I Need To Have Goals

 

I've always been one of those people who needed a list of goals, something to work toward and aspire to.  I used to have goals I wanted to accomplish in a year, two years and then five years and beyond.  As I got closer to retirement I found the five years and beyond goals stopped being relevant and soon the two year goals were too.  Last year I had two big goals, one was to re-landscape my yard from the curb at the street all the way to backyard fence line and the other was to get my youngest off to college and do a bedroom update.  That’s all I had, plus a bunch of little bitty goals, and once I'd completed those two things I was feeling lost.  What next?  I still need goals.  I still need something to work toward.

 

Having goals not only gives me something to work toward, but also something to look forward to.  It's an important part of my life and I think it is still very much relevant.  I may not need to have five year and beyond goals anymore, but immediate goals (within a year) and short term goals (one to two years) can still be an important part of my life.

 

Last month I sat down and went over the goals I had set for 2022 and was thrilled to get to check off most of that list and find out that the ones I didn't complete turned out not to be so important after all.  Then I set to work and made up a list of new goals for 2023 and a few for 2024.  I set my goals in a variety of ways.  A list of larger goals I write down on a sheet of paper and then I write down smaller monthly goals in my dayplanner.  Very similar to how I used to do things, but also a little different as times in my life have now changed.  I have to say it feels pretty good to have these things to work on this year.

 

I especially like that having goals and working on them keeps me mentally sharp and physically productive.  I don't want to waste the days I've been given on this earth.  Each one is precious.  I'm excited to get to work and see how many I get to check off at the end of this year and how I'm doing on the ones I've got planned for next year.