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Thursday, January 1, 2015

Goals for 2015


I hinted at it in my last post, but 2014 was a bit of a rough year for me.

I don't want to overstate my challenges, because by and large we were very blessed last year, but I spent most of the year feeling sick, exhausted, and depressed. I had a very difficult pregnancy that not only wiped me out physically, but seriously messed with my hormones and emotions, extinguishing any joy or passion I felt for life.

Thankfully postpartum brought a return to balanced emotions (yay! I want to live again!), but it also brought a new array of physical challenges. Between the nursing and the typical sleep deprivation that comes with a newborn, my immune system was pretty much shot to pieces. Not only have I been on three separate courses of antibiotics since October for various infections, I've had a perpetual cold for the past three months that I CANNOT seem to kick.

Like I said, these challenges are minimal compared to others, and I don't mean to complain, but the fact that the last time I felt 100% healthy and energetic was January a year ago, I've been thinking a lot lately about 2015 and how I'm ready for a change.

I'm ready for a return to health, happiness, and good humor, and I'm hoping my goals this year will facilitate that. This year I'm sharing more than just my book goals here, because when I post something on the blog I feel more accountable to it than if I just write it in my journal.

I've broken my ten goals down into three categories.

Physical Goals

1. Eat Healthier and Cut Sugar Overall, I feel like my diet is fairly healthy, but I have noticed over the past few months that I might just have an addiction to sugar. Because I'm still nursing, I don't want to make any super drastic changes to my diet, and I certainly don't have any weight-loss goals, but cutting back on my sugar intake will probably hurt no one. Also, I want to focus on eating more immune boosting foods (I need to do some research into that).

2. Get Enough Sleep My goal is a strict bedtime of 10:30 this year. Right now my three-month old is giving me a very regular nine hours at night from 10:30 to 7:30, so as long as he doesn't regress I should be able to stick to this one. I'm always tempted to use late evening hours when both babies are asleep to catch up on personal projects, but I am also always a happier person when I get enough sleep. So for now I just need to accept that my baby's bedtime is my bedtime, even if that means giving up any personal time in the evenings (and hopefully someday my baby will go to bed earlier than 10:30).

3. Research and Invest in Essential Oils I don't really like using a lot of over-the-counter medication, but with how many times I've been sick these past few months I've found myself wandering the pharmaceutical aisles with disturbing frequency looking for anything to bring me relief. I've heard lots of people rave about the benefits of essential oils, but I've always balked at the prices. However, now might be the time to embrace my crunchier side and dive in.

Passion Goals

4. Read 25 Books For Pleasure  Yep, my pleasure reading goal is simply to match what I read in 2014. I consider this a low bar, but I will be in school again this year full time, so it still might be a stretch for me. I plan to meet this goal by listening to audio books during my commute to and from school.

5. Schedule a Regular Time to Write for Pleasure One of the things I didn't do much of this year was recreational writing (and for me that includes writing here). This is sad because I really enjoy writing. I want to carve out a regular block of time each week to write for pleasure, whether it be blog posts here, or work on other writing projects I have kicking around in my brain right now. I haven't decided when this set time will be since Baby doesn't have a set nap schedule yet, but I'll find time if I make it a priority.

6. Redecorate My House This one deserves it's own post, because there's lots of backstory and philosophical musings and far too many thoughts about trivial things going on behind this goal. But to make a long story short, due to some recent developments it appears we might be staying in our little apartment a year longer than we thought (we had anticipated moving this summer, but life happens), and I need our space to be more beautiful. I don't have much time to dedicate to this goal, but I'm in the middle of two unfinished DIY projects, and I have lots of other projects in mind, so I want to make things happen now.

Spiritual Goals

7. Early Morning Scripture Study I used to have a very regular morning scripture study routine, but motherhood disrupted my life in every way and I've spent the last three years trying to find the person I was before. It's time for this routine to make it's way back into my life. This one is truly going to be a wrench for me because sleep is precious, but if I can actually make it to bed by 10:30 every night, then I should be able to wake up at 6:30 and get a good half hour of study in before everybody else wakes up.

8. Declutter Maybe this doesn't sound like a spiritual goal, but for me, it certainly is. I'm not happy when things are messy. Like I mentioned above, we have a small apartment and it often feels cramped and cluttered. I think it's time to get rid of stuff, reorganize, and reinstate the old cleaning schedule I used to follow.

9. Develop and Stick to a Budget Does this one not sound like a spiritual goal either? To me, being able to wisely manage money is absolutely a spiritual endeavor, one that requires self-discipline and a careful consideration of values. I've been analyzing our spending for the past year, and I really want to sit down and develop a stronger budget for this new year that will help us get to a healthier place with our spending and saving.

10. Solidify Family Routine  What I mean by this is I want to focus this year on having really consistent family prayer, family scripture study, family home evening, family traditions (game night, chore chart, etc.) and date-night. Since my husband works long hours, I am the driving force in making sure all of these activities happen, and I hate to admit that we've been less than consistent this past year. So my goal is to buckle down and get our family into a really good spiritual routine.

And those are my 10 goals for the year 2015. I know I need to make more specific plans for fulfilling most of these goals, but right now I feel like this is a good list that will stretch me but also be very manageable if I'm disciplined. Also, I feel like most of these goals are pretty necessary to get my life back to a happy place. I intend to report back here at least once mid-year (if not more frequently) to report on how my efforts are coming.

Have you made any resolutions for the New Year (I'd love to hear about them!)? Do you think my list of goals is too ambitious? Any tips or advice?

1 comment:

  1. I'm hoping for really great things for you and your family in 2015! I'm so impressed with all that you accomplished in 2014, but I'm sorry you haven't felt 100% for most of it. That really is the worst!!!

    A couple of my goals (besides my reading goals, which I'll post on Monday) are to stop wasting food (I want to keep better tabs on what's actually in our fridge every week) and to come up with a family mission plan

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