Having
a goal or goals in our lives are the things that seem to motivate many of
us. I’ve made goals from trying
not to eat sugar to getting to the point where I could run a certain distance,
or climb to the top of a mountain, to graduating from college. Some
goals are much easier to attain than others and some goals are quite the lofty
challenge. I reached a goal
the other day. For most people it
wouldn’t have been considered of noble heights or anything grand, but for me,
it was like reaching the top of a big mountain.
Back
in early December my husband said to me, “Laurie, I can’t remember a day in our
marriage where you didn’t hurt yourself or have some sort of incident.” Hmmm, seriously Brian? After almost 25 years of marriage you
can’t remember one day? He rattled
off many of my accidents and incidents and he could have gone on for
hours. Wow, he did have a point. I hurt myself or have some weird thing
happen to me for many of the days of my life. We just kind of chuckled and laughed it off. Until Christmas
day.
There
was a gift under the tree that appeared to be a thin book wrapped in pretty
wrapping paper. Oh what would the
book be? Would it be a book of
photos? Would it be a book of
poems? Would it be love letters
bound in a book written from my husband?
I slowly, and with anticipation, opened it up and it was……..an incident
board. My husband had covered a
white board with the necessary information and left white spots for me to write
on and erase for the days I had “issues.”
My family wanted me to track my accidents and incidents. Well I thought it was a very cleaver
and creative gift. Christmas Day
was the day to begin proving my family wrong. I was not as accident-prone as everyone thought I was. It’s like the old saying that everyone
remembers the negative things and not the good things. What about all of the days I don’t hurt
myself? Well bring it on because I
was going to be counting them!
Christmas
Day proceeded without incident as I
proudly hung my incident board on the refrigerator. Every morning after taking the dog out
I would, with joy, erase the previous day marker and put in another
number. My friends, I went 15 days
without an incident. 15 days!!! My
family was stunned. I know you are
wondering and asking the question, “What was the thing that caused the number
to go back to zero?” As my husband
sit here and ponder that, we can’t remember. His response is that it was probably a cut, a break, a burn,
something goofy I said to someone or making someone cry (and no I don’t make
people cry). I put the
number back to zero that day and started right away to reach my goal of getting
beyond that 15 days. I’ll be
honest that there were a few days in there that I had to put -1 or even one day
-3 but I did not give up.
I am proud to say that this
past Monday April 20 I reached my goal of getting past 15 days without hurting
myself. What a celebration! My husband and
daughter were shocked. I sent a
message to my boys on Facebook in which some of my friends read. One of my friends was happy but
commented that maybe my family should now consider wrapping me up in bubble
wrap. Do you think she meant to save me from myself? No, I believe she was just wanting me to reach a bigger and
better goal of 30, maybe 40 days! She’s always got my back. J Regardless, I am now at 19 days accident and incident
free. I reached a goal on Monday
and on Tuesday…..and on Wednesday, Thursday and yes, today. What will tomorrow bring? It’s hard to say. Tonight I have to go out into the world
and it’s hard to say what can happen.
All I know is that this week each day I was able to yell, like they do
at the soccer games:
G-O-O-O-O-A-A-A-A-LLLL!
Do you have a goal? Whether it big or small think of something that will motivate
you to be better. There’s nothing like the feeling of
reaching and surpassing what you have made your goal to be.
