I have been setting my goals for 2020. I have lots of professional goals and a few personal ones. However, I was in my consultation group last week and my consultant asked us all to take a moment and envision what we wanted for 2020. I started writing down a variety of things but the one that was both new and stood out was that I did not want to do anything I did not want to do. It sounds kind of silly when I write it why would I or anyone do anything that we don’t want to do? But I do and I know that is true for many people.

I do things to be nice or because others expect them. For me, it is often about not disappointing people. I fully recognize that with this goal that there will be times I have to do something I don’t want to do. I have some dental appointments coming up and I sure do not want to do them. But I don’t want issues with my teeth more so it is a trade-off. However, over the weekend there was a meeting people wanted me to go to and I didn’t want to go. It took me a little bit but I was able to say nope not going. And no one said a word to me about it.

Recently I had a scheduling issue come up at work. I did not want to add morning hours. I knew that but I couldn’t see how I could make it work. It took someone else saying to me well what about moving someone else. I had not even thought about the idea of doing that. I hate to ask clients to move for something that is for my convenience. There was a client that I suspected would be happy to move because their appointment often conflicted with something else for them. So I asked them and they were happy to switch times. It took me thinking out of my normal box to get there.

It is interesting when I tell people about this goal. Most say it sounds like a great idea or they wish they could do it. For me, it is about setting an intention. There are many things I am involved in 2020 and I need to be able to both prioritize my obligations and prioritize myself and sometimes those things are in conflict. I hope by setting this intention that I balance those things as well as I can.