And Why It’s So Important

For a long time, my life wasn’t my own, and revolved around someone else. I’m not saying this to try and get sympathy, or because I resent it, but it’s just the truth. This is the life of a carer. This was my lot.

The thing is that now; as I am becoming accustomed to not being a carer, I am having to re-learn what I’m doing with regards my own personal goals, and I am having to re-learn how to structure my time now that I’m not having to fit things in around my caring responsibilities.

Just lately, a very good friend of mine began studying again. She has been using timers to make sure that she is getting a certain amount of studying done per week. This seems to really be working for her, and so I decided to try a similar sort of thing.

However, I have found that working with a weekly target doesn’t seem to work for me. If I have a bad day, I can talk myself into the idea that there’s no possible way of my meeting my targets, and so I give up and start again.

So, this time, I am trying the same tactics, but I’m totalling up my hours for the whole month, and I’m hoping that this way, I can actually stick at it.

Accountability is so important here, especially with us writers, whose only goal setters are ourselves.

So, I’m posting this here as a practice in accountability, and this is my promise to myself that I will write another post on the 20th of June, where I will hopefully be able to tell you that I have succeeded and hit all of my targets.

If you’d like to get updates from me once a week, you can click here… 🙂

Li Carter is a writer, artist and crafter. She lives in South Wales, UK, with her family, and five rescue dogs. She’s on Twitter @rbcreativeli , Facebook: Rainbow Butterfly Creative, and Instagram @rainbowbutterflycreative and is the author of My Only True Friend: The Beginning. She is currently working on a new series titled The QuickSilver Chronicles. She is the original Rainbow Butterfly, and wants to fill an ever darkening world with a little bit of beauty and creativity.

Goals

And why I’m setting them this month…

by Peter Fogden on Unsplash

I think there’s something special about the start of a new month. The things of the previous one had passed away, and we get the chance to move forward. It’s like a new, clean slate. At least that’s how it feels to me.

The thing is, that it can be so easy to just end up settling into some abstract kind of status quo, but in reality, if we want change; I mean real change, then we have to fight against settling. We have to battle against our normal human urges to laziness and comfort zones, and we have to fight for a better way of living.

I’m as guilty as anyone of this. I start off with such big plans and good intentions, but all too quickly, they fall to dust as one day passes, and then another, until it seems pointless to even try. This is the thing though, this is what ‘it’, (whatever your ‘it’ is) wants you to believe. It doesn’t want you to step out of your status quo. It doesn’t want you to fight to be better. It doesn’t want me to.

This month, I am giving my ‘it’ the finger! This month, I will set goals, and I will do everything within my power to reach them. Yes, I can already hear the excuses; “But, it’s Christmas…” Well, guess what?! I don’t care! I refuse to settle to a life of browsing social media and casual gaming just because Christmas is happening this month.

Christmas is about so much more than food and presents and pretty lights anyway… Christmas is about God creating a way for us to be reconciled to Him. He set goals for this month, and He met them all, and more.

So this year; this December, I am going to set my goals, and I am going to stick by them. I am going to honour them, and I am going to live by them, and my ‘it’ can go take a hike off a cliff, carrying an anvil (ACME-style), because I am NOT going to settle!