This Goal is for Me

I am a New Year goal maker. I know a lot of people are jaded about starting new resolutions or life changes or goals in January. I don’t really care that it is cliché. While, yes, it is just “another day”, it is one that can be easily marked. In recent years, my “reset” days have often been with the birth of a new baby, also easily marked, but I am past that season so I am sticking with New Year’s for this round.

Actually, I did a lot of thinking about my “goals” over the last several weeks. Many of them could also be viewed as just a matter of intentional living. They outlined how I wanted to be mindful and purposeful with how I spent my time. It was certainly a good list of my priorities. The list included such things as “build deeper relationships”, “continually update baby books”, “live within our budget”. All good things, but not quite “goals” as I have been thinking of them recently.

Then I watched a video awhile back by Jon Acuff, this was hard for me, as my husband would tell you, I don’t like to watch anything. But it was about stay at home mom’s (I think) and doing ONE thing well. That you don’t need a huge list of goals. That raising kids could just be the ONE thing you are doing really well today (or trying to, because let’s be real, parenting is HARD).

So I started thinking about ONE thing. What was a one thing I could focus on for this year? Yes, I raise my kids (my long term goals include “raising decent humans” – time frame 18+ years), but was there one goal that could be mine as April rather than all my other roles?  I thought and prayed about it.

Then it came to me. Also on my long term goals is writing a book so I need a habit of writing. Or maybe even the writings I could come up with would slowly become a book. At any rate, writing started to be my goal. I actually love to write, so this was definitely one that would be an April goal. It would also be a stretch because I have 4 small kids so time isn’t exactly hanging off my hands.

I didn’t want to just say ‘write something’. That was too vague. I wanted something that was definable and could be checked off, so to speak. I would know when it was done. So my goal is to write 500 words a week. About what? That will be a surprise to all of us! I am giving myself the freedom to write this on my blog, as a long Thriving in the Middle Life FB post, as a journal entry. So long as 100 words are together, I will accumulate them towards my 500 for the week.

The math says this is 26,000 words. A quick check on Google says a 200 page book is about 55,000 words. Looks like I will be off to a good habit and start towards that book.

What are your goals this year? Do you have a big one? Several small ones for intentional living? I would love to hear about them.

And just in case anyone was wondering….this was 558 words. Week one done!