Like so many other people, I made some New Year's Resolutions back in January. I'm not sure what traditional New Year's Resolutions look like, but my resolutions looked more like more like a list of things that I wanted to improve on or accomplish this year. Since the year's halfway over, I thought I'd take a look at how I'm doing and what I need to focus on for the rest of the year. I'll be sharing most of my resolutions here, but of course a couple of them are private, and I'll be keeping them that way.
*Formulate, perfect, and habitualize a daily routine/schedule.
Not doing so good with this one, which is a bummer because I intended for this to be the main thing that I focused on this year. I grew up with little to no routine, so it's never been a given in my life. On top of that, Thad and I have almost always had jobs that weren't normal 9-5 jobs, so I've never really had to settle into that "normal", "adult" routine that most people have. And I'm ok with that. However, I know my personality, and that I absolutely thrive on structure, and I think I'd do really well with a routine, and that I'd be able to manage my time better. I especially want to have this at least somewhat nailed down before Hayden gets to school age. Whether we're homeschooling or doing something else, we're going to need to work some kind of routine.
Finding a routine that works well for us, and making it a habit. I've been trying to do this for several years now, and I'm still not where I'd like to be. I am making progress though, and I'm going to give myself credit for that. Life is also very much in a state of limbo right now though, and much of the time I'm just trying to hang in there. So I'm not going to come down to hard on myself for this. But I would like to see more progress on this one before the end of the year, so I'm going to make sure this keeps a spot on my priority list.
*Journal daily.
Check! At the end of last year I bought a 10 year journal. It is seriously one of the coolest things I've ever seen. It has a page for each day of the year, and on each page it has 4 lines, one for each of 10 years. So on January 1 of this year, I wrote 4 lines on page 1. On January 1 of next year, I'll write the next 4 lines on page 1, and be able to look back and see what I was doing on January 1 of this year. It's like an "on this day in history", but for your own life. SO cool! I'm such a sentimental person, so to have an account of what I was doing or thinking on every single day for 10 years, all in one book, is just so cool to me. And who doesn't have time to write 4 lines a day? So doable. So, yes, I've been journaling every day, and loving it!
*Exercise regularly
Check! I wasn't exercising at all at the end of last year, and I was feeling pretty blah and overweight. I started out the year with a 6 week weight loss contest(which I came in second place in, thank you very much!), and then fell off the wagon a little bit after that. But then in March, we started doing CrossFit! Let me tell you, I am absolutely, 100% in LOVE with CrossFit. It's the best, most exciting, most effective exercise I've ever done, and it's just plain awesome. I'll be posting more about it soon.
*Ease into GAPS
Yeah, check. My plan was to sloooowly work my way into doing GAPS. My goal for January was to read the GAPS book. I figured I'd spend February planning and looking into recipes and meal plans, I'd spend March trying out a couple of recipes and looking into better food sources, and maybe by April or May I'd be ready to give GAPS a try. Yeah, that's not exactly what happened. I started reading the GAPS book, and lightbulbs were going off in my head on every other page. It was like my entire medical history was being explained and tied together for the first time. I knew that this was going to be my answer, I knew that this diet was going to help me, and I didn't want to wait any longer. By the end of January, I was eating the (full) GAPS diet. You know the story- it's helped me incredibly! If I don't accomplish anything else this year, the incredible steps forward I've made with my health are enough to celebrate!
*Increase Bible reading
I'm going to be honest. I haven't been doing as well with this one as I'd hoped. I've got a semi-complicated spiritual history that I'll probably share a bit about one day, and some of the things I've experienced made it hard for a while for me to read the Bible, even while knowing how important and life giving the scriptures are. It's still difficult for me at times, but my heart has healed enough that I'm able to read the Bible and come away with positives, instead of being blinded by the bad memories. I don't want to feel like I'm forcing myself to read the Bible, but at the same time, there's really no good excuse for why I'm not doing that more. Definitely going to focus on this one for the rest of the year as well. I've been feeling drawn to the Psalms lately, and I enjoyed reading some this morning. I'm going to stay in that book for a while, I think.
*Read more books
This one's a bit of a toss up. I started out the year strong, and then kind of fell off the wagon. I've been trying to focus the little free time that I have on blogging. Well, that and vegging out on the couch. Thad got me an iPad near the beginning of the year, and so it's been really easy for me to spend relax time reading on the internet instead of reading a book. I need to try to remember how much I enjoy reading, and that I can relax with a good book too. But still- I'm pretty sure I've already read more books this year than I did last year, so that's definitely a success. Bonus- I'm now able to keep track of books read in the back of my 10 year journal!
* Review and set monthly goals
Um, yeah. Not happening. This was supposed to be so I could keep constant track of my goals for the year and how I was coming along. I'm pretty sure I didn't even do this for February. Can you say overachiever? I'm not even going to count this as a fail- I'm just going to laugh at the fact that I even included it.
*Integrate body, soul, and spirit
It's ironic, because I added this one at the last minute, but this has been one of my mottoes for this year. To me, this is about remembering to be mindful of each area of my life, body, soul, and spirit. I shouldn't exclude any one of those in my efforts to grow and become a better person. I've spent a lot of time this year meditating on how these three parts of a person are intertwined and how they interact with and effect each other. I can't expect to be able to neglect any one of these parts of myself and see the other parts thrive. They're all a vital part of who I am, and they all need to be healthy and functioning. I'll be sharing more about that soon, too.
*Take steps toward becoming a doula
I added this one at the last minute too! I actually didn't even start thinking about this until New Year's Day, when I was sitting in church listening to an inspiring sermon, and I realized that I should be taking advantage of this time while I'm home with the kids to prepare to be a doula! I got out a mason jar, wrote "Doula Fund" on it, and started saving my pennies, and about a month ago officially started studying to get certified as a birth doula! I'm so excited about taking real steps toward this.
I'm doing better than I thought I was! I was a little nervous to pull out my resolutions list- I thought for sure I'd be falling short on most of them. It was actually really encouraging to see that I've at least made progress in just about every point! This gives me more motivation to keep trying and keep improving.
What about you? Are you still working on resolutions or goals from the beginning of the year? How is that going? Even if you're not the organized type and don't have a list- what personal goals have you reached sofar this year, or in what ways have you improved? I'd love to hear about them.
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