What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself? – I answered this question from the daily writing prompt last year in a post called Goallll. And all of that still holds true today.

I’m going to add two more. The first is my goal of becoming a working artist in my retirement. I’m doing average at it so far but that might be a generous assessment. I’ve always known good work takes time. And time is what I’m not devoting to what is needed to achieve that goal.

I didn’t realize how busy retirement is. Doctor’s appointments, watching grandchildren, home and garden work and many more all keep the schedule packed.

The second goal was overcoming something a lot of us deal with but don’t talk about. I learned about depression at an early age. How I’ve chosen to overcome it over the decades haven’t always been the best choice.

It did become a goal that I knew I would either overcome or keep control of. I’ve been blessed with a good memory. That is both a blessing and a curse. There are some difficult events that leave me shaking today when recalled. Luckily, I have more good than bad memories.

Just keep that mindset to keep battling whatever it is. There were periods professionally where it was very difficult to work with some managers making the love for what I did difficult. We’ve been married a long time, and you don’t go through decades together without difficult times. But our goal was forever, and we have stuck to that.

As we all do we adapt. Either that or sink. And it is easy to give up and sink. I’ve occasionally been under water myself. More accurately alcohol. But that is a problem solved from the past. I stopped drinking to kill myself decades ago.

I’m not sure if I consciously thought about overcoming depression or just got to a point where something was really eating me and I made the effort to turn it around with a new goal. Whatever works for you, do it.

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