In my last blog post I talked about looking back on my goals for this year and reflecting on what I have accomplished. This process helps me to understand what I’d like to focus on in the coming year. We all know the past two years have been crazy, full of ups and downs, and frankly just exhausting. But through it all, I did manage to reach my work related goals, so for next year, I’d like to focus on my family and my health — not that I won’t have a few work related goals as well!
I really like using a motivational/helpful planner to help me with this process and I’ve tried a few. So far my favorite has been the Panda planner. This isn’t sponsored or anything, it’s just the one I’ve liked best so far. I used it a few years ago and came back to it this year again.
If you’d like to check out the Panda Planner and get a discount of 10% off with the code “PANDAFAM”, click that link and check it out! That is my Amazon Affiliate link, and I may get paid with enough clicks and sales, but again, this isn’t sponsored and I found the Panda Planner through my own research.
I like this planner because it gives me the opportunity to reflect daily, weekly, and monthly. I have been using it this month to start tracking my progress and see what I need to work on the most — definitely spending more quality time with my family, and focusing on my mental and physical health.
I still haven’t gotten a diagnosis regarding my most recent health issues, but one thing my doctor recommended was trying to reduce my stress as much as possible — easier said than done, right? I’ll discuss more about the testing and processes I’ve been going through in another post, but I wanted to point out this is one of the reasons I am really trying to focus on my mental health in the coming year. We all know our mental health can affect our physical health, so I’d like to do what I can to strengthen and improve both.
In order to do that, I’ve decided to do at least 15 minutes of yoga every day. This may not seem like much, but I really have to start small because our lives are so hectic at my house. Landon, my 11-year-old had three soccer games and a 2 hour practice at a field an hour away this past weekend. Stuff like that makes finding time to quiet my mind really difficult.
But, I think that 15 minutes a day as a goal is a really good start. On days when I’m able to, I will definitely do more — and already have been. Once I get that habit down, I will work on adding more time, and hopefully getting in other activity as well. The hope is that this will help with my stress and my physical pain as well.
My second big goal is to spend more quality time with my family. Working from home, having Luna at home, and homeschooling Landon means that I’m with the kids a lot. But it’s not always necessarily quality time. I haven’t quite worked out exactly how I’m going to do this yet, but will have it ironed out before the end of the year. If you have any suggestions for getting more quality time in with your family, let me know in the comments!
As you can see, I’m not setting unmanageable or unattainable goals for next year. Given my health and the priorities I’d like to set, I think these are solid, accomplishable goals that will help me to be happier and live a fulfilled life. If you have started thinking about your goals for next year, let me know about those in the comments as well!
The Morning Bell 