My 111 in 2011: Falling Short

If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you may have noticed a trend. I have this really bad habit of going on what I have officially deemed "blog spurts." And they're just what they sound like. I get in the mood to blog and come up with 70 ridiculous ideas in a row to blog about. And then... nothing.

So, for the last 9 days I've been wanting to blog, but my fingers haven't let me. I'm not really sure what that means, except that I haven't been motivated in the least bit to blog. I'm pretty sure I know why, though. I knew that this post I'm currently composing would have to come eventually. I've just been avoiding it at all costs.

I know I tend to be pretty light-hearted when I write here, and that's purposeful. I believe we take life entirely too seriously. However, there are definitely times in life where reflection is good. This is one of them. Sort of...


As I was perusing my list of 111 goals to accomplish in 2011, I noticed something. There is a goal that I've missed out on. I can't get it back. I can't time travel (note to self: add "time travel" to 112 in 2012) to right my wrong.

Now, mind you, I have actually failed at quite a few goals. In fact, if any of my goals had the words "every day" in them, I've failed. I'll go ahead and admit that to you now. I'm far from perfect. Here's just a sample of a few of those goals that I've fallen short on:

Get up early every day.

 Eat at least 2 servings of fruits and veggies every day.

 Drink 2 cups of water a day.

 

You get the point. Settings goals for yourself that are to the extreme and say something like "every day" or "every week" or "every" anything can really cramp your goal-setting style. It can get you down quickly. However, I knew from the onset that I couldn't be perfect - that wasn't my intention in setting these goals. 

Instead, my hope was that in setting a goal to do something every day, I would begin to do those things some days, and that some would eventually evolve into most, until I eventually get to the point where I start doing these things every day. See the progression there? It's not about accomplishing these goals from day 1 to day 365. It was never about that.

So what is it about? I'd like to tell you that I have a straightforward answer to this, but I don't. All I know is that when I set these goals for myself, I did it in an attempt to take back parts of my life which I had neglected or forgotten about. I believe that with God's help (and a little hard work) I can get these parts of my life back. This is my attempt at doing that, even if I fall a little short at times.

All of this is a very roundabout way of me getting to the point of this post: I found a goal I cannot meet this year. And it does not include the words "every day." However, it does include the words "every month," and February is a lot shorter than it looks. I won't be able to achieve my goal of cooking a new food every month because I missed out on it in February.

So, although it's not a big deal, I wanted to be transparent and let everyone who reads this blog to know that my life isn't all about successes and meeting goals. Sometimes I fall short, but I strive to get back up again. And in the case of that goal, well... I guess that just means I'll have to cook even more this month! I'm terribly disappointed, as you can undoubtedly tell (side note: someone really needs to invent a "sarcasm" font).

What goals/resolutions have you struggled to keep this year?