New Year's Resolutions 2016

If I'm being truly honest, I'm not a fan of the "New Year's Resolution" idea. Every year, we create these idealistic resolutions that fall by the wayside by the middle of January, maybe middle of February if we're truly mustering our best effort.

Why do we as a culture do this? Well, I can't speak for everyone, but I can speak about why I do this every year. I do this because I want to improve. I want to do better and be better and in my mind toasting the new year is synonymous with reinventing myself, realizing that I don't have to be who I was last year. I don't have to stay stuck in self-destructive habits. I can explore ideas and interests that I've been wanting to explore, but have not done so out of sheer procrastination and laziness. For some reason, the new year is the kick in the pants motivation to stop making excuses for myself.

Why do my best laid resolutions fall by the wayside? I would guess that poor planning and lack of specificity play a part. This year, I tried to keep my goals pretty specific, but there are still some that are probably a bit too vague. The planning part? Well, that remains to be seen.

Without further adieu, my goals for 2016:

Spiritual

• Read through the Bible in a year.
• Continue to develop a habit of prayer.
• Develop daily consistency in devotional life.

Marital

• Continue and finish reading When Divorce Is Not an Option
• Change self and habits according to the ideas in When Divorce is Not an Option

Physical

• Return to my way of eating so that I can feel better and function better.
• Develop a lifting habit of 3 days a week.
• Increase fun physical activity with my boys.

Emotional

• Konmari my physical space in order to free up mental and emotional energy.
• Work through my Scream-Free parenting book and implement strategies for sound emotional regulation.
• Stay committed to my way of eating, so that my emotional state is less impacted by fluctuating hormonal levels.

Mental

• Develop my mind through quality literature and limit junk literature.
• Blog once a week in order to exercise my writing skill and ability to communicate via the written word.
• Make middle of the day quiet time a habit, even if this means saying NO to fun things.

Financial

• Continue to explore frugal living.
• Sort clothing with a careful eye for mending/upcycling potential.
• Explore alternate options for bringing in income. 

What are YOUR resolutions? Do you have a plan to achieve them? Have you successfully reached your goals in past years? Any secrets to your success with reaching goals that you'd care to share?

And last, but certainly not least, Happy New Year! Let's make it a good one in which we refuse to stay stuck in our self-destructive habits and ways of thinking!