Ah, new year’s resolutions. Every year Steve stays up on New Year’s Eve and waits for the year to turn, and I set New Year’s resolutions (and go to bed when I’m tired, which happens before midnight). Last night was no exception.
I’ve spent a bit of time thinking about my New Year’s resolutions over the past month. To me, it’s important not just to set a goal but to have some idea as to how I am going to accomplish the feat. Here are some of my specific goals for the new year:
Exercise. When I was pregnant with Joey, I did yoga and went for a walk five times a week and I felt great (until the third trimester when I had to quit due to my sciatica). I love doing both for the sake of my mental health and for how good they make me feel. I haven’t gotten back into it yet since Joey was born (he’s ten weeks old now).
Part of the problem has been the cold weather – I’m not sure how to dress the boys if I take them with me. Part of the problem is my lack of good workout clothes for cold weather – I just finished a pair of wool mittens for myself and am halfway through knitting a hat out of the same yarn. It’s also hard to leave a baby and not worry that he’ll start crying five minutes after you walk out the door and scream for thirty minutes until you get back regardless of what anyone does for him – we’ve done a couple of test runs and I’m pretty sure when he’ll sleep, so we’re getting past that obstacle too.
I’m thinking I’ll go for my walk in the morning before Steve leaves for work. Joey sleeps well in the morning, and even if he stirs, he usually goes back to sleep. Ben gets up whenever, and Steve can handle him while he gets ready for work. Otherwise I’ll be putting Joey in the sling and Ben in the stroller and going that way, though I doubt we’ll go as far with the added weight. Yesterday we got snow, which puts another wrench into the deal. Even if I walk, I will not be able to walk as quickly, but I shall venture out just the same.
Read good books. Before I had children, I was an avid reader. I still have many of the books I read and enjoyed as well as some I never got to. Since Ben was born, I have read perhaps one or two books. I simply never get around to reading like I used to. I’ve decided that I am going to discipline myself to read ten pages every day. That’s ten minutes every night before I go to bed. I’ve been reading about twenty pages a night five nights a week for the last two weeks, so I should be able to pull this one off. Most of the books I read are around three hundred pages. I have about seventy-five pages left in the book I’m reading, so I’m beginning to ponder which one I shall read next, which is rather exciting.
Take time for myself every day. Before I got pregnant with Joey, I was a member of the Five O’clock Club – meaning that I got up at 5:00 a.m. every morning every day of the week with rare exceptions. I so missed that while I was pregnant, but I was so tired I just physically couldn’t do it. I’ve been doing this again over the past couple of weeks, and it’s been such a pleasure. That’s my quiet uninterrupted time when I can read inspirational/motivational books, plan my life, and think while knitting (I do my best thinking while I’m knitting or exercising). If I had to pick one thing to do for my mental health, it would be getting an hour of personal time every day.
Those are my specific personal goals for the new year. I also have Mary Kay goals, though I won’t bore you with them here. Then I have my theme for the new year – my vague goals which everything else falls under. Here it is:
Work like a dog. Play like a dog. Spend time with my favorite people. That is what I am writing on my goal poster (a mark and wipe board that hangs above my desk).
By the way, I got that motto from Finding Your Own North Star by Martha Beck. Highly recommended. I read it earlier in 2006 and keep it by my knitting because I refer back to it a lot. Another book I’m crazy about right now is Your Best Year Yet which as ten questions that you should ask yourself when evaluating where you have been and where you want to go. I find that it has applications outside of simply life-goal setting as well – I have adapted the questions for use in evaluating personal relationships with a high rate of success. If you are serious about making any personal changes to your life, I highly recommend both of these books.
Cheers!