This is the time of year when I start thinking about goals and what I want to accomplish next year. As I look through my goals, I realized a few things I want to remember in 2022:
Maybe You’re Already Reaching Your Goals
When I look at the life “buckets” I want to work on next year, I realized that a few of them, namely learning and socializing more, can be knocked out with my participation in Junior League. Junior League offers members classes (we call them trainings) in all sorts of topics, everything from healthy eating to stress management to book clubs to special movie screenings. Each member also must volunteer as part of their commitment to Junior League, where I see old friends and meet new people. It turns out, I have been accomplishing this goal all this time. Maybe you’ve been accomplishing your goals too without realizing it, you’ve just been accomplishing them within the context of what you’re already doing day-to-day.
Productivity Can’t Be Your Only Goal
Productivity is a great economic measure. It’s not so great for measuring humanity.
I had an epiphany one day, while bemoaning my lack of productivity. I remember being so much more productive early on in my career. And then I thought, “Wait a minute. I am doing work that is completely different from the work I used to do.” My work now is more strategic and graphic design takes time. And that’s a good thing – it means I am advancing in my development rather than just churning out tactical stuff.
Seasons Change. So Should Your Goals.
Before you start trying to squeeze just one more task into your day, ask yourself, “Have my circumstances changed? Has my career changed?” I bet you the answer is yes and yes.
The past two years have been a doozy, for a lot of people. I’ve had friends who have lost jobs and started new ones, go through heart-breaking loss, or take on more care-taking duties at home. Considering all of these, its understandable that people would want to cut back in one aspect of their lives to pour more into another part.
Which brings me to…
Be Kind to Yourself
Something Julie reminds us of, especially when things are tough, is that we should give the other person grace. We should give ourselves grace. Be a little kinder. Be the light.
Perhaps instead of New Year’s resolutions or goals, I should keep these three realizations in mind and make them my themes for the year:
- Sometimes you can reach your goals without inventing a whole new set of actions to reach them. What goals can you stack together? How can you accomplish your goals within the context of your everyday? For example, if your goal is to exercise more in the new year and spend time more time with your kids, maybe a family stroll after dinner or a weekend bike ride might get you closer to your goal.
- Don’t do #allthethings. Do #therightthings. Change up your to-dos in accordance with the seasons of your life. Sometimes your home life will ask more of you than your work life and vice versa. Sometimes your volunteer obligations will take over your life for two weeks straight. Give yourself leeway to accommodate all the aspects of your life when they need to be addressed, not year-round.
- Be kind to yourself. In the grand scheme of things, we are on this planet for only a moment. Let’s make it a good one.