My Goals and Word for 2016

I remember around this time last year, reading blog posts about choosing a word to live by for the year, instead of focusing on just goals/resolutions. I loved that idea and knew I wanted to do the same for the following year. I've been thinking a lot about my word for 2016, I wanted a word that encompassed all my goals for the year, but one that wasn't too limiting either. I needed my word to work for me, my current lifestyle, and my new goals and dreams for the upcoming year.

I want my goals to be realistic and achievable. I don't want to forget all about them (like I did last year), and I want to work on self-growth and becoming a better version of myself. I don't want to continue complaining to my friends and family about how I want to lose weight, run more, eat healthier, etc,  when I'm doing nothing to actually put these ideas into motion. No more wanting, just doing. But HOW am I going to do these things? For me, that's where wishes and wants turn into goals. What do I really want to achieve this year? What is going to make me a happy, healthier, better version of myself, a mom, and a wife? And most importantly, how am I going to achieve these things?

It's too easy to say: I want to lose weight, I want to be more flexible, I want to be more active. I want to eat better, I want to meal plan, I want to cook more. I want to be a better friend, a better mother, a better wife. In theory, all these things are great, but I need actual ways to execute them.

With that being said, and before we get to my specific goals for the year, my WORD for 2016 is:

This might seem like a silly word, but hear me out. With all the thinking I have been doing these past few months, the main thing I started to notice in my life is the lack of organization going on. Somewhere between becoming a mother and not going back to my day job, I started to just fly by the seat of my pants on a day to day basis. I've learned now, that that is a horrible way to live life if you want any sort of order in it.

Most days, dinner is decided on only hours before it needs to be ready, which means a lot of half-assed meals are thrown together, or if we're being honest, take out is ordered. I've missed appointments and scheduled activities. I'm often doing ten loads of laundry in one day to play catch up. I find myself blogging well into the middle of the night because that's the only time I can find to do so. Birthday cards are mailed out late, or not at all. I've stopped working out because I declare I don't have the time. I go to bed way too late, despite being a night owl, sometimes just because, not because I'm actually doing anything.

Something has to change.

As I looked over my list of goals, it dawned on me that my best chance at success to achieving my goals was if I became more ORGANIZED. Light bulb moment! Everything started to make sense to me. There is no way I am going to achieve anything in 2016 if I don't organize my life. This doesn't mean I expect to do it all, or become super mom. Far from it. It just means that what my life has been lacking, and what I have essentially been craving, is some form of order. Pre-baby days, heck, even pre-husband days, I craved organization. I loved my day planner and lived for writing in it. I'm not sure if I feel like becoming a mom didn't warrant having a day planner (can't I just keep track of playdates in my phone!?), but somewhere along the line I just started winging it instead of maintaining some sense of organization.

I feel like, no, I'm confident that, if I can bring my life back to a more organized state, then things will start to fall into place. I'm the queen of wasting time or not utilizing the time I have to accomplish things I want to accomplish. I'm hoping 2016 will see a big change in how I choose to use my time.

My Goals for 2016

These are my overall goals for the year. They are a bit more vague in nature. In order to remain accountable and hopefully, successful, I plan to break these down into smaller goals month by month. I believe it's easier to make lifestyle changes with baby steps.


FITNESS GOALS

1. Incorporate working out into my daily life. Aim for 3 days of active activity a week (such as running, strength training, workout video). I need to make this a habit and my plan is to actually schedule my workouts into my daytimer.

2. Walk 10,000 steps a day. I started wearing my fitbit again and I forgot how motivating it is to keep moving! I'm hoping this will be the motivation I need to get out of the house more often for walks.

3. Take up Yoga again. Whether through at-home workouts or at a studio, I need to bring Yoga back into my life.

4. PR a 10K. I ended up running way more than I ever imagined I would last year, and now this year I want to get more serious about my running and beat my 10K time of 1:06:13.

5. Try something new. Like snowshoeing, or cross country skiing.


NUTRITION GOALS

1. Make meal planning a weekly event. Everyone in my household suffers from my lack of meal planning. I want to spend less time in grocery stores and less money. I want to know ahead of time what's for dinner the next night.

2. Drink more water and tea, and less coffee and pop. I'm a horrible water drinker, and while I have no intentions of giving up coffee, I would like to cut down. Unfortunately, I just cannot drink coffee black, and those "little bits" of cream and sugar definitely add up over the week! Luckily, I enjoy tea with nothing added. I've been pretty good with my pop intake, but I too often sneak it back into my life here and there.

3. Drink less alcohol. My intake has gone way up over the holidays and as much as I enjoy a nice, cold beer, or a glass of wine once Sully goes to bed, it is doing absolutely nothing for my waistline! Limiting it to special occasions or weekends will be my first step.


BLOG GOALS

1. Utilize a blogging schedule. Almost all of my posts are churned out the night before they are published. I keep track in my head of upcoming posts to write and blog post ideas. This is a horrible, horrible system and definitely accounts for 99% of my inconsistent posting. I'd like to aim for posting consistently three times a week, but I'd also like to have an outline for the month ahead on what I'm going to post about.

2. Get a new blog design. I've seen so many I love on etsy and while I'm sure I could upload a new design myself, it's not very expensive to pay the designer to do it for me.

3. Add an About Me Page. I keep putting this off because it seems like the hardest thing ever to write. I've started and stopped about a hundred times. Time to finally cross this one off the list.

PERSONAL GOALS

1. Utilize my day planner daily. Schedule everything from appointments, outings, activities and workouts.

2. Go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. I'm a night-owl, it's no secret, but it doesn't always work for me. While I like to think I'm accomplishing things late into the evening, often that isn't the case, and I'm just up and awake for the sake of being awake. If we don't have to be anywhere in the morning, Sully and I waste a good portion of the morning lounging in bed, which then gives me less time to accomplish things during the day. It's a vicious cycle I desperately want to stop.

3. Read 30 books. That's two and a half books a month. More than doable when I consciously choose reading over social media.

4. Travel somewhere new this year. A city, a province, a state or a country we have never been to.

5. Work on my overall wellness. Learn to enjoy bubble baths again. Take better care of my skin. Take my vitamins. Go to the chiropractor and massage therapist regularly, not just when a problem arises or I'm trying to use up my benefits.

Phew! I think that's it. In summary, my overall goal is to organize my life in such a way that my more specific goals start to easily fall into place. If I get up earlier, get a workout in, then my whole day is set up for success - I will want to make better food choices and drink more water. I will have more energy and won't turn to coffee to get through the day. If meal planning is consistent, I won't waste time everyday running to the grocery store for items, and the daily stress of what to have for dinner will be eliminated. This in turn should provide me with not only more "free" time in the day, but a more calmness during the day. (Or as much as is possible with a toddler running around!) I don't want to always feel frazzled, and like I'm always "go-go-go!".

Sounds like perfect plan, doesn't it? We shall see! Baby steps, my friends. Baby steps.



Do you pick a word for the year? 

What are some things you want to work on, goal wise, this year?



**Linking up with Jill for Living a Life of Fitness, Health and Happiness!