It’s the end of January, and things are not going as planned. I have already missed one of my target word counts as well as my weight loss goal. Perhaps you are in the same boat as me. Maybe you haven’t even started some of your goals. Maybe you think some are just impossible or not for you. If we want to achieve our dreams it takes skill, hard work, planning and more importantly tenacity.
I will admit it, I am disappointed with my start to the new year. I have been so busy that even finding time to write has been a challenge. I could just throw in the towel and say “Well, maybe next year hon.” In all honesty though, I am not really worried. That might seem calloused or even sound as if I am uninterested in achieving my goals. It is quite the opposite. Every dream, every goal has the risk of experiencing setbacks. The important thing is that we don’t allow minor difficulties to derail the entire project. We will all stumble along this path at least a few times. It is up to us to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start again.
We must be prepared to forgive ourselves for the faults we are trying to overcome. If I had a good diet and exercise plan in the first place, I wouldn’t be trying to lose weight to begin with. Healthy eating habits, healthy activity levels (hard for an author with a day job!) are about making hundreds of small decisions that reinforce each other. A Twinkie will not kill me, nor will it cause me to gain fifteen pounds. A whole box? That is a different story. I think many times we let a single bad decision or a faulty choice get blown out of proportion. Keep steady. Stay the course. Move forward.
January might almost be over but that doesn’t mean that our time is up yet. If you have failed one of your goals get back up and try, try again. A year is a long time and we are only at the beginning of it. There are goals I have not even started yet. There are goals I can’t even begin for another month or two. You have the time to correct any set back you may have. You just need to keep at it. Keep working towards your dreams and don’t let anything deter you. The are 339 days until 2018. As of the time of this writing you still have 8,145 hours left in the year. Or if you like bigger numbers there are 488,700 minutes remaining to achieve the things you want to in 2017. You can do this! Don’t let something minor keep you from doing something major! Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start again. Keep steady. Stay the course. Move forward. Let this be the year where you achieve your dreams.