Dreams, Resolutions, and Goals

We all have dreams. Resolutions are easy to make. Goals are how dreams and resolutions are met. We set goals all the time even if we don't write them down, speak the aloud, or share them with others.

Goals fill a scale from the minuscule to the gigantic. What makes a goal attainable is all the little goals we set along the way. It's those small steps we often don't think of as goals. It's the daily task on the way to the goal.

When I shifted my mindset to think of my daily tasks as mini-goals, I found it much easier to achieve my goals. Though sometimes I've fallen into the trap of over-congratulating myself for meeting those smaller goals on the way to the bigger goal.

Yet, those smaller goals along the way help me to see I'm making progress even when it feels like I'm not. This year I set a goal to finish 3 books I've had in the works for awhile. Confession, I'm not going to make it. The other day, I started to beat myself up about not meeting the bigger goal, but then I looked at the piles of paper that represent those goals and saw how much smaller they are than when I started. I've made incremental progress by working on these projects Monday through Friday and giving myself weekends off. There were a few times when I had to adjust my schedule due to unforeseen circumstances, holidays, and family obligations, but for the most part, I've worked on each of these three projects for at least a few minutes every weekday. And, while I won't make my end of the year goal of completing all three, I am far enough along to start planning the next steps in each project.

I set three other large professional goals this year: to blog on this blog every week, to post a recipe or other food related post on Vegan Cooking with TLC, and to post a review on Reviews with TLC each week. I didn't meet those goals, but I came close. I've missed one week on this blog and one week on Vegan Cooking with TLC (the same week), and I ended up opting to take a long hiatus from the reviews blog. I'm happy with the progress. My goal to post each week pushed me to write more and to connect more and to be less fussy about my imperfections.

I also set some smaller goals, some personal goals, and some financial goals. Some I met easier than others, some I didn't meet, and some I decided weren't right for me after all. This is the way with goals. We each have the power to set up our goals to be successful with a little bit of forethought and a nod to flexibility.

The goals I set need to be attainable while challenging me to meet them. If they're too easy, I run the risk of losing interest. If they're too hard, I run the risk of feeling overwhelmed. As I look toward 2020, I'm starting to think about the goals I want to set to push me closer to achieving my dreams.

I don't do resolutions because they seem doomed to fail by their very nature, at least to me. I like to look at what I want to achieve rather than what I want to change, then set goals based on those potential achievements. That seems far more attainable, far more reliable, far more sensible to me than resolutions.

When we set goals, we build in options to assess those goals along the way, make adjustments to our tasks, and look toward the future while staying in the present moment.

Sometimes goals are ongoing and don't have an actual completion date. For example, I'm fairly certain I'll continue to have a goal of posting on Vegan Cooking with TLC every week next year.

So, when you sit down to make your resolutions, might I suggest, you look at your dreams for your life, and see if instead of resolutions you can set yourself a few goals to meet in the next year and then devise some daily or weekly or monthly tasks, which also serve as small goals, to set you on a positive path to achieve the larger goals that will make your dreams come true!