It's that time of year again! If you're a person who sets goals, then you've likely got your pad of paper out and your pencil all sharpened and ready to list the ways you're going to tear into 2018 and show it who's boss. Hopefully you've got a system that works well for you.
If, on the other hand. you're a person who thinks GOAL is a four letter word and would rather cut your hand off than use it to make a plan of what you want to accomplish, or you're someone who has tried goal setting and ended up feeling like a failure because you just didn't have it in you to follow through on all the grand ideas you had because...Life, or all that goal setting just makes you tired, then I have a story today that you may like.
THE YEAR OF THE BABY
Ever since I learned how to set a good S.M.A.R.T. goal in college, I was hooked. I loved lists and order and setting my eye on a target. Nothing got between me and my plans.
After several years of that lifestyle, one December (when I normally would have been in hyper-drive of my goal setting frenzy) I happened to be seven months pregnant and just didn't have it in me to make my usual big plans for the coming year. Between homeschooling my five and seven year old sons, having a very demanding volunteer job at church, and surviving my typical pregnancy sickness (nausea/vomiting never limited itself to the first trimester with my body), I was simply too tired to care about mapping out my progress for the new year.
When people would ask me what my goals were for the coming year, I would answer, "I only have one - to have a baby." It started off as a joke the first time I said it, but a funny thing happened. The more I repeated my smart-aleck remark, the more I started to mean it. I came to see that it was enough. I didn't have to make any other plans.
I found the freedom that gave me was breathtaking. Of course, when the new year rolled around I accomplished more than birthing my child that February: my family got cared for, my house got cleaned, my church job and friends got the attention they needed. But by letting having a baby be the only thing I viewed as a "goal" I was able to better prioritize my time and didn't get frustrated by not accomplishing a bunch of other things that weren't as important as caring for my baby anyway.
It created a shift in me. I saw I was actually much more centered, happy, and able to see my progress by focusing on the bigger picture than I had been when I set multiple smaller goals.
I share this story to offer you an option. If you love setting S.M.A.R.T goals and that works well for you, yay! Keep it up. But know that there are other ways to approach your progress as a person. Brendon Burchard offers his thoughts here. That's one other idea out of many.
Bottom line? You know yourself. Trust yourself, and allow yourself the respect of deciding the approach to the new year that makes your heart sing - regardless of how anyone else says you should proceed if you want to have "success."
You define your own success and how you want to get there.
HAPPY 2018! It's all yours.