"Make it count, Friends!"

Geoffry Abert

The most important thing about goals is having one.

In my last post, I made mention that I have a knack for starting things and not finishing them. Well…thanks to my lovely friend Jess (Musings of a Home Schooling Mom)…Back in January, I started the Bible in 90 Days program. Ok yeah…I was supposed to finish on April 6th…and it’s now April 27th. But I am in the book of Revelations now, and WILL be done by April 30th! Task of reading the Bible will be complete. It has been a fulfilling experience, and I am really glad I did it!

Jim Rohn

Goals. There's not telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There's no telling what you can do when you believe in them. There's no telling what will happen when you act upon them.

New goal at hand? Insanity! A.k.a I’m a glutton for punishment! It is a 63 day program of purely insane workouts. I am currently on Day 14 (Rest Day), and as brutal as each workout is…I’m really enjoying it! My ultimate goal is to lose 20 lbs. I’m still waiting for my body to start losing those unwanted pounds because surely I’m sweating enough! It’s that darn diet that I cannot get my head around. That little voice in my head still throws a temper tantrum and wins whenever chocolate or french-fries are present. Sigh………………. So if you have any extra motivational speeches on hand…I can really use them over the next 49 days!

Harvey Mackay

Goals give you more than a reason to get up in the morning; they are an incentive to keep you going all day. Goals tend to tap the deeper resources and draw the best out of life.

Another goal? Yep! I am making a tote bag to take to the Farmer’s Market. I have until May 8th to get it done…though my goal is Saturday night. These bags are adorable…I would love to make our mom’s each one for Mother’s Day…but I fear that is stretching my abilities to complete these types of tasks timely. But one never knows. A few more rainy Saturdays and it may happen! I fear buying the materials because of the hundreds of dollars of quilting projects sitting unstarted in my sewing room.

Herbert A. Otto

To be come fully alive a person must have goals and aims that transcend himself.

So my theme here? Setting goals for myself. And not just pipedream blanket goals that the majority of us set. Attainable goals. Goals where I realized my capabilities, and perhaps add just a smidgen extra for that superior sense of accomplishment. So for now, as I work on finishing goals, projects, tasks at hand…my sights will be on the small things. Achieving a goal is a confidence booster and I intend to use each one as a stepping stone to the next. A friend of mine always says “Make it count, Friends!” That is what I shall do!

Elbert Hubbard

Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage but simply because they have never organized their energies around a goal.

All Fired Up!

Phew! Been a while since I’ve posted anything here. Let’s see here…Life’s been busy, things have changed, wasn’t inspired, nothing to say, don’t want to just complain… Did I cover all the possible excuses?

Since I last posted…I am no longer in public accounting and no longer travelling like a nut…Thank you economy. But it has actually been a good thing. My stress levels are lower and I get to sleep in my own bed at night. I’ve entered the world of contracting. So that has presented me some opportunities that I probably would have never had…like learning anything and everything I would want to know about soybeans! (My current contract is as a Senior Cost Accountant at Syngenta Seeds in Ames.)

What else? Spencer will be testing for his Tiger brown belt this weekend…Ty tried TKD for four months…became a Tiger yellow…but that was the end. He played basketball over the winter and is now “patiently” waiting for t-ball to start. Besides TKD…Spencer has taken on swimming and baseball…and is eager to get out on the golf course this summer and learn to swing a club!

Josh has made it his quest to qualify for the Boston Marathon…so “we” are back in training. Him running…me trying to keep him fed! So throw that intense training in with his high profile gig at Aviva, poker league, golf league starting and our family activities……he’s one busy man. But when he qualifies for Boston…it will all be worth it!

Now…in my “spare” time these last several months, I have taken up spin classes, sort of running again, and Josh and I have started swimming on Sundays. So I’m determined to do the Okoboji Triathlon over my birthday weekend! God help me!!!! But I find I love being active…and I want to be healthy and fit…so this gives me a goal for my working out. I also hope to do Dam 2 Dam in June…but I need to get my feet back on the pavement if that is going to happen.

Anyways…Spinning. LOVE IT! And I have found an instructor that I really enjoy. She kicks my bum each class all while playing great music. One of the songs she plays has come to reside in my brain…and I find myself singing it! So I had to go download it and add it to my workout mix. So I’m making it my lyrics for this post. Oh! What would you know……I had the lyrics wrong the whole time. But that just adds to my thoughts behind it.

All Fired Up by Pat Benatar

Livin' with my eyes closed, goin' day to day

I never knew the difference, I never cared either way

Lookin' for a reason, searchin' for a sign

Reachin' out with both hands, I gotta feel the kick inside

It seems to me that I have lived half my life this way…”goin’ day to day.” And just like my blog…before you know it almost 9 months have passed…and you’re left wondering where it all went. Periodically, I would get these bouts of inspiration that will charge me up for about a week…then any ambition I had fizzles. A new distraction always comes along. I mean…look at my sewing room and all the unfinished quilting projects down there. That’s just a starting place of the many things I’ve started and never finished. So I’m left with the millions of other peole searching for that one thing that will kick me in gear and keep me forever charged!

Ain't nobody livin', in a perfect world

Everybody's out there, cryin' to be heard

Now I got a new fire, burnin' in my eyes

Lightin' up the darkness, movin' like a meteorite

Oh…isn’t that first line the truth? And boy, haven’t some of use gotten really good in our years at faking it in front of others that our lives are perfect? I wonder how much energy I have spent over the past years faking it………………Anyways, a new fire. Maybe it’s the fact that the weather is warming up and the snow is finally gone. Maybe is this new contract I started a month ago. Maybe it’s these fitness goals I have set on myself. Maybe it’s making new friends and reconnecting with some old ones. Maybe it is the flowing love and energy in my little family. I dunno…but I currently have a fire to do “something”. Now to figure out what that something is. That is the real task! But for the first time in many springs…my heart has the energy to move like that meteorite! Even if I’m moving in a whirlwind of chaos…by gosh I’m going to be moving in my life. Finishing tasks, doing something new, relishing in what I have……really just living my life in confidence!

Now I believe there comes a time

When everything just falls in line

We live an' learn from our mistakes

The deepest cuts are healed by faith

This is the part of the song that I had the lyrics all wrong in. I thought the last line said “The deepest cuts are HUMAN MADE”. And each time I heard it…I thought about how true that is. Yes, we all get physical wounds that take a long time to heal and often times leave scars, reminding us of how it happened. But the cuts that take the longest to heal are the ones that are cut so deep it hits your soul…and more times than not, made by another human. I don’t know of a single person who has not been hurt like this. Now how much of the cut is seen by others varies…as well as how each of us deals with these wounds.

Which leads to what the song really says… “The deepest cuts are healed by faith.” But once again…how true that statement is! I take it as a religious context…because my faith is in God and that he would never let anything happen to me that I wasn’t strong enough to get through. But faith could be something as simple as the hope for things to be better. For where there is hope…there is mercy…and when we find mercy…we can begin to heal those deep wounds.

And it’s the charge from these healing wounds…having the puzzle pieces of our lives fall in to place…the weights being lifted from our shoulders…the inspiration we find from the little and big things in our lives that will keep us from getting back in to a life where we are just living day to day.

All Fired Up!!!