In the spirit of the new year, setting goals, and making resolutions, I’ve taken a moment to reflect. In years past I’ve noticed that my resolutions don’t stick very long, so here recently I haven’t made any. Last year I decided not to make any resolutions at all – mostly because they remind of goals that I don’t ever seem to accomplish. I think my problem is that the resolutions I would make were way too hard to fulfill, even for Superwoman (and deep down I really am Superwoman). I remember one year I resolved to make a million dollars by the time I was 30, seriously. Granted, I was 17 (going on like 25), I was in my senior year of high school, President of FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America), running our school’s store, and I thought I 
was going to be the most amazing business-woman alive. I had huge goals, huge dreams, and I had no idea how to accomplish them, but I resolved that they would come true. Well, I grew up, I turned 30 a few years back without my million dollars and somehow my Superwoman cape missing. I came to the realization that resolutions are just words with good intentions behind them. They seem great and inspiring when you make them, but as time goes on and they are not coming true they are like a weight strapped to your ankle dragging you down. Talk about failure…yep, I feel like a failure to my own made-up dreams.
I’m older and I’d like to think I’m wiser now too, and the reality of feeling like a flop with my own dreams and goals has hit me hard this year. I went to an amazing Bible Study this morning and the speaker had a great devotional on resolutions. She talked about how she always sets New Year’s Resolutions that would cause her to strive for great stuff in her life, but she finds herself, year after year, failing at just about every resolution she sets. Striving and Failing. Think about both of those. I looked up both words in Webster’s Dictionary and below are the definitions.
Strive: to struggle vigorously, as in opposition or resistance
Fail: to fall short of success or achievement in something expected, attempted, desired, or approved
To struggle vigorously – that perfectly describes how I feel about a lot of my resolutions. I feel like I struggle a lot, I try to put in some effort to change behaviors, and then when I’m at my wits end, I just give up and find myself in the exact same spot I was the year before. It’s terribly frustrating and ever so futile. I think the answer lies in my perspective. Rather than setting myself up to fall short this year, I’m going to change my perspective on my resolutions.
Instead of a making Resolutions: the act of resolving or determining upon an action, – I’m changing them to Goals: - the result or achievement toward which effort is directed. To me, a goal is something you achieve when effort is placed toward it. A resolution is just making up your mind to change, or willing something to happen, but you are missing the action. When you make a conscience effort to work toward a goal, you absolutely achieve every time. Part of changing your perspective is not getting so wrapped up in the “what” or the “how much” you achieve, but celebrating that you have achieved something toward your goal, and to keep on achieving.
I’m also choosing to make a list of Aspirations: a goal or objective that is strongly desired that are more lofty and harder to reach, but are something I do wish to attain, but won’t feel like a failure if I don’t reach them.
So, what are you goals and aspirations this upcoming year? I’d love to hear some. Want to hear mine? My top business goals this upcoming year are to reach 500 followers on my facebook.com/MomKatrinasWorld page, publish 3 ebooks, and grow my business by 3 levels. One of my aspirations is to finally go on a fancy vacation with my hubby – somewhere with a nice warm beach. Tell me yours! Dave Ramsey says, “If you aim at nothing, you will reach it every time.” Aim high and then go get it!
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