Blogging, Subbing, and A Season of Commitment: Fall Goals, 2024.

For the past year, I have enjoyed slightly changing the way I view goal setting. In the past, I’ve always enjoyed setting New Year’s intentions and writing long (and often outlandish) lists of things I’d like to accomplish. Becoming a mom quickly made me realize the power of Small Goals, and with those Small Goals came also a new way of dividing up my year. Instead of making a list of everything I’d like to do in the whole year, I now tend to think of life in seasons. Sometimes those seasons are familiar and rhythmic (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter), but other times they’re much more narrow and personal (say, my goals for this particular season when things are exciting but also decidedly hard).

September has floated right past me, but I’m still wanting to clarify a few personal hopes and dreams for the next two months of true fall. Last year, I named this my “Fall Bucket List,” but this year I fear my mood isn’t quite as whimsical. Instead, I’d like to focus on implementing some slow change—things that might help lift me into that whimsical place once again, and help me feel a bit more like myself.

1. Bring the blog back (again). Here’s the first post! I rarely know if anyone reads these words, but I enjoy writing them, and a life philosophy I need to tattoo on my brain is this: Creativity is Never Wasted. Creativity always begets more creativity, or problem solving, or insight, or excitement, or knowledge, or connection, or communion with God. But specifically: I’d love to write at least two blog posts each month.

2. Substitute teach in the school district. This school year, for the first time in over a decade, I have not gone back to teaching in some capacity. Making the decision to be a stay-at-home-mom for the foreseeable future was a really tough one, and as much as I love my son, I am beginning to realize that without some sort of work outside the home, I feel pretty bored. Maybe one day I’ll find the words to write about the guilt I feel over that, but for now, I’m going to focus on immediate solutions. Substitute teaching is not an easy gig, but it’s one that will hopefully keep me somewhat in the education loop, so that when I’m ready to go back full-time, those hallways and teenagers won’t scare me too much. I’m hoping to sub at least once a week to begin.

3. Commit. This last goal is decidedly not as concrete as the last two, but it encompasses the last two, among other things. I am not a patient person. I am someone who wants clarity and answers immediately. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Certainly not in a few months or even years. And yet, the lesson that Life seems to be repeatedly handing me these past four years is this one: You have to wait, sometimes, to know. You have to wait, sometimes, for things to improve. Sometimes, the only answer is to commit to the actions that will move the needle forward, inch by inch, day by day. If I’m always giving up on my commitments because they feel like they’re taking too long to bear fruit, then I’ll never—ever—see any fruit at all. Why is this so hard to learn? So my final Fall Goal is this: To keep going each day, even when it is hard to keep going, even when it seems like my actions aren’t having any impact, because sometimes, it’s really about giving it time. Always simple. Never easy.

Do you have any Fall Goals? If you’re reading, thank you, and I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below.

Beth