{31 Blessed Days: Day 31}

{yourgoalbook.com}

December 31: Day 31
I am blessed by the power of goals.

New Year's Eve - my most favorite holiday. Tomorrow we all get a clean, fresh slate, a chance to hit the re-set button. Everything you didn't like about 2010 can be left behind, all it needs is a little mental shift.

I have given up New Year's resolutions in favor of goals. I spend some serious time thinking about the year ahead and what I want it to look like. First I just start listing all kinds of things I want to do, such as: read 30 books, find a new podcast to subscribe to, workout 5-6 days a week, go through Purpose Driven Life. Then I shuffle them all into categories, such as financial, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, etc. After that's settled, I put a monthly plan together. For example, if I want to read 30 books this year, that's two or three a month, so I go through my pile of books and choose which books I'll read in January and so on.

I used to just make generic-y goals, like eat more organic or try yoga. Well guess what? It's not specific enough. A better way is to declare I will try two new organic foods twice a month and then incorporate that into my grocery list. And for yoga, I could make a to-do list item titled "research yoga studios in the area." Specific wins all the time. Generic is dull and flat, go Team Specific!!

What's very rewarding is to go back and read my journals from past NYEs, to see what I wanted to accomplish and if I did indeed do that. For many years I wanted to improve my public speaking skills. That one goal has been on the list forever. Last January I was having coffee with an acquaintance and he mentioned that he had gone to a Toastmasters group and loved the experience. When I said I'd always wanted to try that but just hadn't made the time, he offered to attend the first meeting with me. We went that Friday and I've been a member ever since. While I hadn't made a specific plan to try out Toastmasters, I had it on my radar and was ready to jump at the opportunity when it knocked.

We aren't supposed to be perfect - we'll save that for Jesus - but I can't imagine someone just being content with who they are, year after year. Growing, stretching and learning - trying new things - it puts you in new worlds and you can't believe you ever lived any other way.

I am blessed.

***I hope you've enjoyed my 31 Blessed Days series. It has been a wonderful motivator to get me writing daily and has fired up the creative spigot. My new adventure will be journaling each day in January - I won't be sharing those entries on this blog, not that I have that exciting of a life, ha ha.

Happy, Happy New Year to you. Thanks for reading my blog. God bless!***