To Be Resolute

After lots of thought over the past couple months, I've finally come up with what I feel is a good theme for my life goals. It's the result of a lot of personal assessment, trial and error, and wishful thinking. :)  I believe there are two kinds of aspirations. First, there are Bucket List Items, such as: "Climb Mount Everest," "kiss in the rain," "run a marathon," and "try sushi." These are fun and add variety and spice to life. The other kind of aspirations are Character Goals. As I've seriously considered New Year's Resolutions over the past decade, I've decided that the focus should be on the Character Goals. These are "to BE" items, the way you want people to talk about you after you're gone. You know, the things you want to leave behind, and the influence you have with others.

First, I looked back over the past few years of my life to find the times when I was LEAST happy.  I found them in the moments of unneeded rest. Too much netflix, too much facebook, too much laying about. In that realization, I understood that one word I want to be described as when I'm old is

Energetic

The other unhappy moments fell under clenched teeth, tight shoulders, too little rest and too many migraines. So while it may seem an odd juxtaposition, the other word I've chosen is

Peaceful

I continued the exercise by choosing other words that could easily be categorized under these two over-arching life themes and be used to help me achieve them in smaller steps. I came up with ten.

Energy:

Active

Creative

Educated

Economical 

Organized and Efficient

Romantic

Peace:

Focused

Faithful

Prepared

Charitable

Obviously there can be some overlap, but that is what makes it a cohesive goal! My hope is to set one or two small goals each year in each subcategory so that I ultimately become both Energy and Peace. 

Here's my list this year.

Active: 

* Participate in some form of exercise every day 

* Go outside every good-weather day

* Do something fun outside the house at least once a week, either as a family or with friends

Creative: 

* Do one creative activity/craft with Evan every week (something unusual- not routine)

* Make something beautiful each month

Educated: 

* Read something besides the scriptures every day 

* Write something every day 

Economical: 

* Completely out of Credit Card Debt

* Stick to grocery budget

Organized and Efficient: 

* Make a To Do list each Week and each Day

* Minimize clutter (toss!)

* Leave the house clean before bed each night

Romantic: 

* Do something fun with Hubs at least 3x each week

* Get dressed, do hair and makeup at least 5x each week (simultaneously :) )

Focused: 

* Continue to study my Patriarchal blessing in conjunction with the scriptures

* Review goals once a week, keeping them with the Patriarchal blessing

Faithful: 

* Quarterly Temple attendance as a couple, more often if opportunity presents itself

* Focus on sincere prayer, especially making morning prayer a priority

Prepared: 

* Complete and create rotation schedule for 72 hour kits

* Three-months food storage

* One-month emergency fund

Charitable: 

* Pray daily for Charity

* Go visiting teaching every month, pray daily for assigned sisters

* Reach out to one person I love each week through a phone call or handwritten note

It may seem like a long list, but most of them are small daily things that I feel I can fit in even in the face of upheaval, such as our upcoming move, raising a toddler, and being snowed in (<today>). :) I know that reviewing them weekly as part of my scripture study will help me maintain my focus. I'll keep you updated by recording my monthly project and weekly toddler crafts, spiritual thoughts from my personal study, and notes on our finance journey. 

Happy New Year!