Okay, I know, it is 2016! Amazing! Light the fireworks, I love! Pop the champagne! Wake up feeling fresh! But please do not share your new years resolutions with me. I hate those.
I understand the importance of goal setting, I'm 100% on board with that. I also understand the importance of doing continual work on your projects, whether it be personal, physical, spiritual, etc. But why do we have this unofficial national holiday where we make people feel bad about what they need to do in order to make themselves better, or acceptable? I don't know...does anyone else feel like it's too much pressure? Is there another way?
My friend Emily refines her goals list in the summer time! To me, that's a great time to wake up and decide that "today is a new day, I'm tan, here's some pink lemonade, and I will begin working on my goals now." Personally, I set new goals for myself in October, while I was on a pumpkin spice high, and I have never been more hopeful or productive. They were simple goals:
1) Go to the gym every other day
2) Read books
3) Stop beating myself up for not having a perfectly organized house
Very simple, broad goals! What do they mean to me? Mostly, these goals are to help replace some of my bad habits.
I watch a lot of television. The couch has developed a Becka-shaped nest in it where I sit while I watch TV. Stories and comedy are my junk food- I love to see a story develop and I love to laugh. I've binge watched through some (most) of the essential comedy series on Netflix. This...is not the worst thing I could be addicted to, but it's also not super healthy.
Luckily, I got the Netflix app ON MY IPHONE, and now I can watch Parks & Rec while I'm on the treadmill!! Ah so good. Every week since October I have gone to the gym and squatted, pushed, pulled, pumped, jumped, and almost passed out for about 30 minutes. Then I reward myself with walking on the treadmill and watching TV. Harmony! Everyone wins! (I realize now that I did not replace a bad habit, but now am rather...facilitating it in a healthier way?)
Reading more books is important to me as well. But who has time to read when one wakes 30 minutes before one has to be at work, types on a computer for 8 hours, and then has to go to the GYM, stretch, cry from soreness, shower, get into bed and kiss one's dog till one falls asleep!? Turns out there's an app for that. I downloaded Audible! Now I listen to books I want to read while I walk/run/squat/cry/bathe. (perhaps this is becoming a post about how to make really good use of your smartphone? you decide). But I also am trying to set apart time on the weekends where all I do is spend an hour or so reading a real physical book. If you have suggestions, please share!
And not bad mouthing myself for not having a house that looks like it's in Sunset Magazine. After all, I do live with a grown man, who sometimes passes as a legitimate grizzly bear, and a dog who is either a wild boar or a small horse, we're not sure. I used to sit at work and STRESS about the state of my home- the dishes in the sink, the unfolded clothes in the dryer, the unmade bed, the leaves in the yard. I think these thoughts were perpetuated and made significantly worse by my time spent skimming actual Sunset Magazines for content while at work. But I live a real life, and real life is a little bit messy and disorganization sometimes. I refuse to submit to the pressures of Pinterest.
