“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them.”
Bernard Shaw
I can't help the feeling of excitement I feel when I look at the blank slate of a new year before me.
I don't really set New Year's Resolutions - I formulate goals that I want to work towards or achieve within the coming year. What's the difference? Well, the way I see it, a resolution is a decision to do something or not do something, typically without a tangible measure. (e.g. I want to improve my diet. I want to exercise more.) A goal has a deadline and a tangible and defined point of achievement. (e.g. I will have bought three chickens before July. I will have read 10 books before Dec 2013.)
"Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I've set a number of goals that I want to achieve before January 2014 (that's just under two years). Some of these are health related, some financial. Others are about my home and garden. There are a stack that are things I've been procrastinating over. Then there are the ones to make my life sparkle - the crafting and fun outings goals. Because planning the next year can't all be about suffering, deprivation and hard work!
“Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”
William Faulkner
I've written all of these goals in a list (me and my deuced lists!) in a paper diary. Following the list I have been writing every day the small steps of achievement I've made towards a goal. No matter how small... I record it. "Today I spent an hour investigating different online chicken suppliers, pricing and breeds. (Goal #32). I've done this because I've come to recognise that, to use a terribly overdone cliche, Rome wasn't built in a day. Every little step counts towards the final achievement and I should celebrate those steps to encourage myself onwards.
"The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”
Confucius
Also, writing it all down makes me realise how much I have achieved in the course of a day, even around work time and the daily humdrum of housework and life. Not least of all it also makes me feel like I want to have at least one thing to report each day - no day should be wasted! I've found ways to find more time. If I have time in the car as a passenger on the daily commute then I can spend that working on that cross-stitch (that I started 5 years ago!) If I have to catch the bus between where we park and my workplace - well then, I have time to try to finish reading Vanity Fair. If I sit to watch James May's Man Lab with Rhys, there's nothing stopping me from unpicking a seam on a costume that needs renovating while doing so. (Incidentally, I highly recommend James May's Man Lab...)
“Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can't buy more hours. Scientists can't invent new minutes. And you can't save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you've wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow.”
Denis Waitley
But in making all these goals I've had to first look at my past goal setting and find my pitfalls. Where did I go wrong in the past with my goal setting? Was I too ambitious? Were my goals too inspired by my current passions that quickly became stale? Did I set goals that required repeat performances to be considered finished?
I also thought it was important to consider my vices and things that assist me to fail achievement of my goals. I recognise the internet can be one. Spending time on facebook, twitter, even here on blogger, isn't the whole of the problem. I can also spend more time investigating, scoping, sourcing, reading, looking at inspirational sites and images related to my goal than is helpful. Often I'll never get past the point of researching....
“You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.”
Rabindranath Tagore
So with all of these possible show-stoppers in mind, I've written my goals and now have to keep my impetus and, to quote a famous sports goods slogan - just do it!
Can I add another quote I think you have captured perfectly?
ReplyDeleteJohn Lennon said life was what hapened while you are busy making plans. By choosing your goals and celebrating the small steps you take to achieve them, you are living your life fully. Good for you! I look forward to your adventures too.
I often get so bogged down by having "wasted time" that I berate myself and an evening that should have been relaxing because I was too exhausted to achieve anything towards my goals becomes guilt ridden. This year I'm trying to allow myself to be ok with just doing nothing if that is what needs to be done one evening. I should get another diary and write down what I did toward goals no matter how little, just like you :) I often forget that and neglect a diary.
ReplyDeleteFreya - that is an EXCELLENT quote, and one very pertinent for someone like myself who is a list-maker, plan-maker but often enjoys that part of the process so much that I end up perpetually making plans and never doing them, while time slides by!
ReplyDeleteMetanoia - Keeping a paper diary is one of my goals for this year. I find keeping one regularly is hard for me - not only because I forget to write in it, but also, the world of blogs means that I am forever wanting to print out my photos to add to my diary and it looks so bland without. I think that having evenings to rest and recoup are important and you should definitely accept them. Maybe think of them like the junk-food of life. Once a while is good for your soul but have a nothing-night every night and your soul becomes bloated and lazy.