Last night I fired up an old computer, looking for a file I hoped to recover.

Yes, learn from my mistakes: never trust just one back-up!

So, I did manage to recover an old mystery dinner party. I was able to dust it off, add a couple of extra characters, jiggle it around a little and send it off to a friend of mine for her birthday party.

Then my eye was caught by an old blog I had written for Moodscope. It was published on Wednesday 28th January 2015: As the Daffodils Fade. I opened it and began to read.

In it I talk, as so often, about my feelings of futility and difficulties in setting goals when I can never achieve them. I talked of three very specific goals I hoped to achieve by Easter 2015.

I wanted to:

• Lose 20lb of the 35lb I needed to lose to get to a healthy weight.

• Finish (start) my second novel.

• Book a flight to see my dear friend who had moved to the Georgia, USA, five years previously.

I don't think I achieved any of these by Easter 2015. I am sure I felt a failure and totally inadequate – as I so often do. I probably didn't hit them by Easter 2016.

But, as I read those words last night, I realised something.

It's now October 2018, and I have:

• Lost 25lbs: I am only 10lbs away from the top of my healthy weight range.

• Finished that second novel and am halfway through the third.

• Just come back from visiting my friend for the second time. The first time was Georgia; this time, Washington DC.

So, I didn't get these things done by April 2015 – it took three and a half years longer; and I am grateful to have been given those extra three and a half years – but I did them.

There is power in writing down goals and putting them out there, so others can see what you intend.

My team leader is number one in my company. She attributes her success to a number of things, but one of them is setting goals - she wanted to be the best, and now she is.

She shared the "secrets of her success" with us at the recent company conference. But it was that she sets goals which struck me - let's be honest, every "successful" person says they set goals – it was her next words.

"It doesn't matter if you fail!" she said, passion in her voice. "What matters is that you're nearer to the goal than you would have been if you hadn't set in the first place!"

She's right.

So, I have some new goals. I may not reach them in the time-frame I want. But – I will get there.

And you will too. What do you want to do?

For me: I want to get to that healthy weight, finish the series of five novels and - Australia, here I come!

Mary

A Moodscope member