Set your goals in putty not stone

Goals. We get so excited about them in January, but then by February we are kind of “meh,” and ready for Valentine’s chocolates.

I made three goals for 2015:

1. Eliminate my credit card debt. I never used to have credit card debt. I never used to have debt at all. I was one of those lucky (or hard working depending on how you look at things) people who didn’t have to take out student loans. When I did acquire debt I limited it to an auto loan. But, you know, life happens. So this year my first goal is to eliminate my credit card debt.
2. Run a half marathon. I ran a half marathon in 2013 right before I got pregnant. Once I realized I was pregnant I stopped running. The doctor didn’t tell me to but I worried I might fall, or get dehydrated, and water aerobics or mall walking seemed to be more preggo-friendly alternatives. But I do love to run, so I put run a half marathon as my number two goal.
3. Publish a guest blog once a month. In 2013 I also started blogging more and then stopped when I got pregnant. In a lot of ways, life kind of stopped when I got pregnant. I seemed to be in this alternate universe of fear and anxiety over what may be going on with the fetus cooking inside of me. My daughter, thank God, came out just fine. She is remarkably calm and easy going. When she was first born every one attributed her good nature to me. You, know because I’m such a calm mama. I wondered when people said this if they actually knew me at all. I’m the opposite of calm and my pregnancy was the opposite of stress free.

Now that my daughter is alive outside the womb I am able to exhale and write again. My third goal for 2015 was to have a guest blog published once a month. Some of the sites I’d like to have my work published on include, Healthyplace.com, the Huffington Post’s Stronger Together section, and basically any other mental health blog that will have me.

This past weekend I as I flipped through a copy of Psychology Today at a coffee shop, I noticed a pull quote that said successful people are flexible with their goals. 

Turns out set your goals in putty,
where they can be easily adjusted, leads
to more success than setting them
in stone. 

This is great news for me because one month into the year I seem to be failing at all of mine. I’ve made more charges to my credit cards, and would likely have to charge any fees associated with actually running a half marathon. As far as submitting work to mental health websites, I’m working on it, but not as much as I could.

So here are my flexibly revised goals for 2015:

1.  Stop accumulating credit card debt.
2. Run.
3. Write.

My revised goals are simpler, more achievable. I feel more successful already and for that I think I deserve some of that Valentine’s candy I wrote about at the beginning of this blog.