2014: What Are Your Goals/New Habits?

[fdrinca]

I've just finished reading The Power of Habit, which really resonated with me. 

 

http://lifehacker.com/5896846/the-right-habits

 

So, instead of making a slew of resolutions, I'm going to pick two keystone habits and watch the rest fall into place :)

 

- wake earlier (than I do now - at least when the children rise, if not earlier)

- get everything ready at night (snacks, breakfast, packed lunches, material we'll need the next day)

 

[Soror]

I thought of a specific goal for school, my biggest complaint right now is that we are not doing enough read-alouds, so for the New Year I'm aiming at 1hr a day MINIMUM (audio books included- to help me out here). I'd prefer to do much more than that but trying to be realistic w/ myself and my energy level right now and meeting our other goals.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

If I fix four things, everything else falls into place.

 

No more coffee after noon.

 

Go to bed on time.

 

Turn off safari on my phone.

 

No more spending several hours at a stretch with the neighbors. Create a loose schedule/routine.

 

Three out of four of these things are tied together.

 

My biggest goal of the year is saving to move. Dd's birthday is in January. I hope to get her birthday presents and the money I need to repair my truck done early in the month, then I will be extremely tight with cash and save to move.

[UncleEJ]

Like others have said, I am terrible at following though with resolutions. But I always try! I also like the idea of categories and small steps. So here goes:

 

Health - A lot here. Two biggies are eating better, at least most of the time and moving my body more. I also have Crohn's disease (fairly recent diagnosis) and I need to figure out what my body is telling me in regards to the Crohn's. My symptoms are not the common ones and I'm having a tough time figuring out what is going on in my body. I need to be more active, not only because it's is good for me in general, but I have chronic back pain. I am planning to start with yoga and work up from there. Lastly, I need more sleep!

 

Fun/Hobbies - I have been thinking about this one a lot in the past few weeks. I am feeling the urge to create something. I am not a very creative person generally, so I don't know what it is that I want to do. On the other hand, I have three small kids so this may not be the time in my life so pick up a new hobby. I have to think more on this.

 

Parenting - Oh my goodness. So much here. I would say my biggest goal here is patience. So many things in my world are not nearly as big if a deal as I can sometimes make them out to be. I feel like if I could get my patience under control, most of my other parenting goals would fall away. No idea how to do this though...

 

Self education - Read more challenging literature. I read a lot already, but I missed most all of the classics in school. I would love to catch up on some of those. Also, I feel I have a huge gap in history. Right now, I would like to start learning more about American History.

 

Spiritual - Hmm.. I need to figure out where I stand with all this.

 

Financial - We are supposed to be saving to build a house. It's not happening right now. My biggest goal here is to decide on an amount to take off the top for this. We have the income to do this, but if it doesn't come right off the top, it gets piddled away on heaven only knows what (books!).

 

Home management - Get back into meal planning. This always makes my life easier. Try to do a load of laundry each day instead of waiting for it to become a mountain. Someone mentioned earlier to put a cleaning reminder in your phone each day with that days task. I think this could really help me and I going to give it a try!

 

Homeschooling - More read alouds. For some reason these get put off. Also, start incorporating DS4 into school work. He is ready!

 

It seems like a lot all typed out. I need to think some more about how to break it up into smaller goals..

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

I'd like to live another year.

 

Everything else will take care of itself.

[Luckymama]

My goals for 2013 were to

--make exercise a habit

--bake a perfect baguette

--meal-plan consistently

--enter all books read into my Goodreads account

 

I did very well with the first three goals :party: I exercise 4.5 days per week on average, I now have the baguette recipe memorized, and I plan all our dinners every week.

 

Alas, keeping up with Goodreads was a partial fail. I enter physical library and purchased books as I read them, so that's progress. But I have 15 pages of uncategorized ebooks on my kindle (library and purchased)------148 books to add to my account :eek:

 

For 2014, my goals are to

--up my weekly exercise by one day per week, to 5.5 days on average

--learn how to make bagels

--only wear clothes that make me feel fabulous

--not sweat the small stuff

--keep up with Goodreads!

[Audrey]

I'll play. :)

 

Health - I just want to stick to the path I've been on and keep my weight under control.  Losing is fine. Maintaining is also fine.  I'd like to save a bit of money to afford the local gym membership for the cold months.

 

Fun/Hobbies - I'd like to make the time to get to the city to the art museum more than twice a year.

 

Parenting - I feel like I'm in a pretty good place there. 

 

Self-Education - I'd like to learn more about wines. 

 

Spiritual - I feel like I'm in a pretty good place there, too.

 

Financial - Mostly, I think we do okay here.  However, I need to work harder to find better wardrobe choices.  I know an appropriate work wardrobe costs money, but I don't need to spend quite as much.  Since I've been changing sizes, I think I need to rethink what I really need in a work wardrobe. 

 

Home Management - I need to work with dh more to help him be more aware of what needs to get done and that he needs to do a lot more.  Since I'm working off-farm more and he's working off-farm less, but our on-farm work is roughly the same, he needs to step up to the plate and take one for the team.  At the same time, I need to continue working on recognizing what normal expectations and standards are for housekeeping.

[Joker]

I only have one goal....

 

Jazzercise!

 

It is so outside of my comfort zone but I'm going to try it. I have a friend who lost over 100lbs and the only thing she changed was doing Jazzercise several times a week. I eat healthy, I eat healthy portion sizes, and I am active but I am still about 50 pounds overweight. So, I'm going to sign up.

[laughing lioness]

 I'm going chip free in 2014. I've gone mostly dairy, sugar and gf free and can tell a huge difference. Chip have got to go.