the bottom of the baking dish plus a touch. Bake 375 about 1/2 hour. Swish the chix pieces to mix them w/oj and then flip them over and bake 7-10 more min. Serve on a bed or spinach, rice, or egg noodles...and you should have a little sauce from the juice/mustard to drizzle on top. Try it-it's easy.

    As for that learning more camera settings....I need to do that too.

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  5. Ach, my friend, it's such a heartbreaking thing when our goals become yet another thing to whip ourselves with! I know this feeling all too well.
    I found Danielle La Porte's Desire Map completely liberating in that respect. She argues that it is not the "ticking off" of the items that's important, it's the way we want to FEEL. So I looked back at my Mondo Beyondo list and realised that, while I may never achieve most of those things, the themes that emerged -- freedom and connection -- are things I can take smaller steps towards in my life every day.
    So perhaps you have already managed to find a way towards the feeling you anticipated once you'd exercised/lost weight/cooked/mastered your camera through reading/blogging/visiting galleries. Maybe your instincts are guiding you to an altogether gentler and more YOU way of achieving those ultimate goals?

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    1. Oooh I like the idea of themes emerging and my instincts guiding me to a gentler more 'me' way of achieving my goals. Thanks for making me see things in a different light.

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  6. First off, I think you set WAY TOO MANY GOALS!! It would be almost impossible to achieve all of them! Plus you had the setback with your health issues! You are definitely to hard on yourself! Many people, myself included, don't meet their goals, or New Year's Resolutions by the first month! I want to lose weight and exercise more. Well, the losing weight part is definitely hard, but I am trying to exercise 3x/week, which is all that I can take with my fibromyalgia. Which 3x/week is better than nothing. If I can curb my appetite I know I can lose weight.

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  7. Don't worry about what you haven't learned to do, and be reasonable with yourself. I had a big set of jobs for me this year and I'm happy to report that by faith in the universe, a bit of discipline, help from friends - I sold the beach house, packed every stick, rag, book, movie, chair, etc myself, got help moving to an already crowded house - put half in storage, gave away my beloved sports car, moved storage to the free garage, scrubbed down my family home, bought 120.00 worth of shelf paper (the best money I've ever spent -I was determined to put it down on every shelf surface, under every sink, in every bathroom, and eventually found "a place for" everything we put inside the house. I couldn't do one other thing while I was doing that - not read, not write, not TV, not exercise, not eat particularly right - but getting it done by itself was really satisfying. Now I'm starting to write again (though I almost feel like grade schooler) but I'm glad to have you and others from dverse reading my work. It fills me with joy just to know I'm communicating. Do what you can - don't beat yourself up, and your writing will be just fine and so will you. Sending you loads of positive thoughts! Thanks again for your visits to my blog.

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    1. Wow, that's a whole load of stuff you managed to get done. Moving and sorting so many things out can be overwhelming. Thanks for the pick me up comment.

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  8. I am one of those people who loves lists - and especially crossing something off. But my lists tend to represent things I want to accomplish in the short-term - today or this week. As much as I love lists, I'm not very good with setting long-term goals. So I greatly admire that you took the time to verbalize so many things that you wanted to accomplish. Whether you met those goals, I think, is beside the point. Instead, you identified changes you wanted to make in your life - I think that is a big part of the process - that identification. I think we all have to find a way that works best for each of us. And if lists don't work for you, then throw them out.

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    1. Identifying changes I want to make . . . I like the way you put that and I should know by now that lists just don't work for me, they just stress me out.

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  9. I agree with Brenda -- I am much better at short term goals. And I love that idea of identifying what you want to change, like a path set out, even if it wavers. As for drinking more fluids, I am always an epic fail there too!! Love the water image.

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    1. Interestingly I'm sat here with a bottle of water while reading your comment (trying to give up soda's)! Since I wrote this post I've hooked up with a new gallery to sell my work and played a little with inks so that's two additional goals reached. :0)

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