Every January, I create goals for the next year and highlight a specific word to focus on and develop. However, this year is different.
Instead of creating new goals, I’m feeling drawn to maintain habits already in motion. I want to continue to focus on “developing an attitude of excellence” and my personal goals for doing so, will remain the same as last year.
1. Develop a LIFESTYLE of fitness. As a former D1 soccer player, I have always valued fitness and challenging myself with working out. However, probably also because I was a collegiate athlete, I am highly motivated by structure and external pressure.
To sum it up, my post-college, post-babies self goes through spurts of working out consistently, then spurts of not working out for months at a time. And now that I’m in my 40s, the short-term quick fix doesn’t do what it used to! My goal is to continue to develop the habit of showing up to weekly workouts. I would love to have that habit be so engrained that I don’t need to convince myself every time, that it would become something I just do without my usual self-negotation.
2. Learn to longterm plan. I am naturally a more spontaneous person, my strengths lay in being an activator and catalyst for new ideas or challenges, or to come alongside someone’s new idea and help push it forward. However, there are things in my own life that I do want to learn to sustain longer than just a start-up.
I am discovering my biggest obstacle is having an “all or nothing” mindset. I’ve been surprised to see how much it plays out in self-sabotaging a lifestyle of fitness (other areas as well) and an attitude of excellence. So each week, I’ve started to write down my plan for my workouts (what, when and where) and meals (including my own breakfast and lunch), and lean less on “winging it” each day.
3. Simplify Home Life and Mindful Shopping. At the start of last year, I said YES to decluttering, simplifying and not impulse buying for myself and our home. I set out to make only one purchase a month. While I ended up going over my goal of only buying 12 items (August unexpectedly served me a high school coaching position and A LOT went out the window!). I did make fewer purchases than ever before though!
This year, I plan to continue maintaining a simple home and decluttering when the tidying process becomes overwhelming. I also intend to continue limiting my wardrobe shopping to 20 items. Twelve purchases felt a little too restrictive and unrealistic, so I’m bumping the number up to twenty.
This last year I was able to purge and clean out my closet and minimize my out-of-season clothing storage bin by donating all of my “maybe” items (items I did not wear in a year). In this approach of mindful shopping I am learning to stay in my lane of what my personal style is, based on what I feel best in and what I reach for over and over when getting dressed. I recognize that I love a good uniform! The relief that “less is more” is so worth it! My closet and laundry process feels much calmer and sustainable. Plus, my bank account thanks me!
One more thing before I head off into the weekend…
…I am excited to announce the winner of my NEW YEAR’S GIVEAWAY!
In celebration of my blog’s two year anniversary, the lucky winner of a Lillie Eats and Tells PLANNED cookbook and a $100 Nordstrom gift card is Jenna Grossman!
Ladies, this was so much fun! Thanks for playing along! (The above photo was provided to avoid nepotism cries, as the lucky winner is my sister-in-law!)
Happy Friday! See you back here next week. Same time, same place! xoxo
