Goal Setting

Have you ever had a day that you ended up feeling like a hamster on a wheel in his cage? I felt that way Saturday. I got up with the intentions of getting a lot done. The job I really wanted to get done was to straighten my closet up. It really needed it bad, but this is how it went….

I started to take a load of laundry. In the kitchen I saw Easter eggs the grand kids had “hidden”, I started picking them up. I took them to their room where I saw some old pictures that needed to be taken upstairs. I took them up to the attic where I stepped into my sewing room and picked up a few things that needed to go downstairs, because I don’t like to make too many trips up and down the stairs. When I got back in the kitchen there was a dish towel that needed to be put in the washing machine. Oh yeah, I was going to start the laundry.

You get the picture right? That is the kind of day that makes me feel like a hamster in a wheel getting nowhere. I do not like days that go nowhere.

So how can we recover from a day like this? I have learned the hard way. I used to despise a list of to do tasks. I have always avoided goal setting in January, but like a lot of things in life I have found that setting goals and making list is a perfect way to keep me on task. Especially if I am the one making the goal.

The goal doesn’t have to be daunting, long or oppressive. Pick something fairly simple and write in your bullet journal or calendar, or just a sticky pad. Think of one simple task that you can put a check by at the end of the day and say, “finished.”

I decided to write down the goal of cleaning a drawer out that has bothered me every time I opened it up. So I stopped my crazy path I had already started on, one that I had not completed a single task of and wrote down, “clean medicine drawer”. I went to TJ Maxx and bought 2 clear plastic bins. I dumped everything out on my counter. Looked at all the expiration. I am really glad I did this. I had medicines in there from 2015! I was brutal about what I put back in that drawer.

The whole thing took about 15 minutes, and I was not just spinning my wheels. I got to check a box that said “finished” and you know what? Every time I open that drawer I am proud of how clean and organized it is, honestly! Love ya’ll Janet