
On January 1st I started reading Lara Casey’s book Make it Happen: Surrender Your Fear, Take the Leap, Live on Purpose. I had been introduced to Lara’s blog last year and had wanted to read this book for awhile. I’ll spend more time reviewing the book itself in another post soon, but today I want to share with you some of the work that came out of reading that book and also Lara’s blog series on 2016 goal setting. As with most years, the beginning of 2015 started off very promising and I even blogged about living a year of intention back in January of last year. Somehow, as often happens, things went off course. So, I found myself in December wondering where the hell 2015 had gone and feeling defeated that I hadn’t accomplished all those things I’d wanted to do. So, this year, and we’re only a couple of months in, I’m already finding that the key to making things happen is 1) to take action – actually go and do stuff, and 2) tending – if you don’t monitor those goals and keep focused attention on them, you can’t actually accomplish them.
So, for 2016 I am going to work through the goal setting process and share my progress here not only as a way to be accountable, but also because hopefully someone else will benefit from it.
The first thing Lara has you do is to first check in with yourself – how are you? I won’t share the epic novel I wrote, but the main theme is that I’m feeling very disappointed in myself for getting so off course last year and feeling like I was basically in the same place that I’d started the year at. Also, I had a life-changing lightning bolt moment recently of discovering what my purpose is. And although I feel this huge sense of relief from having identified where I’m going, I’m feeling a bit lost though not knowing how to get there or what it’s going to look like. But, I’m willing to have faith that as long as I move in that direction, I’ll have the guidance that I need.
Next, it’s time to take a look back at 2015…
What worked:
- I detailed my crafty accomplishments and new endeavors over on my Cozyegg blog here
- I was re-introduced to essential oils through my friend Sylvia and became an independent distributor of Young Living essential oils
- Read the Red Tent (my New Year’s planned start for 2015) and 9 other books
- I got to reconnect with my friend Marty and visit with other high school friends, plus help raise money for Adele’s retirement
- Eric and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary
- I completed my first Whole 30
- I made some new friends
- I was able to take all of my vacation time and holiday time without having to check in to work at all
- Eric and I went to visit my Dad’s grave at Christmas, which I’ve been meaning to do for three years
- I reached out to my mom to try to begin healing that relationship
- I had a huge attitude shift with work and on letting go of the stress thanks to my essential oils (Stress Away!)
Three Lessons I Learned from What Worked:
- I don’t have to kill myself with working so much, I am better if I completely unplug and rest
- Essential oils have changed my life and using them daily makes a difference
- I do better focusing on one thing until it’s done rather than jumping around. Also, I do better doing my own thing rather than being dependent upon someone else’s participation.
What hasn’t been working?
- Allowing myself to get burnt out
- Running around with no purpose/no focus to my actions
- I feel like I can’t do it perfect so I don’t do it at all
- Allowing myself to be totally thrown off course by someone else’s stuff
- Comforting myself with things that are bad for me (eating junk, overspending, mindless internet time-wasting i.e. the mindless scroll)
- Health challenges
- Dealing with feeling unbalanced/unsatisfied in some areas and then getting bogged down in the sadness of everything
- Missing my family so bad it hurts
- Feeling burdened with the weight of financial stress
- Procrastinating and not moving forward, staying stuck
- Completely wrecked over some work situations and office politics
- Feeling like I never have enough time
Three Lessons I Learned from What Didn’t Work:
- Don’t get sidetracked by distractions – distractions can be other people’s stuff, shiny & new, want to vs. have to, mindless scrolling
- Take time for me – rest – mentally, physically, emotionally. I need time to recharge.
- Concentrated focus is what allows me to be most productive and stay on target with my goals/purpose/projects
What Season Are You In?
I feel like I’ve been in winter – it’s been a really hard season that has stretched over the past several years. I think the beginning of last year was like a false spring, and then winter returned. At the end of the year I was able to do some reflecting and be still and really look at what’s important to me. I feel like now I am in spring, and reaching toward summer when I dig in and get my hands dirty to do the work.
So that’s my look back at 2015. And I feel like really taking a hard look at what I’ve learned from what worked and what didn’t work will be very helpful in starting to define my goals for 2016 and what I can build on. Check back soon for the next installment of this series and how I’m working towards defining my goals and working daily to achieve them.