Sharing my goals for 2012

Since I created my wheel of life and had a good look at where I want to focus my energy in the coming months I had an easier time setting my goals for this year. Instead of vaguely stabbing at what I thought I should work on, or going after too many things at once,  I feel a sense of calm as I approach my goals. I know where I want to focus first (my areas that I scored a 2) and what will come soon after (my areas scoring a 3).

My two biggest areas needing attention are “health and wellness” and “fun and adventure” so I figured I would elaborate most on those. My secondary  (yet still key) goal areas are Family, Finances, Friends / Connections and Home which each scored a three on my wheel of life exercise.

Health and Wellness

The current state of affairs for my health and wellness comes back to inconsistency and stress. I am currently on medication for my thyroid and cholesterol plus a big handful of supplements to help manage my mood swings. My stress levels have been very high since I started my business and blogging and my commitment to exercise (my best tool for combating stress and depression) has been sporadic lately.

My goals in health and wellness are as follows:

Goal 1: Take my medications every day (I get distracted and forget too often).

Plan: I am using a worksheet for daily habits (posting on my fridge) and will start checking off things like pills and water. My younger daughter has just this week started a prescribed daily nasal spray plus a nasal rinse. I am linking my habits to hers and we will be a health team making sure we do our health “jobs” together.

Goal 2: Commit to exercise 3+ days a week (I have done 4-5 days and see no huge gain from pushing myself that hard and am fine with 1-2 days usually).

Plan: I put out a call on Facebook a few weeks ago and have 3 friends now committed to doing a 5km run for Mother’s day in May. Knowing I am running my first race will push me to be consistent. One of the other women lives locally and we will be running together one day a week and I will go to the gym at least 2 other days as I already have been doing recently.

Goal 3: Bring my cholesterol levels back down (possibly raised recently due to the lack of exercise and relaxed diet in spite of meds)

Plan: My new meal plans are including 1-2 days vegetarian and a maximum of 2 red meat dinners per week.

Fun and Adventure

Ever since I recovered from Post Natal Depression I have been mostly “well”, but I have noticed a complete lack of joy, total relaxation and any sign of a fun nature. I have become a homebody preferring to read and watch a DVD rather than joining in with my husband and kids when they go “play” (bike, cricket, rugby in the park while I stay home).

Goal: Say yes to ideas and offers for fun and adventure whenever they present themselves.

Plan: Together with my family we will be creating a list of ideas and I pledged to them to do at least 1 each weekend (they choose). I will go out of my comfort zone, push through feeling silly or awkward and just go with the flow. We will go on adventures where I do not have a full plan, snacks and “what ifs” covered to the 9th degree. As I love lists I think we will get a jar to put all the ideas in and use colour to identify rainy day ideas, indoor, outdoor, etc.

At family meetings we will plan ahead for bigger adventures or activities that require pre-booking (I am thinking of things like rock climbing at an indoor centre)

Family Time

I started this blog in August 2010 and had no idea what an effort it would be. I also studied briefly and am working on my business plans. My lack of focus on my children got to the point where the computer and my home office were where they sought me out at all hours.  I declared late in 2010 that this was going to change.

Goal: mindful and focused time spent with my children

Plan: With school starting 2 weeks ago I explained to them my commitment to being technology free when they come home from school. My aim is to have my computer off from 3pm until at least 5:30 for their early dinner time (and sometimes will be off it until they go to bed at 8pm). We chatted and they came up with a name for this time each day. It is now “Bake, Make and Do Family Time” and so far we are loving it. We might create a 2nd jar for this with all the things the girls want to do, cook etc or make a big to do list in a frame like I featured from eighteen25.

I signed up for the10 day  Family Re-Charge with Erin Goodman and have been loving the connections I have been making with other families and ideas to use with my own family.

Along with my being busy all the time evening story time had fallen by the wayside. We have been reading again and loving that cuddle and connection time.

Finally, my children have been eating dinner at 5-6pm for a long time while my husband and I eat around 8-9pm most nights. This is due to my husband’s long hours (I did not want him to have to eat alone), my children’s food issues, and our food tastes which lean toward ethnic and spicy. I am committed to eating with my children 2-3 of the 5 weekdays from here on out and my husband is going to attempt to join us for one of those nights as his schedule allows.

Work/Finance

My biggest goals here are to increase savings and increase income.

Without going into too many details on this front I can share I am currently working with Kirri White on our first workshop which will be launched in a few months. We have been working hard to create a workshop for mothers on the subject of self care . I also plan on launching one or two e-books this year and am exploring paid writing jobs amongst other things. I aim to find the balance between the blog and the business which is still in the building stage.

 

I showed you mine – I hope you will show me yours when the linky for simplify your life week six opens on Monday.

 

If you are not participating in SYL I would love to hear about one of your big goals for 2012. Are you using a guiding word or have you set out specific goals for yourself?

 

Find your simple,

Deb

 

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eat better, feel better

adventure awaits

Tagged as: goal setting