A new year is here! Ok, so it arrived about two weeks ago. Admittedly, it took me a bit of time to nail down my goals and summon up the energy to write about it here.
I had been thinking about what I want 2020 to look like and the goals I’m hoping to accomplish. I love a good resolution list and I always blog about them. It helps hold me accountable.
As I was brainstorming my 2020 intentions (or resolutions), they seemed to be very similar to what I wrote for 2019. At first, they were pretty much identical. And there’s no problem with that. Many of the same things remain important to me and are things I still want to improve upon.
Then I gave myself a bit more time to think it over and came up with three main resolutions that I really want to focus in on. Last year when I wrote my list I was newly-ish pregnant. I truly had no idea what was in store for me. It made it hard to think of ways I’d want to improve when I knew my life was about to change so drastically.
And now that I’m a mom, woah. Life is unpredictable and I have accepted that is the new normal. That being said, I can still make goals and try to improve myself. So here are the three big things that I want to work on in 2020, plus a couple of additional mini goals.
My 2020 Intentions
Learn about Finances
I’ve never considered myself to be a numbers person and have embarrassingly never paid much attention to finances. Last year my goal revolved around saving money. I want to continue with that, but my goal is different this year.
I want to actually learn about finances. I’m pushing past the fear I have around money and numbers. Whenever I start to read about money or have conversations about savings funds, my eyes kind of glaze over and I zone out. Not great. This year I’m going to take the steps to learn about finances and work towards a savings goal, figure out how to maximize money for retirement, college funds, all of that. I also want to figure out my taxes because as a freelancer, that can be a little complicated.
This overarching goal is intimidating. I’m going to break this out into mini steps and have a goal each month. Since I feel very in the dark about finances right now, I don’t even know what the monthly goals will be. This will be an evolving resolution.
For January the goal is to set up a meeting with a financial planner. I’ll update my blog each month with the new goal and give you a mini update on where I stand. Maybe this will be interesting and informative for some of you as well!
Make Health a Priority
I work out, I eat healthy, I do all of those things. But one thing I am not great at is getting to the doctor. What’s interesting about this is that when I was pregnant and someone else depended on my health (the baby!), there was no way I would skip an appointment. And if anything felt off, I would reach out to my doctor and make an appointment. But when it’s just me, I’m way less on top of this. For example, when was my last physical? I have no idea. And I just went to the dentist, but that was after putting it off for an extra 4 months.
I’m guessing I’m not the only one who does this. I would never skip one of Millie’s doctors appointments, so why would I do the same for me? My goal this year is to make all of those necessary appointments and stick to them! That means dentist every 6 months, a yearly physical, and an appointment with a dermatologist. I want this to become the norm for me each year, and it starts now.
Take Action
Initially I was going to title this one, “stop procrastinating” but instead of using a negative word (like stop) I wanted it to be a positive word. So instead I’m calling this one “take action.” At the heart of it though, I want to work on my procrastination.
I try to get a lot of things done so I’m not going to say that I’m a huge procrastinator. But I know that I can do better. With a lot of on my plate and little bits of “me” time to get things done between mom tasks, I want to get better at getting all of those things done! I already make to-do lists and I keep a planner, but sometimes items on my to-do list get put off.
I’ve realized they get put off for two reasons. One is that I don’t feel like doing the item, so it gets pushed and pushed, when it would be so quick to simply get it done. The other reason I might put off doing a task is because it’s a challenge, I’m nervous about messing up, and it’s easier to put it off. Instead of avoiding things that seem hard or challenging, I want to tackle these items head-on.
And a bit more…
Those are the three big things I’m going to work towards this year! I have lots of other things I want to improve upon. I will quickly list those below to keep myself accountable, but my main focus are the three items above. I could probably make a list of 50 resolutions, but sometimes less is more. I’d like to put my energy into the above and then the below are also things to just be reminded of.
- Blog more if I have time. At first I wrote this as blog once a week. Sometimes I’m feeling inspired, other times it isn’t a priority. This is my creative space so I’m leaving it more open to when I feel the desire to write and share. Maybe that’s once a week and maybe that’s once a month.
- Get into a good workout routine. I’m feeling so much better these days and a lot stronger in my postpartum body. I’ve just started to get into a good workout routine that works with my new lifestyle and I want to keep that going.
- Spend less time on my phone. I have a ways to go on this and hope to be better at disconnecting from my phone, specifically when around Millie, as well as in the mornings and right before bed.
- Drink lots of water. My current goal is 100 oz a day and I’m doing pretty good with this!
- Get out and explore more of Portland/PNW. We’ve been in Portland a little over a year and there is so much to explore in the city and also in this part of the country. Being pregnant and then with a newborn it was hard to get out of the house and do things. We’re in a much better rhythm so I hope to get out to experience more of the PNW. I have no idea how much longer we will live here (6 months? forever? I don’t know!), and I don’t want to miss out on exploring if it ends up being a short time out here.
That’s what I’ve got in store for 2020! I’m very excited about this year and I’m going to make it a great one. Did you make a resolution list? If so, share your biggest one with me below!
