2019 Goals: Habits, Family, Projects, Health

The desire and capacity to set goals has come around again and I AM HERE FOR IT!!! But I am definitely changing my approach this year.

What I have learned over the last two years since having a child (and I’ve learned it THE HARD WAY, I might add LOL, over and over) is that planning a specific “end result” has a very limited effect on what actually gets accomplished. Big ideas come to fruition with focus, of course, but also when you make sure to pivot and adapt to reality along the way. You will know what I’m getting at if you have ever had ” a goal” of getting a toddler out of the house in a timely manner. 🙂 Thankfully, there’s an app that has a load of great things to do with kids and you can download it at gojam.com.

Having a goal and a plan are great — but I find that I have more success these days if I focus on getting to the root cause of things that are driving me nuts and then solve those issues in small increments. So that’s one way I’m changing my approach to goals. Small habit changes, or reinforcements of old good habits that have sort of devolved for me in the past couple of years, are going to be something I work to be more consistent at this year.

The other thing I’ve learned as a newer parent that has affected the way I approach goals is that time is not always my own. Holden has an impact on really everything we are doing in this season of life. We want to do so many things with him! He is at such a fun age! There is so much joy in my role as a mom. But also, I have my our own personal non-parent goals and Garrett and I are still navigating  how to fit all of those things in too. After their preschool years, I’m planning to homeschool our kids and I’m seriously considering this Online Elementary School. On the other hand,  I’m also considering a christian school near our home.

I am a firm believer that there is plenty of time to do things you want to do, but you have to prioritize what is most important. This year, my list of goals/habits/projects are meant to help me keep those priorities in my view.

Habits

*Take vitamins/supplements daily

*Learn to work out at night

*Floss at least 5 times a week and find more info here to know how to get my emergency dentist insurance

*Read for 20 minutes per day at least 5 days a week

*2-3 Peloton rides per week

*Increase vegetable intake

*Meal Plan Weekly

*Use Grocery Pickup as often as possible

*Make time to take a short walk at work every day

*Average 7 hours of quality sleep per night

*Eat more fiber daily

Family

*Holden Swimming Lessons

*Revamp Meal Planning/Grocery Shopping Routine

*Planned Date Night Once Per Month

*Go on 12 Notable Family Outings

*Explore Pre-school transition options for Holden

*Vet back up childcare and begin building relationships with at least 2 additional childcare providers

*Explore Pre-school transition options for Holden

*Make Seasonal Bucket Lists

Projects

*Revive the blog! (content, https, site design)

*Buy a new car

*Start documenting what you wear again

*Furnish the living room and your kitchen with this perfect leathered granite here

*Closet Overhaul

*Figure out how to use Tradesy or Poshmark to sell newer/nicer clothes

*Get 3 Haircuts

*Plan a Spring/Summer Spa Day with cousins

*Organize Holden’s artwork into a repeatable system

*Host a holiday party

*Host another fun get together outside of the holidays

*Make an Office Space for myself somewhere in our house

Health

*Figure out how to make my hair grow back.

*Get my eyes examined and perhaps get a new pair of eyeglasses. Visit this page if like me, you’re looking for trendy frames for your glasses.

*Find a good dental office like Gentry Dentistry clinic to improve not only my dental health but also the appearance of my smile.

*Spine/Core/Pelvic Floor rehab. I might also get CBD oils at https://cbdarmour.co.uk/cbd-oil/raw-original-cbd-oil-3000mg.html to help with inflammation and pain management. The million dollar question, is CBD: Does it make you high? You may click here for more info about cbd.

*Since the pandemic, most households invest in disinfectant and waterless hand wash products and I’m doing the same to keep my family healthy.

*Explore additional gym options (with childcare!) for strength training

*52 Week Peloton Streak. Leave it to the experts if you’re comparing MYX II vs Peloton to see which spin bike is better.

*100 Rides in 2019

*Quit Caffeine for a month

*Try Reformer Pilates

This list will probably evolve as well, but I think it’s a great start. The future feels bright. 🙂

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12 Responses to 2019 Goals: Habits, Family, Projects, Health

  1. Linda Sand says:

    That list looks huge to me! I think you are trying too hard to fit all that in with work and family demands. Maybe you should pick only one habit in each category (food, health, family, etc.) and wait until that one has truly become a habit before you pick another. I have enough failure in my life without setting myself up with too big a list.

    When our daughter was a bit older than Holden, she decided she didn’t want to go to preschool anymore so she refused to get dressed. I took her that day in her pajamas carrying her clothes. She never did that again.

    Also be careful what choices you offer. Late on one frustrating day when I needed to go pick up hubby I asked her if she was coming or not. She said not. Now what?

    • Holly says:

      Ha! Yes, it is huge. But I am definitely a person who is very “improvement oriented” so having a long list actually calms me down. (I’m aware many folks think that’s nuts.) I figure I’ll aim for all of this, and even when I inevitably fall short, I’ll have at least made some good progress in areas that are important to me.

      And I totally agree on the choice thing. Holden is pretty stubborn kid. When he says he “wants X!” and we offer a choice of “A or B” that never goes over very well. We either let him have X and learn the natural consequences (he’s fairly good at self-regulation — I mean, for a two year old. LOL) We are in the stage of picking our battles for sure. 🙂

  2. Hillary says:

    I loved your outfit documentation back in the day. Bring it back!!

    Suggestion for repeatable organization of kid art, etc. – plastic velcro folders. I started this with my now five year old when he was two and it has worked great and I use it for our younger kid too. We have a “triage station” for incoming stuff. I let it build up a few weeks and then I go through and pick out what I would actually want to see again in 10/20/30 years. At the end of the school year, everything has to fit in that folder. I put a name and year on the outside and away it goes. It is condensed, cheap, and easy.

    • Holly says:

      Thank you! (and thanks for the artwork suggestion!) I was so on top of my closet inventory and wearing my clothes back in the day and now my closet is overrun with clothes that half fit, I don’t like, or just aren’t working for my needs. I need an overhaul and documenting my outfits helped so much. I just have to figure out where to do that and in what format. TBD!

  3. Kimberly C. says:

    You are my muse! I love this list and how specific it is. If you held my feet to the fire to make a goals/habits/projects list, I think I’d say:
    -find a preschool
    -paint the living room/hallway
    -20 minute workouts 5x a week
    -attend one technical writer meetup per month to develop professional network
    -make more of an effort to actually stand at my sit-to-stand desk
    -and I think that we need some babysitting options as well but that scares me a lot

    • Holly says:

      Good goals! What sit to stand desk do you have? I keep wanting to take that plunge at work but they only provide them if you have an ergonomic reason and I’m too lazy to do all the paperwork to figure one out. I’ll probably just buy one.

      And I get it on the babysitting. My “goal” is to find more babysitters…even though I just “booked” my mom for all of our date nights through May. LOL Uggggggggggggggggh

      • Kimberly C. says:

        I have the Ergotron Workfit-A desk conversion arm and I love it. I think it was about $300. I’ve had it for probably 4 years now and haven’t had a single problem with it. It was very weird to be standing in my cubicle at first though because the perspective on everything was different. I was looking at the top of my cube wall instead of the bottom and that seemed to matter a lot more than I thought it would.

  4. KellyB says:

    Not sure if you have it in CA, but we have it here in Chicago and it’s great – the Chime app. It’s vetted sitters. Also what’s worked for us was asking our nanny for her friends who sit, as well, and we now have a stable of family, full time nanny, and backup child care. It’s made a real difference!

    • Holly says:

      Oooh, I will look into it. Thank you! A friend of mine has good luck with a similar sounding app called Bambino. Definitely need to explore them all.

  5. KellyB says:

    UrbanSitter is really great too, but it may be Chicago only? My local Facebook moms group that is based in our neighborhood is always exchanging sitter info – our nanny routinely babysits for other families on weekends through the group. Your support system is WAY bigger than you think with just a little bit of digging:)

  6. Quit caffeine for a month? You’re a braver woman than me! Here’s to an amazing 2019!

    • Holly says:

      Ha. Yes, there is nothing fun about it. I’ve done it a couple of times over the years. I mention why here and here. The truth is I am a terrible moderator and sort of get nuts with my caffeine and then need to take a step back. I haven’t quite reached the place where I *want* to put down my coffee cup for a while, so I’m just doing my best to moderate, but I don’t have high hopes until I completely remove it. lol Ah well…We’ll see how it plays out. I’m making no promises. 🙂