2020, New Goals

January 14th may be a little late for a reflection back on 2019, but reflection is never bad unless we choose to linger there.

Like all years, 2019 had it's ups and downs;
*I broke my arm and missed out on the ski season
*My step-father died
*We had to say goodbye to our Gracie

While those things seem bad, I am reminded of a quote from President John F. Kennedy;

When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger, and the other represents opportunity. 

Very profound. 
While there were many other things that happened that could be looked upon as not the best of things, just as there were with anyone who happens to read this, I'll focus on the 3 that I listed above.

Breaking my arm. The blessing; I had the opportunity to once again see my husband's devotion and incredible love for me. Never once did he complain about anything that he had to do.  

My step-father's death. His greatest fear was having to have his legs amputated, end up in a wheelchair, and ultimately in a home. While it was a shock for my mother, his passing was as easy as it could have been for him.

My dog Gracie. When she came to us, she was in awful shape, a huge cyst on her side, missing hair, and the hair that she had was so course and dry, she was starving. She died with me by her side, with a thick beautiful coat, a full stomach, and knowing that she was loved.

I'll share a lovely highlight from 2019;

"Hey Rhonda, 
Just wanted to reach out and thank you for our flight today. It was somewhat of a "learning experience" for me as an instructor...but your experience, and professionalism helped me so much, especially in expanding my personal minimums. You have a very calm demeanor, and you fly the airplane like an expert. I'm very much looking forward to our next flight together."

In all my years of flying, I have NEVER been paid such a compliment! That's a note that I will not throw away!!!  

Like many of you, I too set goals for 2019. Some I accomplished, and some I did not. I am most proud of 1 accomplished goal, and that was reading through the Bible. I read it as though I was reading any book, beginning to end. What an incredible journey it was! I downloaded a daily guide that kept in my journal, so every morning when I would sit down to write, the guide was there to remind me, and guide me.

I found the reading to be quite easy, just 3 or 4 chapters per day. I was one of those kids in school who loved getting gold stars on my homework, so being able to check off the daily reading assignment was right up my alley ;) 

As I read, there were so many passages that I wanted to keep track of, so the backs of my pages are filled with all of my notes.

  
If by chance you think that you would like to do something similar to this, HERE'S a link to the chart that I used. You can download it without any obligation. 

Back in August of 2019, I decided that I wanted a particular type of  planner, something that would give me the space to write down not only my appointments, but my daily, weekly, and yearly goals. Low and behold, I went to Walgreens(a drug store), and found exactly what I wanted.

I think the planner was intended for a teacher, but who cares?!! It was what I wanted. It began in August of 2019, and runs through January of 2021.  

It has the typical daily appointment calendar.

Larger spaces for day-to-day things. I use this to write out all that I would like to accomplish each day. On the right hand side is a place for notes. I use this to keep my goals in front of me. What I learned from reading through the Bible last year is that goals can easily be met when we take small, consistent, daily steps toward the goal.
 

In the back of the book are maybe 40 pages for notes. Here I keep a running log of the books that I have read, the knitting projects that I have accomplished, as well as my master goal list for the year. 

At this point, I have a list of 12 things that I would like to accomplish. Most I will keep to myself, but I'll share a couple;

Last fall, I enrolled Berkley in a training class that would ultimately lead to him earning his therapy dog certification. In November, Berkley completed level 3. He has level 4 to complete, and then he'll be ready for the actual certification training. I'm so very proud of him, and I have so enjoyed the learning process as well. I hope to have this all completed by the 1st of June. 

Just a crazy thing, ever since I learned to fly, I have wanted to earn a seaplane rating. Landing in the water is just something that I want to do, and not because I have to, i.e. an accident! The rating won't mean anything other than having accomplished the training. I'm saving that for sometime in July.

I do have sewing goals, creative goals, spiritual goals, and health goals. 

One last thing that I would like to share, I have a friend that I talk with each and every week. We set our time together as though it is a business meeting, knowing that at 9 o'clock on Thursday morning, we will be talking to each other. We miss from time to time, life can get in the way, but our time together is important and we try to keep our appointment. We share our goals for the year. We keep each other accountable by asking how we are doing with our goals, and we offer each other advice. Our conversation lasts for just about an hour, and it is by far, the best hour of my week. I highly recommend finding a friend that you can trust to share your life and goals with. It makes such a huge difference! 

Here's to a new year with new opportunities! May we all accomplish something wonderful in this new year.

Rhonda