I don't make New Year's resolutions, it's just not something I've ever done and stuck with consistently. But each year I do try to sit down and look over the past year and make goals and plans for the next year. I started this when I was a homeschool mom. Every year I'd sit down and make a list for each child on areas I wanted to focus or work on. A few years ago I decided to make one of these plans for myself and I found this really great post by Natalie Bacon.
This year I decided to do this with my kids, since I've used her plan before I know a little bit how it works and I know that the idea is to a little bit over several days. So here goes Day 1.
Day 1
Kyle, Renee, Lily and I sat around our dining room table armed with notebooks and pens. Day 1 starts with reflecting on the past year. I think this is really important, it's one of my favorite parts of the plan. Natalie suggests getting out you calendars and writing out where you spent your time. We don't really use calendars but we did all discuss how we spent our time. She suggests that you rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 in each of these 8 categories.
health
relationships
finance
career/business
personal/spiritual development
recreation/play
environment
service/contribution
and this is how I rated myself.
health -4
relationships -7
finance-5
career/business-5
personal/spiritual development-6
recreation/play-??
environment-0
service/contribution-3
So right away I see that I have some areas that I could really improve in. My health especially. I've gained a good bit of weight since quitting Wal-Mart, I'm not consistently taking my thyroid medicine or my iron pills and I haven't been cooking healthy meals. Part of living a happy life to me is being healthy and feeling good. I expect to live well into my 90's (hopefully) and I want to be active and healthy and have a good quality of life. This is something I feel very strongly about so my score in this area is a real eye opener.
As far as relationships I think I've done pretty well but there are relationships that I want to improve, especially my relationship with my parents and my sister. I've lost touch with my sister since going to work and even though we are still close it's not like it used to be.
My finances- blahhh *big sign* lets just say they need work, lots and lots of work. It's hard living on 1 paycheck and raising 3 kids! I definitely need to rework my budget and stick to it better. This is depressing though so lets move on.😉
As far as career and business that's hard to say I am taking steps toward it, I've written a book and nearly finished two more. Now I just need to focus on editing and getting them ready to publish. I think 5 is a little generous but I'm sticking with it.
I couldn't even rate myself on recreation and play. I spend wayyyyy too much time wasting time on my phone and social media and even watching tv. So do I give myself a high rating because I do spend enough time there or should I actually get a low rating because I spend TOO MUCH time? This is how an over thinkers mind works, nothing is ever easy or clear cut. So what I'm taking away from this area is that I don't need to spend any more time on recreation but I need to try to be more purposeful in my down time and not just waste it scrolling through Facebook for hours a night.
The area of environment isn't something I even really consider but I did learn that my two daughters are very interested in environmental issues. That's something I didn't know. I gave myself an appalling 0 in this area.
And finally service and contribution. As a Christian I was a little bit surprised when I started thinking about how much time and effort I put into giving back to the community.
The next part of reflecting is just asking yourself basic questions and we did this as a group. Things like what did you like about last year or what disappointed you about last year.
Last year was all about change for me I think and maybe about growth and finally coming to peace with who I am and who I am called to be. My faith in God took a hard hit and I'd say I was shaken in some of my beliefs and relationships. I grew spiritually and emotionally. Working gave me a new perspective that I didn't have before. I saw Christians, myself included, through the eyes of the world and to be honest I wasn't happy about all that I saw. I gained confidence going to work and pride over my promotion, but I gained peace in the knowledge that God didn't call me to bake bread or manage a deli, He called me to raise my children, to be a mother and a wife. And I know that many moms do those things and work a full time job and to be honest I admire and respect them more now than ever because that was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. But for me, it wasn't what I wanted or needed to do at the time. Who knows? Maybe once all my children are grown and moved out maybe God will call me back to the workforce but right now, I'm more confident than ever that my calling is here at home.
Visit Natalie's blog, she has so many interesting posts.
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