Goal Review

I suppose I'm a bit early with the topic of this post being that it's only the 3rd week of December but...

I bought a nice new day planner for 2014 the other day and started writing down the dates of guests I'll be hosting here and dates I'll be visiting other blogs. As I was flipping through the pages of the first couple of months, I couldn't help but reflect on what I have and what I haven't accomplished this year.

Did I meet all the goals I set for myself for 2013? No, unfortunately, I wasn't even close. This caused me to take a look at those goals. Were they too far reaching? Too much out of my control (such as hitting the best seller list - no, this wasn't one of my goals, just an example)? Did I utilize my time outside of the day job to the best advantage? The answer to all of those questions is a resounding No.

This led me to ask the question "Why?" I'm not sure I have an answer to that. Perhaps because my goals while concrete, weren't broken down into specific deadlines such I'll have X done by Y date. Perhaps while I thought my goals were reasonable, I always found myself feeling as though I was behind in one thing or another so maybe they weren't as reasonable as I thought way back in January 2013. And sometimes, life and family responsibilities came first.

As I start to think about goal setting for 2014 and what I'd like to accomplish in the coming year, these are some of things I'll be keeping in mind. Are my goals truly reasonable? Have I built in time for unplanned events/responsibilities that may crop up? Would it help me stay on track if instead of concrete final goals, to break them down a bit more with specific deadline dates?

I'd be interested in hearing about your goal setting methods and what works for you.