It's the Middle of January; Do You Know Where Your Resolutions Are?

Well, do you?

I know not everyone is as organization-challenged as I am. I have some amazing organizational examples as blogmates here on Operation Awesome. But for me, it's generally a trick to remember, exactly what were those fifty goals I set on January 1st on the high of New Year fireworks? By the middle of the month, I'm awash in daily life and lucky if I remember to follow through with two or three of those original fifty.

If you're feeling a bit swamped by daily life, you're not alone. I'm right there with you. Fortunately for us, there are organizational genius like Abby who create downloadable spreadsheets entitled, "2015 Writing Goal Tracking Spreadsheet."

Yay, Abby! Does it get any better? I submit that it does not.

So while Abby's awesome tool helps you keep your writing goals, I'll just mention a new tool I've been using. It's called THE VISION BOARD.

It's not a storyboard. It isn't framed in filigree, although it could be. Shoot, it would be so much better in filigree. Don't judge me, Pinterest.

It's just a poster I made to include some of my favorite hopes and dreams, as cut out of magazines or as coined in clever phrases, like "Live Life On Purpose!" But mostly my vision board is personal. It's customized to me. I plastered the background with images of lush, green gardens; cozy, stone fireplaces; and rich, hardwood bookcases filled with treasured tomes. These are the places where I want to write. These are the inspirational images that lure my imagination from its daily-sludge hiding place.

Writing goals--or any goals, for that matter--ought not to be about the guilt you feel when you don't keep up, or even the totally awesome feeling you get when you reach them (though that is the huge payoff we all crave). Goals are about the journey. 

I may not have read all 500 something books on my bookshelves (one of my lofty previous New Year's Resolutions), but looking back on the past year, I can say that my time was well-spent. The journey took me through a pregnancy, the discovery of an amazing ancestor, a failed attempt to buy our first house (the one owned by that ancestor)... followed by a successful attempt to buy a different first house (one frankly more suited to us), and the birth of my fourth child. We enjoyed celebrating our first Christmas in our own, really-own place. I even made a construction paper fireplace.

We hiked, we danced, we camped, we watched sunsets, we randomly met old friends in unexpected places, and read a billion books that found us (ones that weren't on my to-read list, incidentally, so they don't count toward that goal). We lived. It was absolutely unusual and inspiring. And I wrote.

I could make a list of things that didn't happen. But that would be ungrateful. As the guru says, "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans." Or maybe that was John Lennon.

Never be afraid to make those other plans. That's how the journey begins! Bon Voyage!