I've come up with 6 reasonable New Year's Resolutions. I'm starting small here, and hoping for a little success to motivate me to keep going. Of course, I'd love to exercise every day and eat home-made healthy lunches consistently, but for now, I'm letting myself change slowly.
I'm even going to be a little bit OCD and print these resolutions out and tape them in the front cover of my calendar, where I'll see them each day. I did that with my priorities list once, and I think it made me work harder to do what I wanted to do during that year. Anyway, here are my first 6 resolutions for this year of my happiness project:
MY HAPPINESS RESOLUTIONS:
1. Learn Something: Read in Spanish at least 15 minutes 5 times per week.
2. Be social: Start a girls’ night by June.
3. Really listen: Interview at least 5 past clients about happiness amidst struggles.
4. Cut the chaos: Tidy up the house for 10 minutes each night, every night.
5. Exercise: Dance with Flannery on Mon, Wed, Fri afternoons.
6. Eat Well: Bring a lunch on Tues/Thurs.
I'm trying to make these measurable goals so that I'll know if I've met them or not. Some years, I have resolutions like "Exercise more" or "Eat healthier foods". While these sound like good goals, they're too nebulous for me, and I don't like feeling unsure if I'm meeting them or not. Maybe that's why I haven't really kept resolutions all that well in the past. This year, I'm going to be specific and push myself to do exactly what my goal says, and more if I can.
What resolutions have you made this year? Do you make broad sweeping goals or smaller more conservative ones?
That's so funny - my #1 resolution and yours are the same! Well, mine is to read in French for a few hours, but pretty close. That and study a different continent every month. I feel very upset sometimes at Ms. Heidelberg for teaching us positively NO geography in 7th grade. And the fact that I've done nothing to learn it on my own in the past 17 years - well, obviously, that's her fault as well.
ReplyDeleteDo you have any thoughts on Rosetta Stone?
How cool! I got this neat book of short stories in Spanish, and I'm working my way through them. It's real literature, which is fun! I'd been reading text books for so long that this is a breath of fresh air! And cool about learning geography! What a good idea!
ReplyDeleteI've never used Rosetta Stone, but I'm a firm believer in the Pimsleur Language Series. That's how I got started with Spanish, and really seems to work. I wish we were learning the same language so we could practice with each other! Maybe next year I'll venture back into French! :)