January, with its renewed energy and personal goal setting, not to be confused with New Year’s resolutions, has come and gone.  Also gone is that clean slate that marks the beginning of a new year.  With February comes the inevitable reality check.  How am I doing with working toward meeting the year’s goals that I set?  How am I maintaining motivation?  To who or what I am accountable?

I am a writer.  I don’t mean a creative writer, but one who has to write down everything or in my head it isn’t real; it doesn’t happen; it simply doesn’t exist.  For the second year in a row, I am using an Erin Condren planner to keep my life real…and organized.  I laughed at myself when I switched to this particular planner last year in mid year.  Normally I am one who likes things plain and simple.  Give me a calendar with the dates and a place to write down all the things I need to remember.  That’s all I need.  I don’t want anything cutesy.  No frilly designs or motivational quotes.  I want function.   The Erin Condren planner has the function I like, but it also has bright colors and just a few of those motivational sayings.  I could forgive it that. 🙂  It served me well last year.  Not only did I use it for all of my personal appointments and obligations, I also kept notes on my daily class lectures in it is well.  This system worked well for me.  Last fall, I ordered a 2017 Erin Condren planner.

Towards the end of last year, I discovered that there is a whole, almost cult-like, following around these planners.  At the center of this lifestyle seems to be the worship of stickers and the ritual of placing these stickers in your planner to make it cute, colorful, motivational, themed pieces of art.  Form was now on equal footing with function. Surprisingly, I found this all kind of fascinating.

Over the Christmas break, with my 2017 planner still in its shipping box waiting to be freed on January 1, I made the mistake of “just looking” on Etsy at what kinds of stickers were available for these planners.  Oh my goodness!  The better question is what kinds aren’t!  After scrolling through some ridiculous number of pages of all kinds of stickers, I was overwhelmed and gave up looking.  And then I remembered the funny stickers with saying about coffee.  And the ones that were little tiny coloring blocks that would be relaxing and a short diversion on my lunch break at school.  And the one’s that you filled in your weight so you could monitor your progress (or lack thereof) throughout the year.  And the one’s with daily affirmations to which I could actually relate…

I joined the cult.  I ordered some stickers.

When my stickers came in the mail, I tossed them in the box with my virgin 2017 planner.  January 1, 2017 came and went and both my planner and the stickers remained untouched.  At first I attributed this to the fact that I had not gone back to school yet and living by my planner is a “work” thing and I wanted to savor every moment of my vacation.  I know. I know that’s not true; so what was the real reason that I was avoiding using my new planner?  As stupid as thins sounds, I wasn’t using it because I didn’t want to “mess it up.”  What if I put the wrong sticker in the wrong place?  What if what I needed to write down didn’t fit because I where I placed a sticker.  What if my planner was not a work of art?  Good grief!  This was crazy thinking!!!

So what does my ridiculous perfectionist behavior have to do with meeting goals, maintaining motivation, and accountability?  Well, my planner now helps me with each of those things.

While I was ordering stickers, I ordered a page covered with little tiny runners and a set that contained the training routine for each day of Couch to 5K.  While I was not using my planner, I also was not putting in miles on the treadmill.  That was a goal I had set for myself.  In mid-January, when my spring semester started, I broke out my new planner, my running shoes, and all those stickers that I bought.  And just like a toddler who gets a gold star for good behavior, I get to stick a sticker each day that I run.  There is something motivational about seeing the rainbow of little runners appear across the week in my planner.  And last week, I got to start sticking the Couch to 5K stickers.  I have not completely overcome my fear of “mis-placing” a sticker.  Though I did complete week one of Couch to 5K, I didn’t stick all of the Week One stickers just in case I had to stay at that level for a second week.  I wanted my stickers to correctly reflect what I had actually done.  I am happy to report that I have had a successful start to week two with its incremental increase so I now feel confident sticking my remaining week one stickers.  Go ahead.  Laugh.  You are laughing with me.  You don’t have to tell me how crazy this sounds.  I am well aware!

For me, the ability to maintain my motivation comes from being consistent.  Whether its running, my commitment to a photo a day, writing blog posts, doing laundry, or grocery shopping, I need consistency.  I need to do things at the same time, on the same day each week, and in the same way whenever possible.  If I write things down at their time, on their day every week, things get done.  And I then know where I can squeeze in those unplanned activities.  Yes, I am a creature of habit.  For me, this consistency creates stability and security, not monotony and boredom.  Apparently I am a toddler at heart.

To whom or to what am I accountable concerning continued work toward my goals?  The realistic answer is that I am accountable to myself; however, I feel accountable to my planner.  Lol!  When I don’t see those stickers of accomplishment, I feel the need to do better.  I will do better.

I can control myself – my behavior and my attitudes…nothing more and no one else. I take control of those things that are mine to own – setting my own goals, figuring out my own plan to meet them, creating motivational strategies that work for me no matter how silly they may sound to others, and writing things (or sticking things) in my planner to keep me organized and accountable.

How are you doing with the goals that you set for yourself for 2017?  What is keeping you motivated?  Do you need accountability?  How do you feel about stickers?