Every fall
our school staff members set professional goals, and I usually come up with
five or more projects on my list that I absolutely must do, regardless of
whether or not I will have time in my schedule to work on them. The past two years as I’ve met with the
assistant principal in October, she has reviewed my list and said, “Too many
goals. Pick three.” So I pick three.
At first, I
am stunned that the other items may not be done and may have to wait until next
year.
Unthinkable! But then I am
relieved. It is so nice to have someone
force me to have a schedule with room to breathe! And as a bonus, having well-defined, do-able goals
makes it easy to prepare my required professional goal “reflections” six months
later in the spring.
I have been
carrying this over into my personal life, too, and what a life-changing
experience. Spurred on by Gordon
MacDonald in his 1985 book Ordering Your
Private World, slowly but surely I am able to realistically assess my available time and energy, review my plans
and commitments, and define my spiritual priorities. I can’t describe how much this one huge
revelation is affecting all the other facets of my life, and I am convinced it
is an answer to years of prayer. My
inner slave driver is less demanding and I am much calmer these days!
So here are
my simple writing goals for 2016:
#1. Pray for direction on my own blog. Just pray.
Until I get direction.
#2. Spruce up 5 finished pieces and find homes
for them.
#3. (The hardest one) Listen to what is deep down
in my heart, and write about that. I
usually listen to my head, instead of my heart, but because I am an artist—a
word artist, and a
creative child of our creative God—I believe I have deeper things inside to
share with the world, which are unique and valuable. It’s my responsibility to discover what they
are and I’m thinking of using free writing as one way to help do that. (Do you
have any thoughts or suggestions?)
With these
goals, I eagerly await finding out what this writing year has in store!
Posted by
Ramona
Photo
courtesy of stevepb at pixabay
Thanks for this introspective blog, Ramona. I became introspective reading it, for I too was a teacher and expected a lot of myself. This made me overly ambitious in my goal setting too. I wish someone had told me that I had too many goals, that I was stretching myself too thin. Looking back, however, I recognize that God was trying to tell me this and so was my husband for that matter. And that is something I must become better at doing. I must improve my listening. Thanks for your insight.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me you're allowing God to be your principal in your private goal-setting! What a brilliant carry-over in learning. May your 3 gentle goals bring you joy in 2016.
ReplyDeleteRealistic is the key.
ReplyDeleteShort, sweet, realistic and spiritually prioritizing - good advice, Ramona! Thanks.
ReplyDeleteBeing committed and focused on three projects is SMART, I would say! I am finally reading (after being on my book shelf for 3 years) If You Want to Write, by Brenda Ueland. She has a way of nudging you gently but firmly to write authentically from the 'guts' of you, rather than from the rules.
ReplyDeletePraying and listening to God's direction. Yes, yes, yes. Sometimes I think we forget that it was God who made us creative beings and it was God that gave us our creative abilities--so it only makes sense to let God give us the creative direction in using our creativity. This is great, Ramona. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, Ramona. I too, struggle to cut my goals down in number. I'm looking forward to hearing how God leads and blesses you this year.
ReplyDelete