Taking a Look Back Before Moving Forward

The New Year has arrived and I’m not ready yet!

Have you ever felt like that? I felt that way about Christmas too, so does that mean time is moving faster or I’m running behind?

Since this new week of the New Year began, I’ve been doing some “spring” cleaning – cleaning out my office and my email. Of course, to clean out email, I’ve been reading quite a few messages. So many are about goal-setting – how to set them, what kind of goals to set, even which specific ones to set.

I’ve been a goal-setter for a long time and enjoy checking off those lists as I accomplish each item. My former career in sales indoctrinated goal-setting into my life, and I’ve carried that habit into my writing career as well.

But before I can set any new goals, I have to look back at last year’s goals and see how well I did. Like taking a journey, I need to pull off the road and check the map to see how far I’ve come and how much farther I need to go. I don’t advocate lingering over the past, but it’s important to see where we’ve been before we move ahead.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t always remember everything that happened the previous year (let alone the previous month). So, it’s eye-opening as well as encouraging to realize what I did accomplish. Sometimes, we get down on ourselves for what we didn’t do. And if we failed to meet a goal, we focus on that one failure instead of the goals we did achieve.

Looking back and seeing that I did indeed achieve some of my goals is a cause for celebration. I may not have met all my goals, but knowing I met some means I made progress! I did a few things I had not done before, learned new information and gained new experience. In addition, God threw in some surprises that weren’t part of my plans, but added to my year’s writing success.

So, before I get back on the road, I thank God for making last year such a productive one for me. And now, refreshed and exhilarated by last year’s accomplishments, I’m ready to set new goals for the New Year and am motivated to start my engine again. And one of this year’s goals is to celebrate each thing accomplished, no matter how big or small, thanking God for forward progress.