I think that nearly everyone can agree with me that their plans for 2020 were absolutely trashed quite quickly into the year. Part of me just laughs at my New Years Eve self. She was very ambitious for the coming year and felt rather sure of herself. Here we are at the end of September and I really don’t think that anything that I had planned to do has come into existence. Honestly though I am somewhat okay with it. That may sound odd but I think that all that has happened has allowed me to appreciate different things in my life. I also feel that they have helped me define plans versus goals.
Goals focus on what you value for the long term. For example, someone may have a goal of starting a family or becoming financial independent. Plans on the other hand can be short term or somewhat long term. Also, plans are the methods by which you tackle your goals. Following the initial example, a plan might have something to do with dating or getting a second job. Plans as we have seen can easily be squashed by something out of your control. Goals on the other hand are more of things that require that you either achieve them or give up on them. That is not always the case but usually. So what does this mean then?
Well, my plans for the year were just that. Plans. My goals on the other hand haven’t really changed too much if at all. Instead, I have decided to try to create plans that are small bits and pieces that do not require that I go anywhere or buy a lot of things and/or expensive things. For example, I have a goal of going back to Europe some day. I would like to revisit Spain and explore the regions of the countries that my family is from. I think that it would be nice to be conversational in the languages when I visit. So one of my new plans is to work on my language skills. This was not one of my plans starting the year. This is one of the plans that I don’t really need much beyond my apartment. While learning from books and possibly Skillshare may not be the best way of learning a language, I feel that it is better than nothing at the moment. Also, it is a more independent way of learning it. So it is more pandemic and apocalypse proof. Although, I will be honest, not many of my goals are completely apocalypse proof. That’s okay.
So plans can and will change with life. Goals are the islands you wish to sail to while values are the stars you use to guide yourself. There is a lot of year left even though we are heading into the last quarter. With all that we have experienced, there is plenty more to come. I have written many poems this year and hope to write more. Which of my poems is your favorite and why? How have you dealt with the changing of plans? What do you think of goals versus plans? Please answer below with your comments and thanks for reading.
unknownclimate 