I’ve never been one to have goals, but there’s a first time for everything right?

I started 2013 with a plan. I had a list of overall goals for my life. I also made a list of specific goals for 2013. I even broke that list down so that I had specific things to focus on for each month {inspired by The College Prepster}. Plan-wise 2013, should have been my year.

At least until I lost my goals…

Word of advice to anyone: If you type up ANYTHING, and especially something as important as goals, don’t save them as an untitled.txt and leave them on your desktop.

I guess even the most OCD, organized computer user has bad habits. In my case, my two habits of not saving files with proper names and always wanting a clean desktop created a recipe for disaster, and my goals were deleted.

Or so I thought…

Today while searching my computer for that wonderful yearly goal planner broken down by month {from Philofaxy}, I found two files:

• A word document called Overall Goals
• and a text file called GoalsandProjects

I quickly opened them up, and it was like looking at a time capsule.

My goals for 2013

• I will read 13 books – Check. In fact, I’ve read a total of 64 as of today.
• I will paint my bedroom and bathroom. – Check. {Well… I paid someone to paint them.}
• I will organize my bathroom. – Sort of, but not in the sense I was going for, so I’ll say no.
• I will participate in at least 1 photo challenge per month. – Massive fail. I couldn’t even make it through one month. On the other hand, I did try to be the one to bring my camera to events {even if I didn’t remember to take pictures… baby steps right?}
• I will use one, and only one, planner. – You only have to read this blog to know I failed miserably at this one too.
• I will remember birthdays. – Sort of? Facebook reminded me of most…
• I will drink more water and less caffeine. – This is definitely a work in progress. I’m back to coffee in the mornings, and I treat myself to ONE energy drink to get me through Friday afternoons/nights, but I’m also drinking much more water.
• I will exercise at least once a week. – I think it’s safe to say this one’s a success. In fact, I’m probably working out 3 times a week or more excluding my morning mini workouts.
• I will create a blog. – Well this one’s a no brainer… here it is!

Overall, considering, I pretty much lost these goals and didn’t pay attention to them midway into January, I’m pretty surprised at how well I did. I mean, 6 out of 10, without even thinking about it… That’s shocking.

The Goals and Projects file was a bit more of a brain dump, but it was fun looking back at what I was planning to do like making detailed cleaning schedules to force me to clean {like that’d ever work…}, organizing the house one room at a time, creating a study plan {Ha! Who was I kidding?}.

The most detailed section was work by far, and I have to say, it’s truly amazing to see how far we’ve come. Working in customer support, it’s really easy to get caught up in the day to day routine. Meetings become monotonous, and you really don’t notice all that your accomplishing until you look back at a list and realize that thing you take for granted today was just an idea in your mind a year ago.

Finding 2013’s goals was a great way to look back at the year. 2013 might not have gone as expected, and it was definitely a hard year for me in every way possible, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve changed so much in such a short amount of time, and I’ve grown in more ways than I could imagine. Now it’s back to the drawing board to work for 2014’s goals, and this time, hopefully I won’t lose them.