Saturday, January 14, 2023

My 2023 Goals!

There is something so satisfying about a clean slate. I love to use beginnings (beginnings of weeks, months, and years) to reassess how my life is going, despite the general bad feelings toward new years resolutions. I think it's good to leave behind the idea of perfection and strive for small steps forward. 

Today I wanted to share some of my goals for the new year. 

This year, Ben and I are trying to have trajectory meetings together again. Before we had Oliver, we were having them quarterly and trying to make a change in any area that we felt needed improvement. This year, we are trying to have them monthly but only pick one area to improve at a time (so less changes all at once but more frequently). The area of improvement we chose this month was sleep. We want to try to be in bed by 9:30 so we can fall asleep around 10 most days (5 or 6 days a week would be ideal). A system we put in place to help with that new habit is putting an alarm on my phone that goes off at 9:20, to remind us to start getting ready for bed then. 

As I was thinking about changes I want to make this year, I decided to use the categories the church encourages the youth to use: spiritual, social, intellectual, and physical

In spiritual, the main goal I want to do is attend the temple monthly. When I was a teenager and YSL, I went to the temple often (if not weekly) but since getting married and especially since having kids, I haven't attended with any regularity. I know as I make this change, I will see blessings in my life (and I also feel that, not being pregnant or nursing anymore, now is a great time for me to focus on this). 

In this area, I also have some habits I built up over the last couple of years that I would like to continue and perhaps even improve: read the Book of Mormon, say prayers morning and night, and read gospel doctrine books (I read in them before bed). 

In social, I would like to invite people over more often. To make it specific, I would like to invite someone over (that is not a "normal" person to invite over, like Ben's parents) at least once a month. I also want to see if there is a way that the kids and I can volunteer in our community together, maybe at the food bank. 

Some habits I want to continue is writing a letter to someone on my mind each week and doing a weekly date night with Ben. 

In intellectual, my main goal is to write a novel. I am currently on the first draft of a fantasy retelling of Sleeping Beauty and I want to finish that. I also am considering doing Nanowrimo in November (where you write a 50,000 word novel in one month). A family goal I have is to memorize a poem or scripture together each month. 

Some habits I want to continue from last year are to upload posts to my bookish YouTube and Instagram accounts and read writing craft books. 

In physical, the main habit I would like to implement is exercising at least 10 minutes a day on weekdays. I had a really great exercising habit before Oliver was born, but since having him, I've had a harder time with consistency. I'm feeling really ready to be more consistent with my workouts again. For the family, we want to finish our backyard this year. Having a finished backyard will really encourage us to spend more time outside. 

Some habits I want to continue from last year are to go on a daily walk with the kids each morning when the weather is warmer (I just don't go outside when it's below 30 degrees outside) and go on hikes as a family or for dates in the summer. 

Those are my main goals for the year. I know that as I make small but consistent progress, I will look back and be amazed at how far I've come. 


No comments:

Post a Comment