Okay, so I usually think new year's resolutions are just a recipe for disaster or failure when they're all about deprivation or rigid rules. At least for me. I usually just fail within the first day or two. Like, for example, this time, on December 31st, I quickly said to myself, I'm going to for real, for real, FOR REAL be a strict vegetarian this year. Um. yeah. If you know me, you know that I really try to be a vegetarian, but I'm actually more like a flexitarian...because sometimes I just can't help myself. Well, predictably, I already "failed" at this one. Like, on January 1st. And the resolution to exercise every day....yeah....right.
Soooooo, I'm starting over on my list. With resolutions that are not all about restrictions or rules. I'm going to give myself "goals" instead. And stuff that's important, not just the usual dumb stuff. So, here they are (and if you catch me not sticking to one, please feel free to yell at me):
1. Keep in contact with people that I care about. It's been brought to my attention by an unnamed relative that I suck at this. And, it's totally true. If someone is not in my life, as in, I don't see them, on a regular basis, I almost never reach out or make any effort to catch up. Ug. And it's not that I don't care about them, but because I'm just always wrapped up in my own daily happenings, that I forget to make an effort with people that aren't part of that. I just always assume that they'll be there, and I'll just see them whenever life brings us together again. Well, now that I'm typing that, it just sounds dumb... Okay, so this year, I'm going to make a concerted effort to reach out to and stay in contact with my family and friends that I don't see or talk to very often. There, it's in the universe, so I'm going to do it.
2. Be less busy/stressed, and be a little easier on myself. I feel like I put a lot of pressure on myself to do a LOT, and then if I can't do everything I want, I get overwhelmed and stressed out. I am going to try to be a little more "European" about things. Getting stressed over the millions of things I pile on my to-do list is doing nobody any good, and takes the joy out of it all anyway. I'm going to try to take the attitude of "if I get it done, great, if I don't, that's cool too." We'll see how that goes....
3. Okay, okay, okay. Yes, it's totally cliché, and I just said that I already failed at the food/exercise resolutions I made before, but it's just not a real list of new year's resolutions without a food/exercise goal. But, this time, I'm not going to make any specific rules or restrictions for myself. I'm just going to keep it this simple: I'm going to try to get in some kind of walk every day, no matter how short, so that I don't turn into a total lump, and when I have a healthy option for food, I'll TRY to take it instead of the junky option. And, the goal is to not have to burn all my pants with buttons at the end of the year. Because right now, they are my nemesis, and the only thing I can stand are yoga pants. Yup, true story.
4. Mom goal #1: Not get so stressed out when my kiddos are going cuckoo. My kids are my little maniacs, and they basically act like my sister and I did as kids, which, if you knew us as kids, was very ... "spirited". Well, I shouldn't say that. We were actually much worse. Like, insane. As in, my parents' friends would go up to them once we were grown up and tell them how amazed they are at how well we turned out since we were totally out of control as children. So, I guess, my kids are spirited in the fact that they are just so energetic and seem to bring out each other's crazy (in a good, but exhausting, way), but my sister and I were spirited like we were possessed by spirits. Sooo, all that to say that I'm going to try to just enjoy their crazy more instead of letting it stress me out as much.
5. Mom goal #2: Say yes more if there's no good reason to say no. I'm going to try to consider each of their requests more before saying no. Sometimes I think I say no to things with them before I really think about whether I really need to. I have this real desire to not "spoil" them, which I think is good, but I think sometimes that makes me say no to their requests more than I need to. I mean, if they ask, "Can we get a Lego toy?" when we're at the mall, I'll still say no, unless it's a birthday or Christmas, because they already have more than enough (thanks to my husband who loves the Legos even more than the kids) and I don't want to see even more of them scattered all over. But if they ask, "Can we go to the park?" and it's rainy out, I'll try to say yes because a little rain never hurt anyone (unless it's a hurricane, then no, we're not going to play in the hurricane at the park). I read this message on Instagram recently, and I'm trying to really keep this in mind: "Childhood is a short season", and the poster wrote in the caption "Make memories with your child while you can." I think I'm decent at this already, but I'm going to try to really kick this into high gear. I want my kids to grow up to be spontaneous and love life and go out on adventures, so I want to instill that now.
Okay, so that's it! Those are my goals for the year! Not rules, but GOALS! What are yours?