Thursday, January 3, 2008

Resolutions

Last year, I set some aggressive New Year's resolutions. They were organized into categories like physical, spiritual, emotional, parental, professionally, etc.

I was very diligent all year about pursuing and tracking them (in a cool little spreadsheet that made me feel incredibly efficient). When summer came though I got very lazy. Since my goals required strict diligence, it was hard to stay focused when the weather was warm and the pool was calling. My attention span was only so long. Additionally due to my lack of discipline in getting up early each morning, some of my goals were not getting the attention they needed since they hinged on having extra time each day to work on them (organization, cleaning, self-help goals). They suffered.

Most importantly, I learned a GREAT deal about myself. Such as:

1. the sheer fact of meeting my goal is not incentive enough to pursue a challenging goal
2. i have about a 5 month attention span
3. i need a daily outline of what i'm doing that day or else nothing gets done
4. i learned what exactly my strengths and weaknesses were
5. i am easily distracted - ok i didn't learn THAT just this past year

Believe it or not, about 50% of my goals were achieved to my satisfaction, which I think is great considering this time last year I, um was me, not having reached those same goals. So, that's a good thing. So, based on these new epiphanies about myself I have created some new goals that will hopefully inspire me to become the fabulously successful famous rockstar I always wanted to be.

6 backward glances:

Jill Marie Paulson said...

Wow...if you can stick to your resolutions for FIVE months, I'd say you have a long attention span. Most people are lucky to make it 5 days!! :-)

josey said...

i second jill! my attention span is about 2 weeks. then something clicks in my brain and *POOF* its like i never set a new goal. LOL!

i have to say i LOVE your #1: "the sheer fact of meeting my goal is not incentive enough to pursue a challenging goal." WOW, that in itself should be considered meeting a resolution! very profound and TRUE!!

i guess that's why resolutions need to be considered small goals to reach along our journey to just being a better person overall...at least for me. otherwise, i'd never enjoy seeing anything come to fruition!

thanks for the insights, and YOU ROCK!! (you lil rockstar. hahah.)

FriendinME said...

question: do you think you will remember what you learned about yourself last year 2 months from now?

If you are "attention-span challenged" like me, the answer is, um, now, what was I saying??

I am not here to promote my blog, but if you haven't seen the New Years Resolution video, you ought to. You might like it. :)

Happy New Year.

Melanie Posell said...

I am interested in how you went about acomplishing your goals. I havea couple things I would like to get done, but don't know where to start or how to go about it.

Amy said...

jill & josey: i'm sort of a perfectionist when it comes to myself (who isn't) and I get into a little system and it sticks. not to mention that so many of my goals were HUGE issues for me so i was really excited about working on them finally.

friendinME: I'll check it out! i was wondering where you'd been!

melanie: i'll email you; it's the occupational therapist in me.

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