I posted my 2011 Goals in January and lots of you were like “Elisa, that’s a pretty lofty list, are you sure you wanna go all crazy sauce on life like that?”
And I was all “You don’t know me, I do what I want. Whateva whateva, I’ll crush this list!”
Well…I lied about my 2011 Goals.
Ish.
I noted in April that I had already readjusted some goals. A few that were already obsolete (seriously, tell me again why I wanted to start an Etsy store IN ADDITION TO EVERYTHING ELSE I WERE DOING?!) and a few that needed to be examined as I wasn’t close to on track for them (15 hrs of TV a week, send a handwritten letter to someone weekly, read 52 books this year).
Then, April things went nuts. In May and June they got better. By July I was gasping for air as I had been treading water way too long and was starting to go under. Towards the end of August I stood by as my heart shattered into little pieces. In September I got a reminder that I needed to update my goals for third quarter and I actually laughed at the computer.
Yes. I sat there staring at the screen and I burst out in guffawing laughter.
I had barely looked at those goals since May. They sat in the back of my mind (I should have taken Jenny’s advice and printed them to hang somewhere so I could be reminded of them!) but I didn’t even know everything on the list.
Nor had I taken any time to get some of the easiest (hello…library card…really?!) ones checked off.
So, with 6 weeks left to the year, I’m faced with an interesting conundrum:
Should we always finish the things we start?
The mere fact that the question starts with the phrase should infers a WHOLE LOT about the legitimacy of the conundrum. But there is something to be said for following through. It establishes a precedent in your life and maintains an aspect of your character.
One day you are blowing off a few obsolete goals on a ridiculously cliched annual list and the next you are snorting blow off a hooker’s ass in a Vegas strip club because your life has gone that horribly awry.
(Note – I may have watched too many after-school specials about the grandiose consequences of questionable simple actions)
When I wrote my 2011 Goals in January, I can tell you with absolute certainty that I did not anticipate where my life would be this November.
This is precisely the reason that many people don’t do resolutions.
Things change. People change.
LIFE CHANGES.
I’m sure you all figured out that many of my 2011 Goals are out the window for the rest of they year.
That might make me a quitter. That might make me lazy. That might mean that I don’t finish the things I start.
I’ll spend time contemplating all these things as I’m sitting on the beach with my laptop and a bottle of Bintang the first couple weeks of 2012. 😉
Photo Credit – Derrick Diemont on Flickr (Looks ominous, huh?)
Bintang it is. Got one on ice. See you soon 🙂
Dan — if you could go ahead and put one on ice for me too, that’d be great. I plan on visiting for an in person slumber party with Elisa as soon as I can get my act together! You rock for being the catalyst of it all…
Cheers!
Done. I’ve been looking for a direction in 2012. Inspiring entrepreneurial slumber parties is now a top contender.
Well if there’s something better than Bintang I’m in, but I heard that was the drink of champions 😉
As for entrepreneurial slumber parties, Jenny and I already own the corner market on that niche. We can chat partnerships though…we really need to bring on an international business guru.
UH, is it already almost 2012? Beginning of 2011 I did a total Chris-Guillebeau-style-end-of-year-review. But I got caught up in, “what went well this year” and “what didn’t go well this year” and forgot to make actionable goals.
I think there’s something to be said for just taking time to evaluate. Maybe you didn’t do all of your goals, but you will be starting the new year on a beach, and that means you did a lot of things right in 2011!
Yeah, I need to focus more on reviewing what happened and how I feel about that and less on guessing what the future holds. I mean, some stuff is obviously on there, but other stuff is just filler. The actionable goals are good, but only if we’re willing to tuck and roll when things change on them.
I love your final thought: Maybe you didn’t do all of your goals, but you will be starting the new year on a beach, and that means you did a lot of things right in 2011! That may be one of my guiding thoughts ending out the year and starting the new one.
It’s not even about following through. Screw following through.
“Improvise, adapt, overcome”
– Clint Eastwood (Heartbreak Ridge by way of Marine Corps)
A) Clint Eastwood. Yes.
B) I love that quote. I hadn’t heard it before, but so very true. If you are able to do these things (improvise, adapt, overcome) then I feel like not only will you probably be successful, but you’ll probably end up happier as well.
Thanks for sharing!
I just love your posts so much 🙂
Especially casually dropping a line (no pun intended) about doing coke on a stripper’s ass. You know, just another day here at Ophelia’s Webb 🙂 Hahahha. But seriously….
BALI TRUMPS ANY AND ALL GOALS.
As your #SPRILBFF, I hereby release you from all other distractions. You’re number one goal is now “Get my hot slammin’ yoga body on a plane to Bali by January.”
You heard me.
Haha, likewise and back at you #SPIRL re:loving posts.
And of course I’d drop that line like it’s nothing. That’s just how I roll!
Yes, Bali trumps goals totally. Well, Bali is the new goal. A natural new destination on the journey. And a fucking brilliant idea.
Thanks for the release! Hot slammin’ yoga body…again…how we roll. 😉
I can relate to this, definitely. Grandiose goal setting. Like, before I moved to NY, I had all these ideas about what I was going to do and how I wanted to spend my time. It all seemed so unrealistic! I wanted to pretty much do everything I thought was important, but when I actually got here, a lot of that fell to the wayside. And I guess that’s kinda how it goes: things that aren’t pressing just, sorta, DIE.
I’ve never been a big goal or resolutions person, and I’ve begun to lean more on the side of Zen Habits of being goal-less. It’s easier for me that way; to simply do what I want to do when I want to do it. Like earlier, I was in the midst of putting laundry away but our linen closet was in disarray. So I thought, “I should clean this.” And then I immediately thought, “I can do that right now.” And I did. I took everything out, and re-arranged it. Took me, I guess, an hour or so.
I hadn’t planned on cleaning out the linen closet today – it just happened and it was something that needed to be done. The only planning I have to do is stuff that has deadlines, like submissions or paperwork that needs to get sent out. While being goal-less lends itself seamlessly into extreme procrastination, I know myself well enough to know that if I want/need to do something, I need to do it at the exact moment that I think it or it won’t get done.
But in terms of accomplishments, things I want to achieve – I don’t think of them in that way. I think of them as “experiences I want to have”. Similar concept, but different emotional response. Experiences are fun, but plans/goals are burdensome.
😀
It is tough. I think we’ve gotta dream big to push ourselves out of our comfort box to try for them. But at the same time, it is frustrating when we don’t accomplish those big huge pie-in-the-sky goals.
The more I learn from people about things like goals/lists/etc. I’m definitely a proponent for doing what feels right and following your instincts, but I am also an analytical list person. I love them and the structure they provide. As I’m working today, I have a list of everything I need to get done this weekend so I don’t have to worry about forgetting something.
Lists are great for providing some organization to a blustery mind-swirl of thought, but you are TOTALLY right. You can’t set them in stone, especially if they are dependent on things beyond your control and/or things in the distant future. Life moves WAY too fast to hold fast to things that might change.
Yeah, I haven’t achieved a number of my goals. I think I need to stop setting all these ridiculously detailed/ambitious goals, because I never look at most of them a few months into the new year 😛 I think there’s nothing wrong with saying “screw it” because people change and life changes, as you said.
But the lesson I’ve learned is: make some more realistic goals next time, and a lot fewer of em 😀
I like your lesson – I learned a similar one! I’m thinking of writing a yearly manifesto to guide my intentions instead. We’ll see… 🙂