It's that time of year again

Everyone is compiling their yearly highlights and reviewing their accomplishments (or failures) from the last year. I have been contemplating what I would like to do for the past few days and still have not reached any firm conclusions. On the one hand, I feel ready to make some resolutions and attempt changes. Last year I gave myself a pass because the stress of moving and having a baby pretty much destroyed my sanity and I didn't need any more pressure on myself. Now we have had a year of stability in our home, family, and job situations and things feel much better. I still hesitate to make resolutions because they never seem to happen. As I look back on posts labelled 'goals' I see many of the same themes: read my scriptures, lose weight, eat fewer treats, and so on. I want to change many of the things I've been failing at for years and so I feel rather daunted by the fact that I've been trying for nearly a decade to change the same things about myself.

I think what I would like to do instead is to set monthly goals. One piece of the puzzle to work on each month; perhaps accomplishing small, measurable things will help me make some lasting changes. For January I am going to get back on a regular sleeping schedule. I will be in bed with the light off at 10:30 and during the week I will get up at 6:30 (either to exercise or to get ready for work). I do have goals for exercising and scripture study that I'd like to do in the morning, but for this month I will focus on sleep. I will report back at the end of the month.

Comments

Katya said…
I don't ever make New Year's resolutions. (Well, I quit smoking every year, but that's just a joke.) I'm not a big goal-setter, generally. Instead, I try to track certain behaviors and reward myself for doing them regularly and often.

I know that sounds a lot like setting a goal, but in my mind, setting a goal means starting with a theoretical idea of perfection, which means that any real-world deviation from that is seen as a failure. Tracking a behavior, on the other hand, means starting from nothing and recording positive steps, even if those steps are slower than I might have originally envisioned.

Good luck with your goals!
1/02/2011 8:44 AM
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