2011 Goal Evaluation - Part 1

Alright. It's the second week of the new year. Time to face the music and evaluate my 2011 performance against the goals I set last year. But before looking at the fun, hobby-oriented goals I blogged about last year, I wanted to start with evaluating a much more significant 2011 goal.

Last year I read some training material on goal-setting. One of the big picture tools the material recommend was the so-called "miracle question":

If a miracle happened tonight and all your problems were changed, what would be the first thing you noticed tomorrow morning?

I love this question. Although there are a multitude of little things that I would like to acheive or change about my life, this question is a helpful tool for distilling things down to what is most significant.

In answer to the miracle question, last year I wrote down

I would wake up in bed next to C.

You see, for the first three years of our marriage, C and I saw each other only on weekends. We lived apart during the five nights of the work week as C finished up grad school and as I started my first professional job 100 miles away. Our weekly separation was a source of immense heartache for us. Answering the miracle question helped pinpoint that our separation was the number one thing in my life I wanted to change.

So for 2011 I wrote down the following SMART goal, my highest-priority goal for the year:

By the end of 2011, I want to be living under the same roof as C by finding gainful employment within driving distance of C's job.

Before evaluating any of the comparatively petty goals I blogged about a year ago, I wanted to report that we achieved this goal in 2011 :-) Through providence, luck, and a lot of job applications on his and my part, we now have jobs within 12 miles of each other.

Now I wake up cuddled next to C. Everyday. Our miracle has happened.


Thank you, God.

I love you, C.