Putting goals in perspective

I never did reflect on my fall goals because I was embarrassed that I neglected almost all of them. I set 10 goals in fall and ended up accomplishing about two that season.

You see, I was in my last quarter of classes and ended up focusing on school work more than the lofty goals I wrote before the academic year began. I actually ended up getting the best grades of my whole college career. That might not be saying a lot since I’ve never been an A student, but I was happy about it. I got As in three academic classes and ended up with a B+ in yoga because I skipped one two many classes. Whatever. It’s funny, actually, because I usually include “get all As this quarter” on my goal list and I didn’t until I stopped putting it on a goal list.

Now that it’s spring, I feel okay about reflecting on my long forgotten fall goals.

1. Get another internship
I had a short lived internship at the end of summer, but I wanted another afterward to gain more career experience. I actually need to complete an approved internship for course credit to graduate in spring. Although I applied to some in fall, I didn’t get a response back until winter, when I had much more free time for applications. I began two internships in February in slightly different but related fields. So, I accomplished this goal, but in winter instead of fall. Yay hurray!

2. Read at least three books
Honestly, I can’t even remember reading one book. That makes me a little sad. But, like I said, I was focused on school. I had to read a lot of articles for my Multiracial and Hybrid Identities class. Surprisingly enough, I also had to read and write a lot for Meditation and Yoga, although I put a lot of that off for the end. I had to read, watch videos, take photos and create projects for Photoshop class. My Magazine class involved a fair amount of reading too, if you count copy editing, but there was no required book. So, there you go! I did read.

3. See a fun live TV taping and/or a play
Yeah, this didn’t happen either.

4. Submit articles to magazines and/or websites
Yes, I can say I did this. It might have been winter by then though. I submitted a story about grief during the holidays to HelloGiggles and it was published on Christmas Eve.

5. Redesign this blog
Oh silly me. I underestimated how much time I need to contemplate a big project before making changes. I’ve been working on this lately though.

6. Purchase a car and drive said car
I did go through three lessons with a driving instructor in fall and it did me good. Now my mom feels confident enough to let me drive her car while she sits in the passenger seat. I don’t feel comfortable buying a car when I don’t have income coming in, however.

7. Workout at least three times a week
I sort of did this. My yoga class was sort of like exercise and it was twice a week. So much of that class was meditation that it didn’t feel like a workout, but it did feel healthy. I also walked my dogs a decent amount.

8. Start scrapbooking
This still hasn’t happened.

8. Get better at photography and gain confidence in abilities
I bought myself a camera in late August (I think) and it has made a huge difference in my photography skills. It’s so good to own my own camera. I gained confidence in my abilities in fall and have been loving photography ever since.

9. Run a 5K
Two of my friends and I almost ran a 5K at school. But we didn’t. We got lazy and changed our minds.

10. Work on budgeting money
This didn’t happen either. I tried to bring my lunch more often instead of buying food on campus. At least there’s that.

I love making lists and goals. But sometimes the timing just isn’t right or sometimes I just don’t stick to them and that leaves me feeling guilty.

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I wonder if I should make any goals for spring or if I should combine my spring and summer goals. I also have a 24 before 24 list going that I want to complete before February 2015. Not to mention I’m graduating in spring and want to secure a job before then. Putting any other sort of to-do list together would feel like too much.

This whole reflection time is reminding me of a line from Beyonce’s “Pretty Hurts” video and song. “My aspiration in life is to be happy.”

I could make lists all day long. But instead I am going to do what makes me happy and in the process I know I will end up accomplishing a lot!