You Don’t Have to Reach Your Goals

At least not the way you think

Photo by on

At the beginning of every year, I create a bucket list. Usually, it’s in the form of a “bingo” sheet, but sometimes it’s just a list. It compiles all the “big” or “medium” (no pun intended) goals I want to achieve for the next 12 months.

This year, I’m also making a smaller bucket list for each month. January is coming to an end, so I’m totaling up my goals and seeing what I accomplished so far.

Among my January goals were “bake bread,” and “pay spring tuition,” which I did; “finish reading a book,” which I didn’t; and “submit poetry to 5 applications,” which I partially did.

One of the most important things about a goal is whether it’s measurable. I could have said, “submit poetry to some publications,” but how would I have known when to check it off?

I also could have picked a different number, but 5 felt right at the time. It was a concrete goal, but it was also superficial. The world wasn’t going to end if I only submitted 4, and I certainly wasn’t going to become a world-renowned writer for submitting 6.

Still, with one day left in the month and only two submissions, I can’t help but feel like I failed.

And maybe I did fail, but does it really matter?