Top 5 Personal Goals for 2018

While there are many things I would like to improve internally, I have narrowed the list to 5 things that I believe will have the greatest impact on my life.   These are my top 5 personal goals for 2018. I don’t believe in setting a start date, i.e. January 1st, to start things that will improve your life. I always thought it was silly when a smoker would say I am going to quit next month, or a dieter I will start eating healthy after the holidays. If you want something then just start. Give yourself that gap to practice, to fail and to forgive yourself and try again. If you want to do it, then do it.

So while these are goals for 2018, I am giving myself a 15 day head start. It doesn’t matter that I am on vacation or it is the holidays. Let’s do this! I worked out the 5 most impactful changes for me and put together a game plan to get it done.  I am also giving myself the year of 2018 to perfect these skills.  If I master them in 6 months, I will reassess and work on other goals as well.  Like I said before, I have a long list of improvements.

Here are a list of my top 5 goals that I will work on over the course of the next year.

Top 5 Personal Goals

1. Cook Family Meals

My husband does most of the cooking, because I out right hate the process. I want to help out more with this and find a way to enjoy it even a little bit.  One of the ways I have found to help me enjoy the process was by hosting an adult lunch.  It was a little stressful, but it wasn’t a chore. It was putting together a meal plan and executing it. By doing this, I learn new recipes and find some enjoyment in it. I could use that mindset to create something new for my family, and get the same enjoyment out of it.

2. Exercise More or at all

(Who doesn’t want this). I want to start with muscle toning, strength training through yoga, and basic workouts (sit-ups, push-ups and squats). I will eventually work my way into cardio.

3.  Meditate

I want to meditate daily even just for 10 minutes. There are several reasons I read that encourage me to meditate. I think I just need to find a practice, a free practice, to do this each day.  I tried the Headspace app, the free 10 minute meditations, but because I don’t stick to things it is hard for me to agree to pay for it.

4. Write

I want to write either for my blog or my book a little bit each day, even 10-30 minutes.  I truly believe the best way to improve your writing is to write daily. It keeps the ideas fresh and I am always surprised by how many works I end up with after 30 minutes. I also find that if I plan to just write for 10 -30 minutes I can always keep writing, because I have more ideas pop up. This is the beauty of just getting started.  This also motivates me to start writing my book, because I can’t wait to see how the story develops as I actually write.

5. Be a morning person

 I have aspired for this for years and nothing. I fail over and over again. Ever since I started my career in accounting 6 years ago, I have tried everything under the sun to be a morning person.  I have tried, wake up APPs, moving my alarm clock across the room, trying to go to bed early, repeating mantras “I AM a morning person, I AM a morning person, I think I can, I think I can” and nothing has worked. I even thought – oh for sure once I have a baby I will be forced into it. Have you ever met a mom that was not a morning person? Anh, Wrong! Fortunately or unfortunately, however you look at it, I married an amazing man who is a morning person. He gets up with our son every morning.  So for this goal I am going to focus more on going to bed early, so that I can get up early. We will see!

Game Plan

As I wrote out my 5 goals above it became so clear to me the best way to make this all work, and it seems so simple.  All I really need is an extra hour a day.  I waste about an hour every evening with TV, reading, or FaceBook.  What if I woke up at 6 am each day ( meaning asleep by 10pm). I could do 20 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes of meditation, 30 minutes of writing, before my son woke up at 7 am.

This game plan can work, but the real challenges is getting to bed by 10 pm.  I am an evening person, so I do try to get the most out of my evenings. Trying to switch that to mornings will be difficult. I also have a back up plan to incorporate my exercise, meditation, and writing into my afternoon if I do not get up early enough.

Happy New Years!

Happy 2018 everyone! I hope you get the most out of your year. It is going to be great! Let’s do Lattes year!