Unfinished Goals
11/10/2018
The end of the year is quickly approaching... the fun, the holidays, the treats and party's and traditions are starting to fill up your calendar!
But the end of the year is also about celebrating all you have done and learned and gotten through over the course of this year.
And with that often comes focusing on the things that maybe didn't go as planned, or maybe just took a different turn then you were expecting, or maybe you just didn't finish like you wanted.
If this is you, then join the club my friends!!! Life is all about change! and twist and turns and pivots, and things rarely go EXACTLY as we planned.
I think it's so easy to think that we should have all of the control, and things should always go just how we want them to. But in reality, that is actually our "perfectionism" trying to manage our life... and it lies to us all day long if we let it. We "should" be able to keep it all together. We "should" be able to be a good mom, wife, friend, employee, athlete, member of the PTA , organic gardener, interior decorator, volunteer in the community, party planner, fill in the blank...etc.... ALL of the TIME and NEVER lose it, NEVER have a bad day or leave a project in-complete.
BUT the truth is....if we can embrace the ups and downs and all of the experiences on our journey, and remember to listen to the whisperings of our heart, we will be having the exact right experience we are meant to have. And we will be MUCH HAPPIER!!
While this year I worked really hard and set lots of goals... and with that came lots of accomplishments and achievements... it also came with LOTS and LOTS of twists and turns and "unfinished" goals as well.
But you see, I used to allow myself the be "haunted" by unfinished projects in my life, and easily only focus mostly on those things. The degree I didn't finish, the job I started and then didn't want to do any more.. the certification I signed up for and then didn't finish all my studying for..... the piano competition I backed down from when I was a young girl because I got nervous and scared , the project I decided to take on and then allowed myself to get busy with other things, the marathon I trained for and then wasn't able to complete, etc... I could, at any given moment recall any un-finished goal, task, project, etc in my life.... and it drove me crazy!
Then... I started to understand that not everything in my life I set out to do, I was "meant" to do. Not everything I took on was to "complete." rather, it was to learn something... to grow in a new capacity, to expand the person I was into someone greater, more capable, more loving...more forgiving.
I realized in my life that half of my experiences are for me and what I learned, and the other half are most likely for someone else... being in the right place at the right time to help someone else... learning a lesson that would one day be a support and a skill needed to help another through a tough experience... for my children.. my spouse or family member, the list goes on...
We have to allow ourselves to see the journey for more than just the "finish." How often are we stopping to celebrate the learning that happened along the way?? How often are we telling ourselves how amazing we are for trying something new, getting out there and taking chances? Even if we didn't succeed like we wanted??
Life is all about embracing the little wins...celebrating them!! enjoying the journey.... and loving yourself through every experience.... After all, it may just be someone else who needed you to be where you were during that experience... to gain the knowledge you did, to become the person you are today... to be in the right place at the right time to help a friend, encourage someone through their tough spots, to be a light in someone else's life... Our experiences are so much more than the "finish."