What a week this has been!
I drafted a blog as I always do on Thursdays, saved it (or so I thought) and was unable to locate it in my draft folder. I obviously accidentally deleted the draft before backing it up. Not good at all. Drafting another blog was the last thing I wanted to do on a Sunday afternoon after being out at church for six hours. This is the second time I have lost a draft and hope it will be the last.
My focus this week is how has 2016 been for you so far? Have your plans (assuming you made some) panned out as you had hoped?
I had a number of expectations for 2016; most met, some will be carried over to 2017.
Read the bible in a year
I am on track to completing the bible by December. Four chapters a day is doable even with a busy schedule.
Develop within worship ministry
I lead worship every six weeks. Prior to this I was comfortable being a backing singer. I have been challenged and whilst I do not always enjoy it, I know it is needed.
Work promotion
I applied for a secondment role in February this year and was not appointed. Soon after, an opportunity to act up for a few months came along. I reluctantly took it wondering how it would help to move me forward. In May, permanent management roles were being advertised, I applied and was successful.
Develop as a blogger
I receive one or two new followers per week. I continue to post new content once weekly.
Publish my mini-book
I have been looking for a publisher to assist with grammar checking and printing.
Network more on social media
I signed up to twitter early this year and found it overwhelming to begin with.
LinkedIn and Facebook are my favourites. My blog is linked to both of these.
Quality Family time
We planned all our summer holiday day trips and enjoyed quality time together. I drafted an itinerary which worked well.
How do you approach making and keeping to your goals?
What lessons have you learnt along the way?
organisedlady 
Did you make it through the Bible in a year? Great goals btw.
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Yes, I certainly did and am proud. To be honest it requires only reading four chapters a day but miss a week and you have a lot to catch up on!
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I’ve done 7 read throughs in a year, and currently on my 8th (and did a 90 day read through). I found that the readings where you did multiple books of the Bible at once were the easiest to fall behind on.
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Wow – good on you! That has given me a new challenge.
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How is the challenge going?
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It is going well. Where I miss a day (which I do not recommend), I read twice as many chapters on another day. Thank you for asking.
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I definitely have not achieved all the goals I’ve set up for myself for 2016.. Hopefully 2017 will be a more productive year! I like your idea of noting down all your goals and keeping track of each little achievements, I will give it a try too.
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Rosary – I do not achieve all I have planned for each year. The remaining plans roll into the following year. Let me know how you get on with writing your goals out.
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Hello Phoenicia, It’s good to know about your goals accomplishment till now in 2016. I too have a habit of setting goals in a timely manner for myself sometimes they are, sometimes they are not. The year 2016 has been moderate for me where I have learned many new things met amazing and inspiring people like you and completed few of the goals I have planned hoping to make out the best of what is left!
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Grear that you have learnt many lessons in 2016. It is important to enjoy the journey.
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Yes, learning and growing is the part of the journey.
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Similar goals I had set for 2016. I always make sure that building spiritual strength is a goal, that can carry on longer and father more than financial success ever can.
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Thank you for your pearls of wisdom.
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Congratulations, Phoenicia, in reaching some of the goals you set for yourself. The quote you start with is one of my all time favorites: Life is what happens while we make other plans. It is so true. You’ve got to live every day as if it were your last. It’s important to make plans, but you’ve also got to enjoy the moment.
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Thank you Jeannette. I remind myself to enjoy the moment when I get wrapped up in the “doing”.
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Whoa, you’ve had a very full 2016! Congratulations on everything you’ve accomplished, especially your promotion – sounds like a hard-won victory. Looks like writing out a plan and sticking to it is working well for you. I just might try it!
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Thanks Krystyna!
We all do what works for us in terms of planning but try it and see.
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I had a career coach at one point who really drove home the 80/20 rule when it came to my freelancing. It’s a give that one day of the week just isn’t going to go according to plan. I used to let it throw my whole week off track, but now I just get back on the horse every time I fall off and get back to work without too much fuss. I can often be too hard on myself.
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We always have to allow a little room for flexibility. I had to learn this the hard way.
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Great topic! I’ve met my goals and recently launched a year-end challenge that I’ll be promoting pretty heavily beginning next month. As an unapologetic Type A I have a bad habit of trying to accomplish too much, so I’ve set just 3 goals for the remaining 100 days in the year, but 2 of them are pretty big and well outside my comfort zone. Should be fun. 🙂
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I look forward to hearing about your year-end challenge. I too am guilty of setting too many goals. At worst they can be moved over to the following year.
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Wow that’s quite the list and a great way to ensure a life with few regrets. For myself, it’s also been a pretty good year. I’ve done the things I’ve needed to and also put some ticks beside things I’ve always wanted to do, including getting an item off my bucket list.,
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It was pretty full on!
I am now wondering what you have ticked off on your bucket list…….
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A trip to England with my family. I was born there but left as a baby, so I have always been a little curious. 🙂
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How nice! Hope you enjoyed your time here.
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Keep up the good work! This year has been mainly great for me. Naturally not everything has worked out exactly as planned, but that’s life happening while we are busy making other plans”. We would probably get bored if everything was always plain sailing.
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Thank you. When life goes off plan, we build up some resilience.
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Love all the accomplishments and goals you’ve met so far this year. My number one question: How do you do it and not collapse? Lately, I’ve seen I have too many goals, too much to do and my feet get heavier every day. This post encouraged me that I too can meet my goals with just patience, discipline, and faith. Just….Lord help me! lol
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Thank you for your encouragement Victoria. I do get tired and tend to stay up late in the evenings to unwind when my family are sleeping. This is my “me time”.
I am quite structured in the way in which I approach tasks. I love order which helps. A lot of my Saturday mornings are taken up with attending worship practices. I just accept this now and ensure family time is slotted in.
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Hi Phoenicia. How has 2016 been for me so far? It has been good for the most part. Some wonderful opportunities have come my way. But I’ve not made as good financial gains as I had hoped. I will keep persevering and hopefully, the books will soon balance!
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Doreen – I hope everything works to your favour and that the latter part of 2016 is better than the former.
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Sigh to the missing blogs. I write in Scrivener, so losing things is difficult!
My goals changed halfway through the year and I’m feeling good about where they’re headed/where I’m headed as a writer/blogger. It’s good to check in every so often and check the targets.
Good for you on the Bible in a year. Just started a new Bible study: Crazy Love by Francis Chan and am already deeply challenged.
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Rose Mary – I just laughed to myself on realising my blog had been deleted. My phone memory was low so I deleted some data including the draft blog. It is highly beneficial to look at what you had hoped to achieve and compare it with what you have achieved.
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2016 has been a really educational year for me. I feel like I have such a different perspective than I did on December 31, 2015. I’m a lot more patient in the process and more comfortable living in the now. As far as achieving my goals, I’ve hit quite a few of my smaller goals and have reached a couple of personal milestones. Now I’m working on the big stuff.
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Erica – life lessons are just as important as achievements. Situations and experience always teach us something about ourselves. We may not always like what is revealed but will struggle to change if we do not acknowledge it.
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Sounds like you are succeeding in your goals. Sorry to hear about you losing your post. I had that happen a few times myself. It’s not fun. My goals are going pretty well. I have increased followers in Pinterest and am starting to make money on the my organizing and admin blogs. I am taking more risks and sharing my content more too.
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Good on you Sabrina! Persistence and peserverance pays off. I have seen the consistency of your posts. You are on the ball!
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Sounds like you’re doing pretty well in line with your hopes and expectations. I really enjoyed the summer, made a couple trips that I had hoped to undertake and finished a couple series of blog posts that I had been planning and researching for awhile.
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I am trying Ken. Glad you enjoyed your vacations.
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It sounds like you are doing very well with your 2016 expectations. I’m impressed – four chapters of the Bible daily. I didn’t write down any formal goals for 2016, but I did have some. This post was a reminder to take a look back and see how much has turned out well in 2016 to date instead of being discouraged about what I still want to do.
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Thank you Donna. I am trying to focus on the priorities in life. Distractions will come and tasks will need to be carried out but not to the detriment of my spiritual well being.
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Wow, Phoenicia, you have had a busy year, and it’s only 2/3 over! Months remain during which I’m betting you will accomplish the rest of your goals. I think it’s very important to keep a written list of goals, and mark your progress every so often, as you are doing in this blog. Otherwise, time slips by and we forget the directions we had planned to work toward. I must ask, what is a “secondment role”? That’s not a term that I have heard before (in U.S. forms of English).
Dr Rin
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I have been busy Dr. Rin. Seeing my plans/goals written down is a huge help. It is no longer words up in the air.
A secondment is another word for “acting up”, a short term promotion, for example a one year contract to cover maternity leave (women have nine months leave in UK) or short project. Once the work ends, you go back to your substantive role or in some cases leave the organisation.
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