My New Goals!

It's a New Year, which mean new year resolutions. I'm more of a goal girl myself, resolution just sounds like something hard to do, so I call them my new goals. I know some people think it is silly to make new goals or resolutions, but have you ever done it? Have you ever actually made real goals that you think are attainable, but will require work, and written them down and put in the effort to do it? If you have, great, I'm sure even if you didn't complete your goal, you feel good about your effort. If you haven't, give it a try. Write down one thing, it could be something that seems small even, but try. Maybe it will make you a better person and you will find new joy from it.

Last year was the first time I actually wrote down goals and put in effort. Yep it took me all of January to come up with actual legitimate goals and get up the nerve to begin trying. Why did I have to work up the nerve? I was afraid of failing. (And I was dealing with baby blues issues.) So you don't have start right now with your goal, think about it. Actually think about something you want to do and accomplish. I wanted to get healthy and lose weight. To do that I had to take several steps and realize that what I needed to do was make whole lifestyle changes. Maybe you don't have to do quite that much. Maybe you just need to start saving $100 a month, or sign up for a class, or read. But what is holding you back from doing it, from setting goals for yourself. I've seen many people who have said they don't make resolutions, which is fine. Less than half of the people in the US do. And less than that keep it. But why not make a goal for yourself for this year. Or even this month. Why not start small. Want to read more? Make a goal to read a couple books this month. I have also seen people who say they want to just be a better person and at church this week I was reminded that making resolutions to help others is important. So if you say you want to just do better, make a goal. Decide you want to help one person or volunteer once a month. Do it. Write it down. Make an effort. And yes your goals can change. Life happens, and things change. You have to be willing to make changes to accomplish your goals sometimes.

Last January I spent time and wrote down goals. I had different categories and different goals within each. Eventually I decided that I would focus my efforts on one area and really make it work. Thanks to to that, I lost 97lbs in 11 months. It wasn't just because I wrote it down, but because I wrote down a goal that I honestly thought with work I could accomplish I put in effort and I did it. I did more than I thought I could. So this year I have new goals. Some are specific, some are still more general. I like specific goals though. So my less specifics goals, I am going to take time and see how things go and then try to narrow them down. A lot of my goals are pretty normal for people, and that's okay.

2013 Goals
*Lose more weight to get to a point where I feel healthy and comfortable. (I do now, but I feel like I could lose more still and be healthier)
*Workout 200 times
*Run and entire 5k
*Read 25 books
*Find something to enjoy for myself to make me a better person (see very general still)
*Stick to a budget
*Save more money/Pay off Mazda
*Finish some unfinished projects (I have started a whole long list of mostly little things, but still things that are unfinished)
*Finally get my house organized (harder to do with toddlers)
*Play more, worry less
*Help people (looking into specific ways that are good for our family to do)

I have more, but you don't need to now every single thing I want to do this year. I do challenge you though. Try making a goal. Don't be intimidated. And try to think of how your goal can help others. Even trying to make goal happen can make you feel good.