Creating goals and resolutions for myself has never worked in all my many, many years on this planet. I may stick with a goal for a month or two, if I’m lucky, and then the reality is that I grow bored of being so good. It’s not that I want to be bad, it’s just that being bad is so much easier! Good = drinking tea in the evening. Bad = a couple (cough, cough) glasses of wine. Good = going to the gym five days per week. Bad = binge watching Sneaky Pete.
About a week ago, I received an email about how it’s pointless to create huge goals for a year and that we should only create goals for a month. The email made sense to me. A month is about all I can handle. I think many people are in the same boat as me. This doesn’t mean that I don’t make goals for the year, it’s just that I also make smaller, achievable monthly goals so that I have some level of success. It will certainly tame an all or nothing mentality.
I decided to share my goals with you so that they’re not just on a loose paper somewhere. Maybe something I write will inspire you to make your own goals for January. My goals for January of 2018 are:
Physical: I have four goals in this category. The first one is going to physical therapy that I have delayed for over a year. Now that my physical pain is encroaching on my happiness and leading me toward depression, I’m motivated to get myself to an appointment. I went last October (2016, not even 2017) and was supposed to start in November 2016 but I flew to Philadelphia instead. I will sheepishly call the Spine Zone on Tuesday to get into their program again even if it means having to go back to my doctor and start the process all over again.
My second goal is to begin a program called 80 Day Obsession by BeachBody. I don’t know how this is going to work with my pain but I will do the best I can. The main point of this is to follow the eating plan, have accountability to my Coach Kristen via Facebook (trust me she doesn’t let you slide & it doesn’t help that she lives just around the corner from me), and to get my body firm and toned. The program has modified moves for those of us who need it so I’m not worried. I’ve given myself permission to not be perfect because if I don’t, I’ll never start.
The third goal is to attend Gentle Yoga at my gym 2-3 times per week. I need it so badly both for strength and flexibility.
The fourth goal is certainly my favorite: I plan to use my sauna (or the one at the gym) three times per week. I believe that the best benefits are found at using the sauna four times per week but maybe I’ll make it four for February. It’s an easy and catchy phrase: Four for February.
Mental/Emotional/Spiritual: I plan to use my Headspace app for meditation every single day of January. It’s 10 freaking minutes, for Pete’s sake. The fact that I have not yet managed to go longer than a few days in a row speaks volumes about my ability to follow-through. I’ve read in two of Tim Ferriss’s books that the majority of the most successful people have found a way to incorporate mediation into their lives, and if they can do it with the amount of work they have to do on a daily basis, then I certainly can.
Education: Of all my goals, this will be the easiest along with using the sauna. I listen to podcasts all the time and I get quite the education from listening to them. They are mostly about health and medical issues but in order to make this into an achievable goal, I will dedicate five hours per week for educational purposes. Education to me comes in many forms besides podcasts, it also means reading, watching videos, and going on social media (more reading).
Social: I need to get out more. You know this and I know this. I have a monthly book club I started last year and it’s been fun but I need to get out more than once per month, so I’ve decided to make this a priority for January. My goal is to go out to coffee with a friend once per week. My second goal is to join the La Costa Women’s Group and go do whatever they’re doing once per month. And my third goal is to walk to the mailbox. Yep, I’m going to talk to the neighbors. Don’t get me wrong, I love my neighbors but sometimes a quick jaunt to pick up my mail leads to an hour long conversation. I’m such an introvert that sometimes this is painful for me but not this month. This month I’m going to walk to the mailbox once per week in daylight.
Writing: My final goal for January of 2018 is to write 13 blog posts and have them published on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Yikes, right? This one scares me the most but what I must realize is that not every single blog post needs to be over 1,000 words. I could actually write only 100-200 words and call it a day. The majority of my posts are over 1,000 words but that doesn’t mean they all have to be. I will be using writing prompts to help with this goal. There’s no shame in writing prompts! Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself!
Speaking of writing prompts, I was given one way back in April of 2017 by my writing coach, Milli Thornton. It was supposed to be the start of a short story but it took on a life of its own. The last entry was May 13, 2017 and I just looked a moment ago–the ‘short story’ is 35 pages long. My goal for January is to add 4,000 words to this story. This will involve re-reading the story, trying to remember what I had planned for each character, creating an outline of how it should proceed and maybe even how it will end, and then sit down and write 4,000 words. Yeah, let’s see if I do it.
I also want to update a blog post that gets looked at daily by people all over the world: the Philippines, Egypt, Australia, China, etc. I can’t believe how much traffic it gets. Who knows if it’s still correct or if the info is outdated. I will read it, edit it, update it this January and hope it gets even more traffic! I’m almost embarrassed to go see what I wrote in case it’s terribly wrong and I’ve given out bad advice.
I hope each and every one of you makes the most out of 2018. Go for that job. Sign up for that marathon. Visit a new country. Make new friends. Fall in love. Whatever your wishes are for the new year, I hope they all come true.
Happy New Year!
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