Revisit Your Goals

Hey Friend!

Welcome to the new month. I am super grateful for the gift of life that you and I enjoy and excited that you are here with me again.

Journaling daily has hardly been my thing, however, I decided to be intentional about reflecting, re-strategizing, and re-aligning, this year. Between December and the first few days of this year, I documented resolutions (more ideally – goals, and new habits that would help me get them). I divided my aspirations into three core areas; Spirit, Soul & Body. I defined the things I would like to see myself being by the year’s end and then listed many things I would need to do to connect the ‘me’ of December 2022 to the ‘me’ of December 2023.

As January rounded off, I reflected on the things I had penned down and I am sharing some things that jumped at me.

• I had done the things in which there was an established accountability system: For example, one of the goals under ‘Spirit’ is to read/study the whole bible in one year: I have completed the books of Genesis & Job and I’m already one-fourth gone into the book Exodus. I am in a WhatsApp group with several people I do not know, but also with a long-time pastor-mentor who would drop chats and emoticons in my dm if he didn’t see me update my progress. I am not doing it because he would check in, I am doing it because imbibing God’s word more than any year before is a way to build my faith. It connects the dots between my spiritual mindedness in 2022 to the person I want to be by the last month of this year. However, being accountable keeps me in remembrance and motivates me on days when I feel tired or weighed down enough to care less about this goal.
• An answered prayer made me forget some things that mattered: Since September 2022 I had stopped working from a physical office site, and have been an indoor mom. That changed and now I am out most times a week. I realized that this new ‘busy-ness’ had rid my consciousness of other things I had committed to doing, not because I can’t make the effort to do them, but because I just got carried away with the ‘new thing’. These things I forgot are more instrumental and beneficial to my long-term success, than the few bucks this ‘new thing’ would bring my way at the moment. Recognize low-hanging fruits for what they are, be grateful for them in fact, but never let go of the bigger picture.
• If you’re struggling with developing habits that are essential for an area of your life, you can try unpacking the consequences. I have always placed more value on the spirit and mind, however with growth and now motherhood, I am more aware of how disruptive it can be to be ill. This realization has made it easier for me to refrain from some unhealthy eating habits. I now cook with so little oil (I documented down to this detail, for real), reduced my intake of soda and goodies significantly, have stuck with walking when I can just hop on a bus, and now use multivitamins (specifically for women my age) daily, despite my dislike for drugs.
• One month is too long a time to revisit my note; I opened it and was stunned at the countless things I had forgotten that I was supposed to be doing! They weren’t even difficult tasks, I forgot because I hadn’t opened the note in 27 days. I know doing this weekly is not a routine I can commit to, but bi-weekly should work. Revisit your plans, goals, and all of those things you thought about and wrote about as the year began. Revisit them in the shortest intervals possible. As you go you’d find that some things need to be struck out as they shouldn’t have been there in the first place, you’d also be encouraged to keep up with the ones that matter.

I rewrote my ‘vision 2023 – spirit, soul & body’. I left out some things from the old page and added some new things. That is the whole point after all, from good to best.

Here are some other things you may consider documenting; they’d likely stun you to tears by the end of the year.

• Personal prayers answered
• Intercessory prayers answered
• Gifts, favors, compliments & awards received, etc.
• Milestones achieved (you &/or your loved ones)

Till your next time here, stay blooming!