Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Goals!

It is almost the new year!  I love this moment.  The start of the new year for me is filled with a million plans.  Excitement for the 52 Mondays ahead of me!

And I am such a goal setter.  Give me a to-do list and I am one happy camper.  I need to have goals written out to work towards.  That type of organization in my life gives me focus, energy, and I feel calmer with them in place.  I always have my list of big overall goals for the new year.  But then I usually have small lists for each month and week as to what I want to accomplish.  Yep, bit of a nerd with my lists (must be in black pen, in a coiled book) but I am one with that.

So how did I do with last years goals?
  • get my fitness level back up.  Well, still not there.  The recovery after my reconstructive skin surgery took a hell of a lot longer than I thought it would.  And the mental part of the recovery has been rather hellish for the last 4 or 5 months.  But my body has healed, so that is a big positive.
  • more math and science with the boys.  Check.  Done and done.  There was an awful lot of fun learning going on in our house over the last year.
  • hiking training.  Well I did a lot of walking.  Even ran a 5k.  But there were no big hikes for me last year.  Sad face.  
  • grow more food.  Wooot!  Huge success there.  We are still eating my garden potatoes and food that I canned.  The greenhouse my husband built was so much fun.  I still have a lot of learning, but it is fun learning.  
  • spend more time camping.  Yep.  We spent well over 40 nights in the camper all around the territory.  Even a quadding camping trip with the boys.  With the boys just that bit older, I was able to go camping with them even if Matt wasn't able to come with us.  It was one of the best summers camping I have ever had.
  • sew new things.  Well the sewing hobby is done.  With my time devoted to my family, being active, my school work, and volunteer commitments, I decided to give that hobby up.  I thought I would feel sad about it, but I feel relieved!  Now I am not stressed to get custom orders done or trying to always have the right supplies on hand.  And I don't feel like I am missing out on anything by giving it up.  Good decision.
  • deal with that rubbermaid of photos.  um yeah.  So you know how something gets put on that goal list year after year?  I think this is about year 8 of this goal.  Why break with tradition?
  • get a kayak and learn to use it.  BEST GOAL EVER!  My parents gifted me a kayak and the boys each got a little one as well.  Some of my favorite moments camping this year were from us paddling around the edges of lakes exploring.  I haven't gotten lessons yet, but I felt comfortable enough to explore.
So what is on the list for this year?

1.  More self care.  I have learned an awful lot about myself in the last year: how I deal with stress, how I feel guilty not helping everyone all the time, how I need to take time to re-charge myself, how this isn't my fault it is just my personality type.  This year I am going to put more time into helping myself.  I have a list of books to read this year that are about identity after weight-loss and eating disorders.  The more I learn about myself the more I will be able to create positive change in my life.  I think I will be blogging more about what I learn too.

2.  FIT!  My body has healed and exercise definitely can help the mind heal as well.  I want my fitness to include more activities that I enjoy like snowshoeing and kayaking.  I am going try and gear my gym workouts to helping me perform better at the activities that I truly enjoy.  I am also going to work on doing more activities together as a family- maybe convince my husband to take up squash with me!  My goal of weighing 160lbs is still there.  I know, having a number shouldn't be important, but I just want to say that I am half my size.  I really want that.  Again, I think I will be blogging more about what I am doing to increase my fitness.  Sharing helps me feel accountable and maybe it will help inspire others.

3.  Find more ways to encourage active learning with the boys.  My boys definitely inherited my curious-mother-fracker gene.  They want to know about everything.  I want this to be another fun year of learning. 

4.  Veggies and eggs.  This is going to be the year I get chickens!  Well, I hope so anyways.  Fingers crossed I learn how to take care of them and eggs are the delicious result.  I have a few plans to expand my growing space with help from Matt.  I already have my seed catalogues in hand and lots of ideas about what I am going to grow this year!

5.  Just say no.  I need to work on saying no so that I don't stretch myself too thin.  My family needs my time and energy first.  I also have a lot of school work that I have to finish this year.  I am going to work hard at not feeling guilty to saying no to people and not volunteering myself for everything. I need to learn to not worry myself sick that people will think negatively of me for doing so.  Easy to write down.  Hard as hell to follow through with.  I feel guilt so badly over saying no to things that I get physically sick.  Bring on the self-help books for this one!

6. Learn to be content where I am.  We have a bunch of really great friends moving away this year and others that left last year.  When that happens it is easy to think that maybe we aren't happy or that we would like some place better.  But we know we are happy here and I have to always come back to what is best for my family.  Right now, right here is best for us and I have to be confident in that.

7.  Finish my school work!  I am working hard at completing what I need to do to become a personal trainer and nutrition coach.  I am lacking a lot of confidence in myself that I will be good at doing this when the time comes.  Mostly I think it is just nerves about doing something new and fear that I will be shitty at it!

8.  And back on the list for year 9 or so.... deal with that damn rubbermaid of pictures.  Uh huh.  Going to do it.  Yep, totally going to do it this year.

2015 is going to be another fantastic year.  My family is happy, healthy, and just as odd as ever.  I have a lot to be thankful for and a lot to look forward to.  All the best to you and your family in 2015!


2 comments:

jozien said...

Kara! how are you doing? I commented on your passion post, and was back here to look how that was going. Please keep us updated. The good and the bad. I enjoy it... even when i seem less of a blogger then i used to be...

here in this post, i read about your goal setting, so that is your passion:) that could work perfect with getting fit. Yes.

In the meantime i have asked several people about the topic of being active and motivation. They all seemed to know that one feels better after one has been doing a physical activity. But what you wrote in your passion post, maybe you kind of never learned that, and probably maybe people do not.
So those people that i talked to seemed to be able to override their resistance, because they know they will feel better after. And i and one other person said also, do little bits first, 5 min walks and build it up slow.
And one lady mentioned she heard a program on the radio, to link your passion with your values. I did not look into it yet, but she said, name the three things you value most and work with those. Like if your value is family..:) i know one of yours is. well then that is easy. I had one kid, and my gosh did he keep me fit, if i would have joined him in all his ventures and listen to him in all things he planned out for me to do for him, i would now be a top athlete. but good thing i let him go on his own eventually, kids need that too.

Good luck

Matt, Kara, Hunter and Cavan said...

Thank you so much, Jozien! Those are all such insightful words for me. I like that idea a lot about passions and values.