I’m not one for new year’s resolutions, but I do find, at the end of March or beginning of April, I start to look around to see if I’ve accomplished anything in the year to date. Perhaps I choose this time because it’s the end of the tax year. When I was an accountant, that meant a rush as clients tried to sort out their affairs and make the most of any tax allowances before 5th April.

This year, it seems that there are no achievements yet. I still don’t have a job, and I haven’t done anything else either. But then, I haven’t really had any goals, other than getting that job.

I have applied for quite a few and have had three interviews, Sadly the jobs I really wanted, I didn’t even get interviews for. By the time you read this, I will have had another interview. Maybe it will be fourth time lucky.

Other goals, not so much. And I’ve learned throughout life that, if you don’t have a goal and you don’t have a plan to reach that goal, then nothing happens.

Going back, I reread my second blog with this title from 2018. In it I refer to the first blog from 2015, in which I had set some goals. I didn’t achieve any of them in 2015, which I probably saw as a failure that year. However, by 2018, I had all of them in the bag. It just took a little longer.

An old boss of mine used to say that setting goals is essential but that reaching them is not so important, as at least you will be further along than if you don’t set them at all.

I think the difficulty is when you can’t think of any goals because nothing really inspires you to set any. Sometimes the consequence of not changing anything can be the impetus you need. For instance, I know that if I don’t lose weight, I will need to buy some new clothes because the ones I have don’t fit. As I love my clothes, it’ is a good reason to cut out the chocolate and cakes. My goal is to lose 25lbs, but anything at all will be an achievement and I’ll celebrate it – just not with cake!

The consequence of me not finishing my third novel is that my hero and heroine will continue to stare at each other over the body of the second villain for ever more. I really can’t inflict that on them; they need to find their happy ending. So I shall set my goal of finishing it. I also want to go back and rewrite a lot of my second novel because I’m not happy with it.

Do you have any goals for this year? Could you set any? What happens if nothing changes in your life? Perhaps you will be happy and nothing needs to change, but for most of us, I think we probably need those goals.

Mary

A Moodscope member