I know that goal setting should be measurable and doable. Maggie Mason has some great ideas on goals... like recognizing umbrella goals. Lumping and grouping. I am a huge proponent of life list items- but I feel like these are more concrete... I think that by attempting to accomplish items off my life list, I will be adding to the broader vaguer items that are on my resolutions list.
What's more, is that I am feeling discontent. I hope this isn't just amped up from the time of year, whereby I am longing for the end of the soccer season (when I get my personal life back), or maybe it is the winter, and I am feeling the desire for rebirth and regrowth. Or maybe it's because we just got through Christmas and I realized how much stuff we got, little of it we actually needed.
Here is what I know:
1. I have a closet full of clothes that I don't wear. I tend to wear the same 8-10 pieces every week or every other week. Between my dresser and my closet, I sometimes have a difficult time finding stuff to wear to work. And I don't like most of it. I am a grown-ass woman with a PhD, I should not hang onto clothes I don't like for ____ reason.
What's more, is that I do this with a lot of stuff. Our home office is not a place where I feel like I can work. Because my desk is in a high traffic area, it serves as a collection point for a myriad of toys, chargers, mail, newspapers, etc. It just does not work for me. Further, I have writing stuff, craft stuff, sewing stuff, Nico's toys, kitchen stuff, where I have gotten out of the habit of having it well organized and pared down. So, naturally when I go to do ____ activity, I have to spend time clearing space, getting organized. It's crazy. I feel like I am six months away from an episode of hoarders.
2. For years, I have made the resolution of getting down to my college sport weight (CSW). And every year, I push that idea to the back burner. Especially when I wasn't getting results. No time for the gym. Can't go for a walk. The excuses are endless. I experimented with an eating plan back in the fall, and I got results. It was based on some research that I have been doing about the pros and cons of different diet plans. Once I got my head intellectually around it, some weight came off relatively easily. So now that I know what works for my body and how to get results out of it, I think I am in a better place than I had been before. Also, several of my Life List Items include physical feats: do 10 pull-ups, run the 7 Mile Bridge Run, Run Every Day in a year. If I make a plan of trying to knock out some of these life list items, I can reach my CSW resolution.
3. I have the great misfortune of being someone who can exist without sleep. Not well. But I can. And because I can, I often save, as a backup, the option to pull an all-nighter. Like an overachieving undergrad. Seriously. The problem with being someone who works through the night, is that I use it as my fall back plan. So if I have procrastinated or put off doing something, I stay up all night the night or two nights before it is due and get it done.
The latent result is that I can be a grumpy b!tch when I don't get enough sleep. This pattern of self-abuse isn't so bad, except when it becomes manifest, like when I stop taking daily showers to taking every other day showers (yeah, I know, it's gross, I am working on it). I will stop wearing make up. Stop doing my eyebrows, coloring my hair. And that is all fine and good. Maybe as a working mother, I don't deserve to look super cute all the time. But I feel it, when I get run down like that. I feel haggard and stressed and old. I feel grumpy and so much older than my 33 years.
So understanding these three principles, here is what I resolve to do this year:
1. I will build a better/closer relationship with my husband and my son.
2. I will contribute to personal and household savings every month.
3. I will take better care of me.
4. I will get down to my college sport weight.
5. Get a new job.
6. Blog more (son blog, WHS blog, life list).
7. Photoblog for 1 year.
8. Cleaner/less cluttered home.
9. Project Life 2012, 2011, 2010, 2003-2009, Nico.
10. Completely outline idea for novel.
11. Do yoga 26 times in 2013.
12. Read 12 books on relationships.
13. Read 12 books on parenting.
So there it is- 13 resolutions for the year 2013. Let's see how this goes.
What's more, is that I am feeling discontent. I hope this isn't just amped up from the time of year, whereby I am longing for the end of the soccer season (when I get my personal life back), or maybe it is the winter, and I am feeling the desire for rebirth and regrowth. Or maybe it's because we just got through Christmas and I realized how much stuff we got, little of it we actually needed.
Here is what I know:
1. I have a closet full of clothes that I don't wear. I tend to wear the same 8-10 pieces every week or every other week. Between my dresser and my closet, I sometimes have a difficult time finding stuff to wear to work. And I don't like most of it. I am a grown-ass woman with a PhD, I should not hang onto clothes I don't like for ____ reason.
What's more, is that I do this with a lot of stuff. Our home office is not a place where I feel like I can work. Because my desk is in a high traffic area, it serves as a collection point for a myriad of toys, chargers, mail, newspapers, etc. It just does not work for me. Further, I have writing stuff, craft stuff, sewing stuff, Nico's toys, kitchen stuff, where I have gotten out of the habit of having it well organized and pared down. So, naturally when I go to do ____ activity, I have to spend time clearing space, getting organized. It's crazy. I feel like I am six months away from an episode of hoarders.
2. For years, I have made the resolution of getting down to my college sport weight (CSW). And every year, I push that idea to the back burner. Especially when I wasn't getting results. No time for the gym. Can't go for a walk. The excuses are endless. I experimented with an eating plan back in the fall, and I got results. It was based on some research that I have been doing about the pros and cons of different diet plans. Once I got my head intellectually around it, some weight came off relatively easily. So now that I know what works for my body and how to get results out of it, I think I am in a better place than I had been before. Also, several of my Life List Items include physical feats: do 10 pull-ups, run the 7 Mile Bridge Run, Run Every Day in a year. If I make a plan of trying to knock out some of these life list items, I can reach my CSW resolution.
3. I have the great misfortune of being someone who can exist without sleep. Not well. But I can. And because I can, I often save, as a backup, the option to pull an all-nighter. Like an overachieving undergrad. Seriously. The problem with being someone who works through the night, is that I use it as my fall back plan. So if I have procrastinated or put off doing something, I stay up all night the night or two nights before it is due and get it done.
The latent result is that I can be a grumpy b!tch when I don't get enough sleep. This pattern of self-abuse isn't so bad, except when it becomes manifest, like when I stop taking daily showers to taking every other day showers (yeah, I know, it's gross, I am working on it). I will stop wearing make up. Stop doing my eyebrows, coloring my hair. And that is all fine and good. Maybe as a working mother, I don't deserve to look super cute all the time. But I feel it, when I get run down like that. I feel haggard and stressed and old. I feel grumpy and so much older than my 33 years.
So understanding these three principles, here is what I resolve to do this year:
1. I will build a better/closer relationship with my husband and my son.
2. I will contribute to personal and household savings every month.
3. I will take better care of me.
4. I will get down to my college sport weight.
5. Get a new job.
6. Blog more (son blog, WHS blog, life list).
7. Photoblog for 1 year.
8. Cleaner/less cluttered home.
9. Project Life 2012, 2011, 2010, 2003-2009, Nico.
10. Completely outline idea for novel.
11. Do yoga 26 times in 2013.
12. Read 12 books on relationships.
13. Read 12 books on parenting.
So there it is- 13 resolutions for the year 2013. Let's see how this goes.
