Welcome to 2019. 365 days, 365 new chances! I realize that we now have fewer than 365 days but it’s the sentiment that counts! Even though many people don’t or won’t make New Year’s resolutions, I feel that having some goals, intentions or whatever you want to call them is helpful to focus your actions and maybe even help you to figure out what is really important to you.
In addition to setting goals, it’s also important to review your goals to see how you did. In reviewing my 2018 goals, I realized toward the end of the year that I made a major mistake. Nothing life or death or earth shattering but completely unhelpful in terms of meeting my stated goals.
What did I do? It’s actually what I DIDN’T do. I did not go back and review what I said I wanted to accomplish at the beginning of 2018 and create smaller steps to accomplish those goals. Even though I was doing monthly goals blog posts, I realize now that I was focusing on what I wanted to get done at the moment instead of what I planned out.
Now don’t get me wrong. It’s perfectly acceptable to to shift gears and make changes to goals. Sometimes things come up or interests shift. That’s fine but being conscious about the shift is important. I find that when I don’t pay attention my attention can easily shift elsewhere and then I don’t end accomplishing what I said I wanted to. Or I manage to start and NEVER finish!
Without further ado, let’s review what I said I wanted to do (post linked)and what I actually did accomplish.
HOME PROJECTS
GOAL: Declutter my entire home.
HA! HA! I did manage to get some areas de-cluttered but not my entire home. I decluttered the cabinets in my master bathroom, a drawer in the master bath as well as the medicine cabinet and some dresser drawers (t-shirts, exercise clothes). I also decluttered the hutch in my dining room, the linen closet and the hallway closet. My craft area also got worked on.
GOAL: Finish the hallway refresh which includes painting, shampooing the carpet, completing the gallery wall by choosing the photos for the frames. I actually did pretty good with this one. The one task I have left to do is to fix the laundry room door. I have bifold doors and one came off of the track. I will have to decide if I can fix this one myself or have to call in professional help. And most importantly, I am very happy with the results! As I type this, I realize that I never did a “reveal” post. I think it’s because until the door is fixed I don’t really consider it done. I have shown individually completed areas but never the whole thing done. When the door is fixed, I will rectify that.
GOAL: Refresh the master bathroom. I did not accomplish this goal at all. The one very small thing that I did do is choose 3 paint colors for the wall to swatch. I know that one reason that I did not even start this goal is because I was so overwhelmed with the hallway refresh and all of the details involved in getting that done. I was so wiped out by that task that the thought of tackling another large task was too much.
PERSONAL AND SPIRITUAL GROWTH
While I did some focus on this area, I didn’t do anything consistently. I didn’t establish any practices and I don’t feel like I gave enough attention to this area.
HEALTH & FITNESS
GOAL: Establish a regular workout routine.
Not so much. I did some working out but I never met my monthly or weekly goals. Now mind you, these goals were really only in my head because I never wrote them down or crystallized them in any way.
FINANCIAL
Again, not so much. I didn’t write or follow a budget and only managed to pay down a little debt. The truth is I hate dealing with my finances. I hate thinking about money and I hate feeling like money controls me instead of the other way around.
CREATIVITY/CRAFT
Project Life
GOAL-continue documenting with project life and keep up with it. This goal was actually a great success. Using the happy planner and sprocket photo printer helped immensely. The biggest factor though was my commitment to monthly Project Life posts on the blog. The review of December Project Life will be coming up next week.
Card making
GOAL-continue to make cards personally and for my Etsy shop. I did continue to make cards in my personal life but never re-opened my Etsy shop. While I consider this goal a success, I want to work on not always feeling so pressed to get cards out on time. Making cards for loved ones is something that I really enjoy so I need to make time to do it.
Scrapbook layouts
GOAL-make some traditional scrapbook layouts. This one did not happen at all-complete fail. I think I need to decide at this point if I want to continue making traditional layouts or move to digital scrapbooking. I definitely still want to make layouts and because I spend so much time on the computer doing it digitally may be the way to go. I can design the layouts, have them printed out and then add 3-D elements if I choose.
Photography
GOAL-practice using both my iPhone and DSLR camera to get better at taking pictures for the blog and in general. I did make some progress on this goal. I managed to get my light kit open and put together and have also used it (though I’m not super sure that I know what I’m doing)! I have also practiced with the settings on my camera more and have gotten more information about using both my DSLR and iPhone. I will consider this one a success!
TIME MANAGEMENT
GOAL-work on and practice time management skills-being more focused and less scattered. I practiced time management skills all year and have learned some techniques that are helpful. Setting the timer works really well for me and scheduling tasks in my planner is beneficial as well.
The area that I need to continue to work on now is to break tasks down into smaller steps not just to make them more manageable but to also better calculate how long a task will take so that I can schedule it at the right time.
One of the things that I have learned about myself is that I get overwhelmed with large tasks usually the details, get bored when things take longer than intended and I then seek out tasks that are easier and more fun.
At this point, I say goodbye to 2018 and thank you for the lessons learned!
If you’ve made it this far, thank you! Come back on Thursday for my next post which will be my goals for 2019.
How did you do with your 2018 goals? Any lessons learned? Share in the comments!
