Saturday, December 31, 2011

Non-resolution

As the end of 2011 fast approaches, it seems everywhere I look I see articles about resolutions for 2012, how to resolve to change this-or-that, top 20 resolutions, resolve to get fit,thinner, healthier, etc. You name it, someone is probably making a resolution regarding it.
I will not be making any resolutions for next year,simply because I don't think they work.
What I will be doing is setting goals for next year, for both myself and my household.
What's the difference between a resolution and a goal, you ask?
Well, to me, a resolution is something we desire to change in our life, usually something large like better health, weight loss, fitness, a more secure financial future, etc.  All good things,right? But what a resolution lacks for the most part is the details on how you're going to accomplish said large change. Sure you resolve to lose 40 pounds next year,but if you don't change your diet, never exercise and continue on as you did before, you're not going to accomplish your resolution. You'll just be disappointed.
A goal, on the other hand, is to me, a detailed list of what not just what I want to change, but a road map of how I intend to get there as well. Not to detailed, of course! More than 3 steps and I lose interest.
For example, we want to eat better this year and increase our physical fitness. A great idea,but if I just tell myself I resolve to eat better and get physically fit, the likelihood is my success will be mixed at best. What does increased fitness look like? If I walk down to check the mail everyday instead of driving, does that count? What if I only eat half a bag of Cheetos instead of the entire thing? Not that that has ever happened.We're talking hypothetical here. *cough,cough.*
What I need is a set, concrete thing to aim for, something small but doable. Something I can easily accomplish, won't cost me a fortune, and won't make myself or my house think I'm either depriving them or trying to kill them.
 What I need is a goal.
So with that in mind, we are setting ourselves 3 main goals this year: one for school, one for health, and one for fitness. I can do 3!
Here are our 3 goals for 2012:

1. School-The kids will complete a foreign language class this year. We will be working on Spanish this year, with the promise that if they complete it, next year they can choose another language if they want. Both kids want to learn Japanese.

2.Health-We are continuing to slowly work towards a better, healthier lifestyle, with less processed foods and more made-from-scratch foods. Our goal for this will be to eat 2 fruits or veggies everyday.
I cheated and added a second goal to reduce my use of prepackaged dessert items. If you have to make it from scratch, you tend to only make it if you really want it-and even if you do eat oh, say, eat 16 cookies,it's probably better to eat 16 home made ones than 16 premade over processed ones.Probably.

3.Our fitness goal is one Girl came up with-30 minutes of exercise everyday. It doesn't matter if it's yoga, a hike, bike riding-heck, even Wii Sports can count! So long as it's 30 minutes of some kind of physical motion, it counts. This one might be a bit of a challenge in this winter,but come spring, we do a lot of walking,biking and hiking. I'm looking at a few short yoga classes I found free online.

A fourth goal for this year is to increase our little garden for the coming year. I really enjoy getting down and dirty,so this one will be no problem. It feels more like a reward than a goal to work towards for me, in fact! I can't wait for the warm weather!

1 comment:

  1. Good points, and pretty good goals, I think. Getting J to go for fruits and veggies is an ongoing challenge, and we both need exercise, too. Our goals are common to yours, and we're trying to keep up with Bill, who runs 5-7 miles a DAY! Beast.

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