In Early 2014 I made a list of 40 things that I wanted to
complete by 40 and I called it 40 by 40 and it even had a countdown clock on the
blog and I was sure that I was going to hit them all. I wasn’t trying to become a millionaire in 6
months or start and finish a four year degree in 2 years, I was just trying to
run a 5k, big chop my hair and have a yard sale. Heck who couldn't accomplish that!?!
As I reviewed the list here are some of the things that I was
able to do:
- Run a 5k
- Go to cosmetology school
- Get Follow the Pink Squirrel running as a dot.com
- Start a second raised bed garden
- Step up my shoe game while purging old shoes
- Vend at a Flea Market
- Get back in my Dr. Oz. finale dress
- Attend Broad Appetite
- Attend Spa Week
- Start saving change
- Plant a spring, summer and winter garden
- Accepts at least 2 paid event planning gigs
- Attend at least 3 networking events
- Weekend at the Gaylard in National Harbor
- Run a 8k
- Run a 10k
- Transform my bedroom into a place for retreat and relaxation
- Big chop my natural hair
- Re-join the choir at church
- Get back into my weight loss photo shoot jumper (size 10)
Along with about 20 other items. When I review the list I will say at some
point I thought man, I failed short but on the other hand I sat back and thought
about some of the other awesome things that I was able to work on throughout the year like putting some action into the self publishing of my new children's book "My Hair is Fuzzy, My Hair is Cute."
Sometimes we start off with a bucket list of things that we
think are our must do’s but often time in life if we are about our business it’s
not always a failure but a detour. This is when we have to adjust our SMART Goals that we talked about in the last post. We’ve created goals that are
specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-oriented but when we
re-evaluate where we are headed we realize that we need to take a detour and
often times the detour just happens.
On my list I wanted to host a vision board party with the
women at my church in an attempt to move from behind the scene. So while I didn’t
host the vision board party I was able to engage the women in a bible study on
Breaking Chains. When I look back at my reason for wanting to host the vision
board party which was to get more out front I accomplished that with just a
different topic. This was just a detour it wasn’t a setback or failure or
reason to believe that I had missed my goal.
I also realized that while my vision board exercise is
awesome the Breaking Chains topic may have been timely for our ministry and
what the women needed at that moment all while accomplishing my desire to take
a step in the forefront.
When you have set a goal be it about weight loss, career, family or personal goals and you realized that you have
somehow begun to move in another direction do the following 4 things:
- Move toward and accept that change with grace
- Embrace the curves in the road that has you moving away from your initial plan
- Begin to set goals for this new path so that you have your map
- Move out of park and drive forward
Remember you are responsible for charting your own course.