How are you doing on your New Year's goals?

a picture from Instagram of my new glasses, just because.

This morning I had planned to put up a different post, but instead of diving right into my work, I did something I've been meaning to do every morning in the month of January, but majorly dropped the ball on: beginning my day with a "quiet time." For me, quiet time includes mostly prayer and visualization of achieved goals, and lasts about 5 to 10 minutes (that's all I seem to have the attention span for, for pretty much anything these days). For you, quiet time may or may not include prayer, and it might happen in the shower or while you're nursing your baby or on the car ride in to work or right there at your desk before your day begins. I'm trying to remember that there's no wrong way to do a quiet time--the point is to get yourself centered each morning - to get your head in the game - focusing on what you want to accomplish, and ready to work towards your goals.

Goals. Speaking of those, how did you do on your resolutions in January? I wrote down some overarching goals at the beginning of last month, and like I mentioned in this post, I put bright neon stickers on the first of each month in my calendar throughout the remainder of the year, to remind me to revisit and reevaluate those goals every month. It's already the 4th of February now, but I still sat down and took a look at what I'd written out last month, and as it happens, I only followed through with ONE of the five most major ones I wanted to accomplish in January (the one I followed through on was to blog at least 6 of my backlogged photo sessions, and I blogged 8, over on my photography blog. Hooray!).

I was pretty disappointed, though, to see that I hadn't done the other four pretty major things I wanted to  have completed last month, and it got me thinking about the difference between successful people and people who never quite get things done. I think the difference is FOCUS and ACTION. My husband is the most focused and action-oriented person I have ever know, and it's why he succeeds at anything and everything he puts his mind to. Because while the rest of us are twiddling our thumbs and talking about and writing about and dreaming about our goals, the successful people are making it happen through whatever means it takes. Writing those emails, making those calls, putting in late hours, making big sacrifices, setting priorities, taking risks, putting themselves out there, doing hard or tedious things that other people don't have patience for, and so on.

So I guess the conclusion that I've come to is that, no, January wasn't a complete loss just because I only accomplished one of my five goals. It was a learning experience, and a chance to tweak how I'm doing things to ensure that MORE of those goals get reached in the month of February. Months serve as excellent mile-markers, but change comes in the decisions we make right now, in the present. Action-oriented decisions, like to have a quiet time in the morning and get centered, and then lay out your list of actions needed to get you where you need to be. But the most critical part is in the doing them.

Lastly, if you're not deeply offended by a little strong language, go read this article titled "6 harsh truths that will make you a better person." It seriously blew my mind, and opened my eyes (it's hilarious, too). What you DO really is all that matters.

SO GO DO STUFF.