What You NEED to Remember as You Set Next Year's Goals

It’s the end of the year — a time of reflecting over the past 365 days and setting goals for the next. But as you evaluate and plan, there’s one thing you absolutely must remember. And I’m about to tell you what it is.

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As I write this post, we are at the precipice of a new year. It’s the day after Christmas, the end of the year is just around the corner, and all eyes are looking toward the next one. The pages of 2018 are about to close, and we’re all wondering what’s ready to be written for 2019.

There’s something exciting about a new year. It’s completely cliche, I know, but it truly is a blank slate. Anything could happen, and the possibilities are invigorating.

For many of us, this season brings deep reflection over the past year. Was it everything we hoped it would be? Did we do what we set out to do? Did we live the kind of life as the kind of person with the kind of values we want?

It’s also a time of setting big goals for the coming year. We think about all the ways we’d like to change. The successes we hope to achieve. The ways in which we’re going to get there.

And all of that is a good thing.

It’s the outpouring of a life intentionally lived. A life with purpose. A life that knows it’s here for a reason and desperately wants to fulfill its calling.

As the saying goes, “If you aim for nothing, you’ll hit it every time.” Going through life without honest self-reflection, vision, and goals is allowing life to happen to you. It’s passive. It’s drifting aimlessly, tossed about by life’s currents. And, frankly — can I say this? Will you forgive me? — it’s a life being wasted.

So, believe me when I say that I am a big believer in goals. In fact, I devoted half a day a few weeks ago to evaluating this past year and planning for the next. And I’m excited (and nervous!) about some of the ways I’m going to push myself in 2019.

But. (You felt the “but” coming, right?)

Sometimes, we can get so wrapped up in reaching for the next steps… that we forget to celebrate the ones we’ve already taken.

In our self-reflection, we can become so focused on what didn’t happen, the goals we didn’t hit, and the ways we didn’t match our ideal, that we forget about the wonderful things that did happen. The goals we knocked out of the park. And all the ways we rocked it as wives, mothers, and all-around human beings.

In our quest to become the person we want to be, we fail to recognize and appreciate the beauty of imperfect progress.

What is imperfect progress?

Imperfect progress doesn’t always look like progress. In fact, sometimes it can look like the exact opposite — by standard definitions, anyway.

It doesn’t always look like goals neatly completed and crossed off a list.

It doesn’t always look like a successful venture. In fact, sometimes it straight-up looks like failure.

It’s not always forward motion. Quite often, it looks like two steps forward and one step back.

It doesn’t always follow a direct path. There are usually some crazy twists and turns and wild detours.

When examined too closely — like a camera lens zoomed in to a single day, week, month, or even year — imperfect progress looks like anything but progress. It looks like mistakes and failures and inconsistencies and lack. It leads to feelings of frustration and discouragement. It makes you think, “I can’t do this. I will never be able to do this.”

But when zoomed out to a full perspective, with a year or several years or even decades in view, you can see that there was progress there after all. Slow but steady, beautifully imperfect progress.

Find Imperfect Progress In Your Life

The way you handle the stresses of life… the anger that is slower to ignite… the steps you’ve courageously taken… the fears you’ve overcome… the discipline you’ve developed… the knowledge you’ve gained… the money you’ve saved… the times you’ve said no… the new things you’ve tried… the adventures you’ve gone on…

There are so many ways to see imperfect progress in your life, and if you take a moment to think back to the person you were a year ago, five years ago, and ten years ago, I know you’ll see many examples in your own life.

So, as we stand at this turning point of one year into the next, as you reflect on the previous year and plan for the future, I hope you remember this:

Set goals, yes. Absolutely, 100% yes. Examine yourself, push yourself, and always strive for a life well-lived.

But don’t forget to celebrate the imperfect progress. Even when (especially when) it doesn’t look like progress at all.