Goals Revisited

Last year I was all gusto about setting annual goals. I posted in all of my blogs: This is what I'm going to do this year. In some cases, I killed my goals, and in other cases, they killed me. It's all fun to get all excited and make plans, but then -- as my friend helped to point out -- they can be a source of major depression. It's very possible to get a lot done and then look back at what you wrote 12 years ago at a massive list of things you didn't get done. The result: depression and a sense of non-accomplishment.

I'm reminded that the Stephen Covey books on 7 Habits talks about ongoing (long term) goals and weekly/daily (short term) goals, but not "yearly" goals. In fact I now remember Covey talking about how the year is too long an interval for effective planning, and too short an interval to accomplish the tasks. I remember saying, "I'll keep my annual planning, thank you," but now I wish I had listened. I don't think I've ever accomplished ALL of my annual goals, and I've let it convince me that I'm a loser.

I'm sure many of you have seen this often at work. Bob works hard and got a lot accomplished last year, but when the time for annual reviews comes around there are two tasks written down that Bob just didn't get to. Even though Bob was an excellent employee, he gets a smaller raise than he deserves. If you ask me, it's all an excuse for businesses to not hand out more money than they have to.

So, no more annual goals for me -- and I will also be doing away with the bimonthly updates. I have long term goals, and they're not really changing year-to-year.

However, I do think a look back on the prior year is healthy. As for blogging, 2019 was the lightest year yet for me -- and this is true in all my blogs. Most of my free time went to composing during the first half of the year and into my publishing company, Melkim Publishing, during the last half.

I finished composing and submitted six hymns and four primary (children) songs to my Church for consideration in their upcoming new hymnal. As part of this, I made a few friends, including Michael Young, a singer and prolific lyricist who collaborated with me, and future items may be in the works.

I also continued my friendship with Daniel Carter, the composer of one of my favorite Christmas songs, Shine for Me Again Star of Bethlehem. We've been working on some semi-large projects, and we have lots of good ideas floating around -- helping each other out. I also started publishing a new composer, Paul E. Anderson, nephew of the Paul Anderson who penned several hymns in our current hymnal.

I also did get in some blog writing, and as usual I have plans for some more fun posts. I did write and enter a story into the biannual Actuarial Speculative Fiction Contest, but I never heard back from them -- now under new management. I take it I didn't win. Either that or the Contest fell apart. Not sure ... don't care ... I won't waste any more time with them. I did enjoy writing the story, though: "The Immortal Actuary."

I hope you had a great year in 2019, and I hope you have a great year in 2020. Keep pushing forward.