This Friday I thought I'd do a little blast from the past.

I've been thinking a lot about goals lately. Back when I was a senior in college, we had to write a list of five goals we wanted to accomplish in the next 10 years. I can almost picture that piece of paper in my mind. Part of me thinks that if I really look hard enough {read: dig through all my piles of junk and clutter} I'd be able to find it. Because I'm pretty sure I saved it.

We were told that by physically writing your goals down on paper you were much more likely to actually attain them compared to simply thinking or talking about them. Something about the act of putting it in writing that makes it seem more real, I guess.

I can remember four of the five things on my senior year list of goals.

1. Get married
2. Buy a house
3. Have kids
4. Make $100k in one year
5. ?

I actually accomplished all of those things in the first five years out of college. But for the life of me, I cannot remember the fifth thing.

It still bugs me.

In the corporate world, I always had goals. It didn't matter whether I had a strict, micro-managing boss, or a laid-back superior who could care less what my numbers looked like. Because to me, I had goals in front of me for the week ahead, for the month, and for the year. If I didn't, my work tended to be just mediocre. By laying out the objectives I wanted to reach or exceed, I pushed myself harder and did higher quality work. My reputation was so important to me. I was always worried about what people thought of me and how they viewed me as a recruiter that I almost needed to better myself with each placement to keep up. It was exhausting. But looking back, I'm very proud of what I accomplished in the ten years I worked.

Now I'm a mom. I'm a wife. I'm a homemaker. I don't care so much what other people think of me, but I do care about feeling that I'm successful in my new career of SAHM. I haven't set goals for myself in over two years. Unless you count the 35-pound weight-loss goal I was determined to accomplish after the birth of my son. {I hit that one, in case you're wondering.}

I'm itching to write some new goals. Given that it's June 1, I thought it was a good date to lay out some monthly goals for the rest of the year. I think I'll stick to three goals for each month, so as not to overwhelm myself.

June

1 Volunteer at a nursing home

2 Start and finish the gardening work around the house (weed all flower beds, lay fresh mulch, hang flower baskets from porch)

3 Run four days a week

 

July

1 Clean and organize garage

2 Carve our initials into the humongous tree that lives beside our house

3 Do a 3-day juice fast

 

August

1 Take a photography class

2 Cook vegan/vegetarian the entire month

3 Repaint the kitchen a bold color 

 

September

1 Create Preschool boxes for each of my kids to collect their artwork and projects

2 Plan a fall {October} wine tour with friends

3 Do a 10-day juice fast

 

October

1 Go on a family camping trip

2 Go to church every week and become more involved by joining a group

3 Finish my manuscript

 

November

1 Be a "Room Mom" for a day at my son's preschool

2 Work hard on my abs and keep them in shape through the holidays

3 Finish holiday shopping and start a new rule that each child gets 3 gifts and each adult gets 1 gift from Santa in order to simplify things and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas

 

December

1 Throw a really awesome holiday party & make it a tradition

2 Format my manuscript into a blog book including my own photography

3 Sponsor a local family for the holidays

 

I'm hoping to hold myself accountable to these goals to be able to look back on the second half of this year and see all that I've accomplished. I think it would be incredibly satisfying to say that I was able to do what I set out to do. Not just for me, but for my family, too.

I'm excited about this. I feel a new energy that I haven't felt in awhile. It's time to rock this list. Let's go.

What do you think? Have you written out any goals since becoming a mom? What do you want to have accomplished by the end of 2012?