Are Your Words Working? // lagging behind on goals and schedules

We're onto the twenty-first day of the month. Only ten more days left before August. Are you on target? Are those words working just how you planned them to be?

For me, I have to admit that the answer is actually no.

Now, I know it sounds bizarre. "But Jane, you finished your camp nano goal aaages ago and you finished your novella and what's wrong with all that??" And all that is completely true but I had (and still have) a few other things planned for this month, and it was all nicely scheduled out on my dry erase whiteboard calendar. (seriously though, if you don't use one of these, you need to try it. It's amazing.) 

I aimed to finish writing on the 15th - tick that box.
I aimed to have at least 25k - tick, again.
I also aimed to have a teensy bit of an easier time - and I think I can check that off too.

But then we get to the second half of the month.

I hoped to finish one of my critiquing novels on the 17th.
I hoped to finish the book I'd been given for free from the author to read and review.
I hoped to dig right in and get down to editing A Sprig of Green right away.
I hoped to finish my rough edits + synopsis.
I hoped to start on a beta reading novel so I had plenty of time to finish it before the end of the month.
Not even mentioning that I really really hoped to have plenty of free time to read the Road Rules book and prepare for my driving test.

None of that went according to plan. And looking at that list, I can honestly see why. I had unrealistic expectations. There was no way I was going to be able to do all that and school and life. I'm an overachiever sometimes and I like pushing myself and giving myself challenges. A lot of the time, I also overestimate myself. I simply cannot fit that much in. And adding to that, all the random things that just pop up unexpectedly and snatch away some of that precious time that I'm desperately trying to balance.

BUT. That's not where the story ends. We're only just getting to the best part.

I'm actually okay with this. I can see that I'm not up to the level I was hoping for, but that's okay. Maybe I don't need to be. I'm right where God needs me at the moment. Because when I'm here and I'm falling behind, I can look up and know that He's got a plan and, my goodness, it's better than ANYTHING I could ever come up with.

And sometimes it's in times like right now, when I stop and look at my goals and what I had hoped and planned to get done, that I realise that it really is better this way. I didn't finish a lot of those things because I was busy.

I was busy living.

So today, I want to encourage all of you, whatever you're doing - whether you're falling behind on goals, whether your striving insanely to reach them before you run out of time, or whether you're sitting right at the top and relaxing already. Whatever place you're at, stop and take a breath.

Take time to look up to God and just smile. Smile because what He's done. What He's doing. And what He will do.

Take a moment of every day and live.


How are your goals and plans working out?
Do you have any methods for keeping on track or scheduling out your plans?