Goals! Why it's important to write them down even if you don't complete them when you thought you wanted to!

So I went back and looked at my goals that I set for the summer and I was surprised by how much I had accomplished and did not get discouraged by those I didn't.

I posted earlier about my bike riding. One of my goals was to ride my bike more often this summer than I did last summer, which I did. In fact I'm getting up before dawn tomorrow to ride my bike because I completed another of my goals which was to sign up for two races this fall. Which in my mind makes me an athlete all be it a novice. I'm feeling really good about completing the 120 mile challenge by CAT and that my exercise stayed more consistent this summer even with vacations and kids home.

But there are several goals that I did not finish...

So why am I so optimistic? Well, a couple of reasons. The goals I didn't complete I looked at and thought, yeah, I still want to do that. Writing down goals is just a reminder.

I know people who talk and talk about what they want to do but never do it. I feel that sometimes writing down shows that you are seriously going to do it. Not that it happens right away but that you mean for it to happen.

I feel like making smaller goals to reach a bigger goal are essential. We all take a bigger bite than we can chew now and then, if we can make things more manageable then we have a higher success rate.

So take a look again at those "mini" goals you set at the beginning of the summer. You wrote them down which means not only did you want to do them but you wanted other people to know you wanted to do them. Pick yourself up and stop feeling like you didn't accomplish anything this summer. Summer is a bag of tricks and figuring out how to put yourself first and have all your kids home and schedule ever changing. It's still important that you take care of yourself...so then you can take care of others.

Do you still want to complete those goals? If so make a plan. If not, make some new goals!

You guys are awesome and I love you all and want you all to succeed.

Keep looking up and moving forward.