Oh Hello sweet new year and the pressure and craze to get the goals set in a perfect little row for the year. Right? Do you get stuck trying to set the perfect goals? Have you in fact read everyone else’s post on 2015 to make sure your not missing out on a goal? Or read/researched “how to’s” post on setting the right goals, but haven’t sat down to put yours together? Welcome to the club.
My heart often yearns to do the best. The most current. The goals that mean something. But yet, my mind gets caught up in even starting. I don’t want to do it wrong, so sometimes that makes me pause and try to research it some more. So if you are feeling this way about goals, a big project you have, anything. You are not alone and let’s dig in together. (meaning you can’t just read this post you have to do something too, deal?)
See what is hilarious, is all that goal researching and reading is fine and all, but take that amount of time and get quiet with the Lord, a journal, for me powersheets and shut off every-screen and BOOM. Magical goal setting/brainstorming dust appears. Well at least for me…That is when the ideas and themes oozing out on to my journal pages.
So again, if you find yourself having a hard time settling or your making excuses. You are not alone. Take the time. Stop reading everyone else’s lists or those darn buzzfeed posts on facebook and step away to get quiet and open with your stuff!
It took me FOREVER to actually do this! This year has been the first year that jumping in and setting life long goals or bucket lists just didn’t feel right or exciting. It didn’t resonate with me. I wanted my goals to simmer. I wanted to hash and rehash. To be honest I was feeling a little lame and wondered what was up with my brain until I heard like-minded women taking their time with goal setting as well.
For awhile I didn’t understand why goals felt so foreign to me at this stage, but a sweet friend lead me to her In Every Season guide and this paired with the Powersheets that I use yearly really helped me pull things together.
See I am in such a different season that what I would call normal Gina. My heart is timid, quiet and honestly in a place that wants to learn and glean. Which is not my normal cup of tea. But looking to the seasons as a metaphor, really helped me feel like nothing was “wrong” with me (like I have thought for months) but my season right now is just different that the typical-go-get-and-do-a-million-things at once Gina. I can have freedom to REST IN MY SEASON. Goodness what relief this has had on my heart.
So to be honest when doing my powersheets this Jan. THEY WERE HARD.
I couldn’t formulate goals this year, so I took some time to write through my thoughts in my Powersheets. In years past it was super simple saying I wanted to “shoot this many weddings” or “travel here” I couldn’t see that far ahead. So while I scribbled the big goals for 2015 at the time feeling super frustrated that I couldn’t “come up” with anything. I just had to let go of trying to make them perfect and sound and feel perfect. I saw myself creating BASE needs for where I was in my life right then.
I knew I needed to work on SLEEP. NOURISHING. SELF CARE. QUIET TIME with JESUS and WORKING SCHEDULE.
This didn’t fit in the my perfect plan for my Powersheets and to be honest I felt like such a failure to have my big goals be sleeping and eating well. But I wasn’t doing any of the above well or even close to ok for my health. So the boring little pieces of life that we so often pass by WERE the things that mattered. They STILL do matter.
Our well being. Our connection to Christ. Our wellness helps us be filled each day, so we can pour out to others.
I will share my 2015 goals soon, but I am here to tell you. It’s ok if your power sheets are all about the baby steps like mine have been the first 2 months of this year. It’s ok if you haven’t even looked at them or filled them out yet. Find your baseline. Your must haves. It’s ok you don’t have BIG HUGE SUPER AWESOME GOALS right now, or honestly ever.
Life is full of SEASONS. Long and short seasons. And I am learning to see the blessing in the slow and confusing winters as I am slowly transitioning from one to another. I can’t wait to share more here.
As a bonus a real life look at my current season and kitchen table! EEEK!
Your honesty is inspiring Gina! I remember having years similar to yours this year – taking care of yourself is so important for you to be a great momma, wife and to help you be successful in the rest of your goals. It’s great to know we’re not alone in our thoughts.
Your baby Cal is the absolute sweetest! It must be a Cal thing 🙂
Cal’s are pretty col! You rock.
Yes! I’m right there with you, girl. In fact, I’ve given myself permission not to do any “goals” this year and it’s pretty great. Taking care of yourself, your babe, your family and your business is enough. You are enough.. xoxo.
Love you. SO much. YES no goal city is nice.
Gina- THANK YOU for these words. I so needed to hear every single one of them. These bare necessities goals have been the only goals I’ve been achieving since becoming a mom (three years ago). I so often feel like a failure, like I’m not achieving what’s important. But I get rare glimpses of realizing that hugging my babies and teaching them about Jesus and feeding them and caring for them far outweigh my career goals and things that can achieved later when I don’t have little babies hanging onto my legs all day. So I’m right there, focusing on the basics — Jesus, sleep, nutrition, drinking enough water during the day (seriously, BASICS!), taking a daily vitamin, caring for my skin. These all used to be things that just happened among all my other goals, but now I have to fight to fit them in everyday. Thank you for voicing that this is normal, all part of the season of motherhood, the season of realizing what’s really important.
Thank you for sharing back. I often judge myself seeing what others are doing and how I “seem” to be not keeping up. You can girl! The most important season.
Gina, thank you so much for this post! I can’t seem to get my thoughts together this year. With starting (or trying to start) my business and figuring out how to get more experience with photography is so hard, but I know it will be so worth it. I was planning on doing my powersheets in Jauary/February after I read Lara’s book, but I’m still only 50 pages in! Ugh! I want to read it when I have tim and I see my book on my coffee table every day. It’s totally about making time to sit down with my thoughts and not think everything has to be perfect!! Sleep and health are big on my list too. But once I actually sit down it means I actually have goals and I’m held more accountable and don’t want to fail. Again, thanks so much for this post!!
Fall down 7, get back up 8! Loosing our ground is part of life here on earth. We just have to know that sometimes their are seasons of hard and seasons of easy! Praying for you girl! Start those SHEETS! You don’t need to book to start them! GO for it!
Such sage advice Gina!! Amen and amen, needed to read this today!! Sometimes those goals that we plan for aren’t actually the one’s that God plans for us. It seems we can plan and re-plan and He redirects our steps even through our planning and our doing. My 2015 goals at the beginning of November were much different than the goals I set in December. We never planned to deal with a house fire, and all the things that come with that. But He literally STOPPED us and had other things to teach us through that process. HIs ways are always right and the seasons as you talked about are good for us, even stopping and resting!! May the Lord continue to come near you as you plan and wait on Him!! Hugs to you!!