It has been a pretty tough few months for most of the world. Time is moving forward, but with Covid restrictions, we can begin to feel stagnant. As 2020 began to come to a close I started looking back on my year, and I worried that I hadn't been productive. I thought back to this time last year and was reflecting on what had changed in my life. As I continued this reflection, I realized that just because I didn't achieve any major milestones, it doesn't mean that I didn't reach my goals.

When thinking about personal goals for a year, they could include anything. From a major milestone like saving enough money for a big purchase to something as small as maintaining the GPA that you want, every goal is equally important. If anything, I believe that the mini-victories are every bit as important, if not more, than the major successes.

I don't let a single day go by without setting some sort of goal for myself. That goal could be getting out of bed to workout, or merely completing an essay that is due later that night. Then, by the end of every day, I have something to be proud of for myself. Over the past year, I have developed this goal-setting habit, and it has seriously changed my outlook on life.

Some days, my goal may be to give myself a break. I've learned over the past year that I do not need to be my most productive self every day. At times, the most productive thing that can be done for yourself is to allow yourself to be lazy. Laziness is not always a failure. It can be necessary in order to keep being productive in the future.

Setting these small-scale daily goals for myself has completely changed the way that I function. Rather than lying awake at the end of the day and thinking about everything that I could've done differently, I focus on all of the victories I had that day. I accomplished everything that I needed to, even if those victorious may be irrelevant in the long run.

My past year may not have been as productive as I had assumed it would be. There are days that I still wish I had accomplished more for myself over these past months. However, I know that every day I accomplish my goals. Whether big or small, this technique of goal setting has allowed me to view my life in a more positive light, and I cannot wait to carry this over for years to come.