Goals for the New Year

 I have always been a goal driven person. I do fairly well with the goals I set as long as I have them and keep them in mind. The last few years I haven't really had any goals and it shows in my the things I do and don't do. It's showing on my body, I'm probably the heaviest I've been in years. I'm also the slowest and the stiffest. I don't want to be like that. I also tend to flounder around in general if I don't have goals. I just need to feel like I'm working towards something otherwise I'm just existing and that's not fun. 

One of the groups I belong to has a decent focus on goals but they are far too nebulous for me. One of the goals is to live mindfully. That's great and I want that too, but what does that mean in every day life? I work better when I have a little more definition and a destination to work towards. 

Another group I belong to did a whole thing on goals. It's a dog training group, but they talked about all kinds of goals and having them and how you should only work on 2-4 at a time and they should be definitive so they are clear. I listened to the videos last night and it really rang true with me. So I've decided to develop some goals for myself and pick the most important ones that I will start working on now. Some of my goals are to develop habits, so those will fall away once the habit is in place. I'm also sure that my goals will shift and change throughout the year as things in my life change. So thus begins the journey to some concrete goals for 2022. 

Let's start with everyone's favorite HEALTH

This past year I have felt like crap more often that not. I am at what is probably my heaviest ever and it's basically because I gave up. I gave up trying to really take care of myself. I gave up trying to work out regularly. I just gave up. Part of that has to do with the fact that I had no goals. What is my goal for eating healthy? What is my goal for working out regularly? I have spent the last 3 weeks in absolute agony just trying to walk across the room. Here is a chart of my steps for the last month or so: 

Look at this!! In over a month I have hit my goal 3 times. 3 times!!!!  WTF?? My goal is only 7500 steps, it's not even 10,000. And only 3 days did I manage to hit it. Of course, I then decided that it would be a good idea to start running again. WTF???? Which resulted in an injury the weekend after Thanksgiving which is just now starting to heal. So clearly this needs to change. Is it any wonder that my back hurts all the time and I'm seriously over fat? 

But this is one of those goals that I really need to make a habit. 

Goal #1: make hitting my steps every day the norm rather than the exception.

Goal #2: make going to the gym 3 times a week the norm rather than the exception. 

Goal #3: make stretching a night time routine - every night. 

Goal #4: Give up sugar completely and stick to healthy eating.

I'm on the fence about putting in a weight loss goal. I know that if I do everything I need to do the weight loss will just follow along. If I stick to following DMSC I'll be in the right mindset and will lose the weight. So no, I'm not going to make weight loss itself a goal, I'm going to focus on health and good habits. 

Next up RELATIONSHIP.

I'm not sure where to go with this one. I think what I'm going to do with this one is try to work on physical intimacy. We don't have sex very often anymore, lots of that recently has been due to everyone's injuries - dog bites, knee, back, you name it. So, yes, I'm going to focus more on physical intimacy this year. 

Next, SPIRITUALITY & SELF CARE: 

This one is kind of easy for me. Meditation is a habit that I have now and it's pretty rock solid. I think it's been over a year since I missed a day of meditation. In fact, it was when I had Covid last Thanksgiving that I missed a day. Haven't missed one since. 

Goal #1: Continue my meditation practice

Goal #2: Continue journaling daily. 

Goal #3: Follow the weekly self-care from DMSC. But really follow it. Don't just write it down in my planner and then never look at it again. Check it every day. Do the proscribed assignments to the best of my ability. 

Then we have GROWTH: 

This is an interesting and broad category. I'm going to focus on mental growth for this one. 

Goal #1: Read one book a month. 

Goal #2: Make half of those books self-help or mindfulness books. 

Goal #3: Make some time for reading every day. 

Next is CAREER: 

These goals are pretty clear to me, I know what I need to work on. 

Goal #1: To have the entire year planned out before the 2022-2023 school year starts.

Goal #2: To stay on top of my grading and planning every single week. 

Goal #3: To keep my Google Classroom updated weekly. 

I think that's good. Again, many of these things can turn into habits and they will then fall off the goal chart. 

DOG TRAINING: 

This is something I need to work on again. When I was working on it, Mavy was becoming a fantastic dog. Since I've let it slip so long, he is reverting to the insane pup he was. So it's time to pick up the training baton and continue this journey we call life. 

Goal #1: 5 minutes of training every single day. 

Goal #2: Read/Watch Recallers and begin working through the games. 

Goal #3: Create a goal for Mavy, off leash walking, wicked good recall, or something else. And work towards that. Actually, I'm going to create a list of goals for him and start knocking them off. 

Goal #4: Remember that there is no destination in this, there is only the journey. 

Finally, FINANCES: 

This is going to be a tough one. I have a solid budgeting program that works fantastic if I work it. This month it has sort of gotten out of control with Christmas and Bella's surgery. It is time to reign it back in. 

Goal #1: Create a workable budget and stick to it. 

Goal #2: work out how to pay off December expenses

Goal #3: Get Hubby on board and have him stay there. 

Okay, I'm happy with these goals. None of them are unachievable they will just take a little focus and a little force initially. Next thing is to sit down and figure out which ones I want to work on first. They are all super important to me, but if I try to do them all I will get overwhelmed and quit. So time to pick 2 at most to work on. But I'm going to save that for another post.