Clear The List: January 2016

Hi guys!! Happy New Year!! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Our’s was quiet, but good. I really used December to focus inwards. I was pretty absent most of the month online, I just needed a break and to focus without too much distraction. I think it worked, December did go by quickly, but it did not seem like so much of a blur. I feel good looking back on the month.

Before I jump into the whole goals thing, I want to recognize my dear friend Miriam, who accomplished such a major goal…SHE WROTE AND PUBLISHED A BOOK!!! I am SO proud of her for having the courage and using her talents to get her dream out there! I was beyond excited to get to hit buy on Amazon. The book is amazing…I laughed, I cried, I wanted more. I’m working on a full review for later in the month. But why wait on me to tell you more about how good it is, when you can get your own copy!

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.  Join me and my co-hosts, Esther from Local Adventurer, Lindsay from Lindsay Does Languages, and Shannon from Eurolinguiste in encouraging each other in reaching our goals, and #clearthelist. Linkup your goal setting post below and cheer your fellow bloggers on with their goals.

December was all goal focused for me…the planning of them that is. Last month I said I would:

*Finish my planner for 2016-YES

*Make 90-day plan for BHG (Bloom Hustle Grow): 50% STARTED but not done

*Work on bucket list for 2016 –STARTED

*Update 101 in 1001, & San Diego Bucket List: SORT OF-updated some on 101, and started but need to figure out anchors before I do more on the bucket list.

*Work on editorial calendars for FBB & BHG: SORT OF- lots of ideas, but not sure of scheduling yet

Daily Habit:

Good the first half of the month, not so much at the end (but I expected that). I basically stopped filling it out the 22nd. I can’t remember what days I did what on looking back from the 29th. You can get a blank copy of the worksheet here. Also I realized that I only had 30 days on the sheet not 31, whoops. The sheet I shared on this post has 31.

I’ve really spent a lot of time evaluating my routine, direction, goals, and life in general this past month. A lot of it was because earlier in the month I read Better Than Before, by Gretchen Rubin. I loved it. It really spoke to me, got me thinking about a lot about goals, direction, habits. It’s hard to explain and I don’t know that I’ve 100% wrapped my head around it where I can explain it to other people, but I’ve just felt a shift in how I look at life this month (or really how I “want” to look at life).Rubin repeats in her book (which comes from her prior book The Happiness Project) about “Being Gretchen”, which is really about what do you ACTUALLY like/enjoy versus what do you think or wish you liked. I could babble on, but bottom lining it, I want to live with more intention.

So my word for 2016 is INTENTIONAL.

Another epiphany I had this past month, is I tend to just throw goals out here, without a whole lot of thought or “intention” behind them. I mean, I totally want to do it or should do it, or think it sounded like a good idea. The thing is they are often just stand alone lines. I realized that what I need to do is tie them to the bigger picture. I need to know, why do I want to do xyz this month, what purpose is it serving me. I need to make sure I’m tying things to the bigger picture.

January Goals

I’m focusing on building routine this month. Part of the routine is to have three goals per day, and scheduling out each day. The goals are a bit more built in. I’m not going to go through each goal here (lucky you) 🙂 but I will report on how the month went overall next month. It’s a bit of an experiment…finding what works best for me.

The below is what I want to work on daily. And to tie these habits to the big picture, I’ve written down for myself how they apply to my big picture. Here is an example (again not going to bore you with each one). This was written for me, and more of a word flow than for the blog 🙂  Anyway I’m making sure I am thinking about the why, how it ties to a larger goal, any cons, or reasons not to do it….and anything else that pops up when thinking about it.

• Yoga makes me feel better, the tension goes away, especially in the neck. Why can’t I find time for it? I can. It makes me feel better each day so it should be something I look forward to and view as great, not time waste or a goal to check off. It’s so easy to get bogged down in the days and see goals as a grind. If it is important than you can do it. Maybe try to do am and pm? Find shorter and longer videos, make playlists. It is important to being healthy. More yoga/movement is better than less. Don’t fight it. Yoga is good for you, and an exercise I don’t hate. Healthier is happier. 

 

I also decided to do one for habits that I want to do more on a weekly basis, as opposed to daily. Yes, I could absolutely have put them all on the same sheet, however this is one of those mental trick things. I wanted a place to track but didn’t want to be reminded of them everyday. The cleaning is less about habit and more about tracking.

I bought a journal to keep records of my days for 2016. I’m excited to try that out and do a bit of daily journaling/logging there. All about being more intentional and working towards bigger, higher level goals. Things like being Healthier and Happier, which seems very vague. I’m working on defining and figuring out what adds up to that in concrete ways. The “days build your life, so make them good”, kind of philosophy. Examining what works for me and what I truly enjoy versus what I “wish” I liked. Figuring out where I want to go, and making sure these habits (and time) is building towards that.

In line with INTENTIONAL, I got P to agree to sitting down at the beginning of the month and planning out our weekends too. We often do things, but many times it is after debating on it that morning. I think we would be happier, with having plans in place, something to look forward to…but with the clause that it can be tabled if something else comes up, there are weather issues, or we want a lazy day.  Scheduled but flexible.

This was a fairly rambling post, so thanks for sticking it out with me. I’m still trying to figure it all out myself, but I like the direction I’m feeling, even if I can’t exactly explain it. I’ll report on it all in February 🙂

What are you planning for 2016? Or just January, just January is fine too?  Do you have a word of the year? Any unusual methods you might be using to plan out your year (or life)?  🙂 

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