I caught myself feeling a bit down the other day, and I knew precisely why…

It was because I did not meet all my weekly goals.

Here they are, in no particular order:

Writerly

1. Write 10,000 words of my work in progress 
Last week I worked on my novel, but at the end of the week my word count was negative, due to me taking out and revising a big chunk of it.

2. Finish my critiques of my critique partners’ works 
I finished this! I don’t like to let other people down.

3. Write 5 blog posts 
I’ve been consistently writing three. No time for more.

4. Apply to one freelance writing job
Nope.

Health

1. Do four hours of yoga 
I did two.

2. Do two hours of elliptical machine 
Nope.

3. Stay under my calorie count for the week 
Nope. 1000 calories over, thanks to Mother’s Day dinners and bachelorette party champagne.

4. Get enough protein and iron and calcium
Protein achieved, the others not so much. I would take supplements if I ever remembered to actually take them.

5. Stay under 7 alcoholic drinks for the week
Nope. Needed more.

Personal

1. Cook dinner three times
Did this! Cooking is my therapy.

2. See friends at least twice
Did this 🙂

3. Spend quality time with boyfriend
This I also managed to do.

4. Order at least one piece of furniture for my apartment 
I did actually do this (a wine rack, at long last) though I have yet to assemble it.

5. Get at least one piece of artwork framed and hung
Nope, not even close.

6. Clean the apartment
Nope. Bathroom desperately needs it. Though I did manage to put my laundry away.

7. Do all the things on my to do list such as buying birthday presents and cards and returning clothes and replying to invitations and sorting through my mail and paying my tax guy and changing the oil in my car and making a dermatologist appointment and …
I did one thing on this list.

Every week, I make myself lists like this. And every week, without fail, I do not meet all of my goals. More often than not, I feel bad about it.

I want to try harder not to feel so bad about it.

Why?

I set too many goals. I know this. But I’m an optimist, always. Even though I didn’t manage to get all these things done, I somehow think that I’ll manage to do it next week. I don’t think being an optimist is a bad thing. (Though this is apparently also why I’m always late.)

Downtime is good. And necessary. In addition to all these things, I also work 45+ hours per week. That takes up physical time, as well as mental energy, which I don’t mind because I finally feel like I’m at a day job that’s good for me (where I actually get to do some writing.) So if I come home and feel like sitting on the coach and watching Game of Thrones rather than cleaning my bathroom, I’m not going to beat myself up about it.

The beauty is in the attempt. Even though I don’t get everything done, I do get lots of things done, and I should feel good about that. After all, if I didn’t set goals, I wouldn’t get any of them done at all.

How about you? Do you make lists for yourself every week that you inevitably never get through? Or am I just really weird? (Maybe don’t answer that last part.)

Photo by ian dooley on Unsplash