Past the Halfway Point

Jena Muhr takes a moment to check in on the goals she set at the beginning of the year, re-examining the ones that aren't working for her and her family.

Lately I’ve been getting back into planning and goal-setting. I’ve always enjoyed organizing, which has helped me greatly with having young children. But as they get older and our schedules become more complex, I feel the need to plan life out in a bit more of a detailed way and also to begin to set goals for myself that I haven’t had the bandwidth for the past several years.

I’ve found New Year’s resolutions to be impossible to keep, and with a lack of sleep and too many variables to control I’ve felt that setting goals or resolutions sets me up for feeling disappointment and failure. What I have been learning though on this journey back to planning and goals is that it’s more about getting goals with intention, using them throughout the year and making them realistic and detailed. Goals don’t need to be these rigid and intensive ways of spending your life (3 days a week is a habit). And maybe not completing a goal or dropping one is a way of saying that it is no longer important or that it isn’t for you right now; and not that you’re a failure.

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With the halfway point of 2023 officially behind us this can be a time to check in or maybe set some new goals is appropriate and it might be even be a better time to set these goals than at the beginning of January because, let’s be real, December is a lot and January can feel like a welcome calming from the storm and not the time to ramp up.

Looking at my year thus far in review, these are a few areas and goals that I have set for myself for the rest of the year. They are in no particular order and might change or be modified in some manner during the remainder of the year. But these are things that I think can be realistically accomplished in my life, while doing all the other things that need to get done.

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Planning

Continue to use paper planners. I have invested in 4 planners so far this year; the first day planner didn’t work out (it was beautiful but just too big to be useful). A second day planner replaced this first one, another is a work planner, and the last one is for meal planning and is new to the stack. But so far I am really enjoying being back into the world of paper planning. The planners I have chosen are beautiful and also make me feel so much more in control and more flexible than my phone calendar ever made me feel.

Reading

Continue to read. By the time this article is published, I will have completed reading my 18th book of this year. Reading 17 more will allow for a total of 35 books this year which will be a huge amount for me, more than I have read (or tracked) in a long time. I would like one to be a book on a saint, suggestions are most appreciated (books with a story or biographies are the ones I like the best).

Faith

Go to confession. I would like to go to confession twice before the end of the year. I know that as a Catholic the goal is to go monthly, but this will be a good step in this direction for me.

Fitness

Training and racing: I want to train for and race at least two more races before the end of the year. So far I have seen improvement in my running and have completed two races so far. I think that two more would be doable for me and will keep me striving to improve my fitness.

Organizing

Declutter and organize. My goal is to clean out and organize the second half of the garage (we did one half of the garage and it looks amazing and is so much more functional! It’s time for the second half) And organizing and going through my closet. I have so many clothes, many of which I don’t really like but continue to wear because they are there and they sort of fit. This is not a full-on Marie Kondo job, but a way to feel better about the way I present myself.

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I don’t want to be consumed by my goals; rather, I want them to support me in my life. #CatholicMom

I could definitely write more goals, but this is a good point for me. I don’t want to be overwhelmed or burdened by all of these goals. I want to feel success and accomplishment at the end of the year. If I am able to do more that would be great but I’m not at the point that I would like to put that much pressure on myself, then it won’t be fun. I don’t want to be consumed by my goals; rather, I want them to support me in my life.

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