Make Changes, Not Resolutions

On New Year’s Day, my Facebook feed was flooded with people making resolutions. I enjoyed reading everyone’s resolutions and started to think of some of my own. By the end of the day I wasn’t motivated, I was overwhelmed!

I quickly realized that I was going to drive myself nuts trying to live up to my ideals of what this year should look like. It was clear to me why so many people fail in their resolution making.

I decided this year, rather than making resolutions, I was MAKING CHANGES.

MAKE SMALL, ATTAINABLE GOALS

Make daily, weekly, or monthly goals rather that you can achieve quickly and monitor real progress. Don’t just “get fit.” Make a commitment to a gym or class, or sign up for a race. My sister and I signed up for The Bay to Breakers in May as a fun way to keep me motivated and have something to look forward to in the near future.

DON’T BE VAGUE

I knew that I needed to make my goals clear so that I could achieve them. Rather than saying, this year I will eat better, I decided to start small. I’m going to try something new each week or each month. One thing at a time to add to my cooking and planning repertoire.

So far I have made beans from scratch for the first time and for the first time in years I came in right on budget with the grocery shopping. This was due to careful planning and sticking to my list while at the grocery store. It felt amazing and I’m only in the first few weeks of the year.

I know that as a mom right now I can’t completely change our way of eating in one day. However, I can make small changes in the direction I have chosen to learn new ways to eat better, cook better, and plan better.

ACCEPT DEFEATS

Although I did a great job with my planning, I forgot one ingredient crucial to my homemade pizza dough. Rather than drag the girls out to the store again, we just decided to order pizza. At first I was really upset. I had worked so hard to plan homemade meals for the week. However, I decided that I was going to welcome the change to have a night off from cooking dinner, and just enjoy the meal we would eat together as a family.

GET ORGANIZED…BUT SLOWLY

One of my resolutions was to organize my house. If you have seen my house you would know why this resolution was such a source of stress. Rather than setting a lofty goal of organizing my house, I’m picking one area of the house to focus on each month. I am only allowing myself to plan, think, and do things that pertain to that area of the house. This is keeping me focused and actually already helped us accomplish a small part of organizing the garage (the area we picked for this month).

I color coated my calendar with colored sharpies to keep me organized throughout the month. I check the calendar each night to see what the next day holds to keep myself feeling prepared. I also write things I need to accomplish each day. I cross them out when they are done so I can easily see what I still need to complete.

ELIMINATE SOME STRESS

There are many sources of stress each day with myself and two kids to get out the door. I decided to focus on one big area of stress for me, which was actually stress itself. I made a goal to not rush when I’m driving. I can rush in the house, but once I get in the car, there is no changing what time we will arrive. So this means that I have to drive calmly–even when I get behind a super slow poke. Every time I drive I have to say a little mantra, “Do not rush, do not rush.” It has had amazing results. I arrive at my destinations calmly and I don’t feel stressed, even when I’m late. I know there is nothing I can do about it.

BE PRESENT

Another area I have decided to make some changes is being present with the girls at home. This is a hard one. There are always so many things to do – dishes, laundry, cleaning, organizing. When the girls are playing nicely alone or together, it is so tempting to try and get some of these things done. There is of course nothing wrong with me getting things done while the girls are playing happily. However, I realize how I can easily get in a pattern of watching them, rather than being present and joining them. I’ve just decided that when Ellie asks me to sit and watch a show with her or sit in her room for a tea party I’m going to let those other things I “need” to do slide for a while and just enjoy my little ones.

I hope that these ideas can help you make some real changes this year to keep you motivated!

Do you make resolutions? How are you going to make CHANGES this year that you can see?