It’s happened again. December is here. There’s a tree in our living room, garlands in the stairways, rolls of wrapping paper leaning against the wall, and Christmas earrings dangling from my earlobes.
December is an interesting month. A hinge of sorts between past and future. Most of us are occupied with preparing for the present Christmas season. Yet many of us are also looking over our shoulders, at the past year, taking stock of achievements and mistakes, goals met or abandoned and events that shaped the world and affected our lives.
Today I want to take inventory of my 2023 and review the goals I set this year.
Goal: Lose 9lbs
Not only did I NOT lose 9lbs, I gained at least five! It could be more but my scale broke in October. Thankfully NOT while I was standing on it. Obviously, I did not meet this goal so it may surprise you that I am not tallying it under the “failures” column. Hear Read me out.
In 2022, I started experiencing perimenopause symptoms which only increased in the new year. My hot flashes were intense enough to make me wonder whether our car seat was heated. (It was…by ME!). My night sweats were severe enough that I succumbed to the promise of a cooling blanket on sale at Costco. And my cravings for sugar reached a magnitude I had never experienced. One night, I fell asleep with chocolate still melting on my tongue!
It took me months to regulate my appetite, my body temperature, and my sleep but I did manage to and that feels like a pretty big victory.
Goal: invest in TQ (my daughter)
Once our child officially became a teenager, we realized how fast time flies. All those people who had admonished us to “enjoy because it goes by fast” were right. It’s almost frightening to think that in only five years, our daughter will legally be an adult!
We’ve always made it a priority to spend time together. We homeschool. We travel as a family. I volunteer for most of her extracurricular activities. However, it was important to me to plan for time together that didn’t serve any purpose beyond connection.Time during which I wasn’t her teacher nor her chaperone, but simply her mom.
We had several enjoyable mommy-daughter dates this year so I’m putting a checkmark next to this goal.
Goal: (Self) Publish book of essays
This has been a goal for several years and I did nothing! I don’t have a published book yet BUT, this year, I did make a lot of progress. I finished my second edit and had four people proofread my manuscript! I have had a lot of fear slowing me down but I am finally at a place where I believe enough in myself and my writing to make this goal happen. This goal is being transferred to my 2024 list.
Goal: Publish 1 essay/week on this blog
Better late than never. I started only in October but I have written weekly since. I currently write during my daughter’s Speech and Debate class on Mondays. It’s nice to have a large chunk of time conveniently carved out on the schedule. The club takes a break for the holidays and we travel in January so I need to decide whether or not I want to stick to weekly writing indefinitely or only during club sessions.
Goal: Finish MDM (MissionDrivenMom) Level 1 Course
This is one goal I achieved. No ifs and buts about it. This curriculum includes an extensive selection of nonfiction and fiction books, teaches how to recognize principles and live by them with the ultimate purpose of discovering our life mission. I have grown as a person and as a reader and I look forward to moving on to Level Two.
Word of the year: NOW
I picked this word to encourage me to take action and deter me from procrastination BUT I forgot my word pretty fast! I definitely procrastinated and I wasted a lot of time this year. I watched a lot of TV. I scrolled Instagram for hours (weeks?!). I didn’t exercise as much as I said I wanted to. I trained martial arts only a handful of times.
Thankfully, I’ve already made some adjustments and I am quite determined to make a better use of my time next year.
All and all I am satisfied. I achieved two out of five goals and made significant progress on the other three. I’m choosing to look at the glass as half full and giving myself a pat on the back. I am excited to sit down and plan 2024.
How about you? Do you set goals? How did you do this year? Let me know in the comment section below.
Well done! And I’m excited that you’re working on getting published!