A Life with Lists

I have always been a planner or a person with “lists”.  From as long as I can remember I have tried to plan out how I wanted my life to go.  Throughout the years I have learned that this is not always a good route to take.  If things did not go according to the “plan”, I would literally breakdown. 

What was I suppose to do?  Just live?  Huh? Just living is not on the list!

I spent the latter part of my twenties coming to terms with this and truly learning the phrase:

“If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.”

Boy I have I given Him plenty to laugh at! Smh… 

What I basically get out of this quote is that while I was planning my life to the “tee” I was eliminating a major component.  We never know what He has in store for us.  After going through something I thought I could never get through; something I thought would be the worst thing ever, I am happy to say that I made it.  I am not where I want to be, but I am nowhere near the bottomless pit I was in.  I can actually see sunlight.  I finally came to understand that it is okay to make plans, but it is God who controls the outcome. We can make plans, but we have to understand that if it’s His will……

After coming to this realization I knew that it was still okay to make plans, but I sought Him as well.  By doing this small (but great) task, everything became clear.  Now I don’t mean I got a vision of what I was supposed to do with my life, but I did learn how to go about setting goals, letting go of the past and most importantly, having faith in Him. 

While I am walking in faith, I am not without a list.  However this time I am going about it a different way.  After reading several articles, I am now in the process of creating SMART Goals:

S         Specific (describing the exact goal – who, what, when, why)

M        Measurable (creating criteria to measure progress)

A         Attainable (skills/abilities that I will need to make it happen)

R         Realistic (being willing and able to make it happen)

T         Timely (giving a time frame of the goal)

What’s different from today’s Neka versus the Neka of 5-6 years ago (even up until a couple of months ago) is that I will not let “my plans” dictate my life.  They are ever changing and that’s okay.  Perfect example could be that I am currently feeling like I am stagnant personally and professionally.  I spent the past eight months ignoring my goals/plans/lists and wallowing in my failure. I did not want to see a list.  Now that I feel like I am out of my “rut” and in a better place spiritually, I am more capable of setting realistic obtainable (SMART) goals to get me out of this space. 

Each week of this month I will break down all the things I want to accomplish.  Remember that this list will be ever changing.  Please feel free to leave comment and tell me about your history with lists!

Next week.... MY BUCKET LIST - PART ONE (FITNESS)