Did you become distracted at some point? Here’s your reminder to get back on track and keep moving towards your accomplishments
It’s that time of year again, when we’re pretty settled in our routine, and there aren’t too many holidays on the horizon breaking our daily schedules. This is the part of the year that we think we’re going to accomplish all the pledges we made at the start of the year around Rosh Hashana time. This is also the time that we’re potentially knee-deep in some project or another, hoping to see the end results sooner than later.
Now is the right time to pause and take stock of our goals. What are we in the middle of trying to accomplish? Where are we holding towards that goal? How do we find the work we’re doing to get there?
What results are we seeing so far? What kind of progress did we make already? What kind of progress are we planning on making over the next few months?
Let’s talk about all the things we already did towards the goal. How did they go over? How many brick walls did we hit along the way? What did we do when we got stuck? Are we still stuck on something? What would the next step be?
How much progress did we see so far? How do we feel about the progress we made? Do we want to keep trying what we’re working on, or are we ready to try something new?
Taking stock of our efforts is a vital way for us to keep our finger on the pulse and stay focused, so we can get ourselves to the places we want to go. When we just float along, months can go by without us realizing that we haven’t made any progress towards our goal, and the end point is rapidly approaching.
**Chany had this situation recently. She was working towards a goal of organizing her house this winter. She started off right after Sukkos, working on her kids’ closets. Closets #1 & 2 went quickly, as she sorted out all the winter things for the upcoming season, packed away the summer things that she could still use next year, and made a pile of clothes that she was planning on giving away.
When she started closet #3, she noticed that there were some old photos there that needed sorting. She had a grand time looking through those photos, sorting them out and she even started a whole project of photobooking them.
Then her kids were sick and home for a week, so the closet organizing was put on hold. After that week, she had to get her kids back on schedule and make supper for a neighbor that had a baby. Then came Black Friday sales, which had Chany distractedly shopping for Chanukah gifts. Now it was already close to Chanukah, and Chanukah party arrangements were a full time job.
Once the Chanukah excitement and craziness died down, her baby was teething, keeping her exhausted and extremely busy.
What happened to her project of putting her house in order over the long winter? Half the winter flew by, yet she had no end in sight. In fact, Chany might have completely forgotten about her grandiose plans, if not for her children reminding her one winter Sunday afternoon that they couldn’t find one of their long lost dolls, because the playroom closet was such a mess.
At that point she helplessly remembered her dream of having a perfectly organized house, which would make running her life so much easier. She realized how much time she lost, because she forgot to stick to her plans, and she instantly decided to reinclude organizing in her schedule. She quickly decided that every Sunday she would work on 1 project around the house, so hopefully by Pesach everything would be more or less done.
This is the right time to take stock of your own goals, to ensure you don’t find your whole winter pass by without you making the conscious effort you planned to achieve whatever you wanted to. Sit down, take a few minutes and remember all the things you were hoping to have worked on.
If you find yourself, like Chany, nowhere near where you planned on being, do not despair. All is far from lost. You can still take the time to make the effort right now, and make a plan of action for yourself that you can keep. That’s what this article is here to remind you to do.
If you would like to track your own progress, download the worksheet below to see how far you’ve come towards your goals.
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