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by Crystal OttoI lost sight of my goals. I don’t know exactly when it happened, but sometime between college and 2012 I became so busy doing what I had always done, because I had always done it, that I created a life that was totally the opposite of my dream. My novel sat with 27,256 words, my children knew their nanny more intimately than they knew me, and I had to drag myself out of bed every day. The fun had been drained from my life and I hadn’t even noticed.
I’ve learned from my past and now I relax and assess my life. I do this often (daily, in fact) to ensure that I haven’t lost focus on what is important. I have a goal to blog three times a week, work on my novel, be involved in the community, volunteer at my children’s schools, and cultivate a healthy relationship with my spouse. When I relax and assess, I can see that there are things getting in the way of these goals. I then need to decide how to eliminate the distractions. Is an organization no longer aligned with my goals? Have I taken on too many volunteer opportunities? Do I have a friend who is monopolizing my time and sucking the life out of me? I ask myself these questions and then act accordingly.
I know I am nearing the ‘danger zone’ (reverting back to the previous me) when I am doing things just for the sake of doing them. My right brain is saying “this isn’t fun” and my left brain is responding with “but you’ve always done it, so just keep doing it” and that is when I know it’s time to sit down with a tall glass of water or short glass of wine and assess what and who is taking up my time and talents. When I assess and make the necessary changes I reach my goals more quickly and find that life is so much more rewarding.
