2010 is officially half over; or if you’re a glass-half-full kind of person like me you might say, there’s still half a year left for me to successfully complete my goals! How are yours coming along? Do you remember what they were?
I pulled up my goals on the computer to review what my optimistic mind imagined six months ago. Back then, I saw myself accomplishing fifteen items in three categories. I’m sure an expert would say that’s too many to focus on, but having led a school campus in planning and executing multi-page plans for nine years, I felt pretty comfortable with my one-pager.
My goals comprise three broad areas: personal, professional, and prayer. In the personal area, I address things such as wellness, productivity, personal growth, finances and family. In the professional area, I set specific work outcomes I want to accomplish by year’s end. Of course all of these are birthed and bathed in prayer. But there are other items to continually focus on in prayer that are as of yet non-actionable. These go in my third column.
It’s quite interesting to review and reflect often during the year, especially at the halfway point. Not only do I seek to discover what I’ve done, but why I’ve done the things I’ve done, and why I haven’t done the rest. Perhaps some goals are too lofty, some too easily attainable. Maybe I’ve lacked resources, or had an overabundance of unexpected blessings.
This year I learned that I lean toward one area more than another. I’ve had such good practice at professional goals that I continue to be inclined in that direction, while my personal goals go on the back burner. I remembered that by accomplishing my personal goals, I will likely increase production in the professional arena. I also realized that although I’m an optimist, I set the bar too low in some areas. This probably reveals that in writing goals, I tend to think about my limited power rather than God’s supernatural power. Finally, I was refreshed to reread my prayer focuses and pause to consider God’s kind responses. How blessed we are to be able to communicate with our loving Father in heaven.
Stopping to reflect on my goals mid-year allows me to reevaluate and revise if necessary. I ask questions like:
1. Are they still applicable?
2. Are they still reasonable?
3. Are they still achievable?
If you take time for goal reflection, I pray you find something about your progress that pleases you. Focus on your successes and let these motivate you to overcome your setbacks. That’s what I’m choosing to do. But of course, I am a glass-half-full kind of person.
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