Last Year’s Resolution Wrap Up

So I bet you’re all dying to know how I did with last year’s resolutions… you’re not?  No one thinks about that? Alright 🙂 Well I do.  There’s something to be said for coming back to report each year, not the least of which is that it helps me make better goals and ensure I’m actually making progress.

So here we go, from last year’s list:

• Physical (caring for my body) – Cut fast food by half; “ate by 8″, swimming before Summer.
  • The fast food number is harder to calculate when I’ve done some business lunches, but if we didn’t meet this one we did roll in very near it.
  • We did indeed spend that money (and a lot of time) working on swimming. While we didn’t get it by summer, by October both kids were able to at least do a basic stroke across the pool, whereas both of them were terrified of water when we started. It’s progress
  • We totally bombed the “eat before 8” thing. I think that’s a goal well suited to shorter terms. We did notice, when we did eat before 8, that we were actually hungry in the morning. I’d like to try this again, but just not as a new year’s resolution.

• Mental (using my mind / talents) – Read the constitution by Presidents’ Day, then read it again by July 4th with my kids.
  • We didn’t focus on this one very well, and instead ended up trying to read the whole thing on these two occasions. It didn’t go as well as I’d hoped, but we did get through it.

• Temporal (being grateful for my ‘stuff’ and using it wisely) – Cut Walmart & Fast Food spending in half.
  • I DID IT! In fact I spent just 35% of my previous year’s Walmart spending. Happy days!

• Social (loving others) – Find the best projects and charities for $ I would have spent at Walmart.
  • I had hoped to go far above and beyond my usual charitable donations. I did give more than I had in years’ past (roughly 5% more), but it was not equal to half of that former Walmart spending.

• Emotional (loving myself) – Be my best self, accept myself, and find a good therapist that will help me make some measurable progress.
  • This went really well. I’d gone through some rough stuff in 2011 and 2012 and this helped me work through it. Looking back on my non-blogged thoughts and feelings from this time last year, this was super helpful. I am way happier now.

• Spiritual (loving God) – One month on each of Amy’s Workshops + Graphic Novel Scriptures with the kids, x3
  • My friend Amy Hafen had some cool scripture / quote / question packets to work through, and I did go through them once. Not three times. But I have reviewed them a few times too. Maybe I ought to just do that once a year, as it was very good for me.
  • We didn’t get through even one of the graphic novel versions of the scriptures; the scriptures were so simplified that we missed our regular discussions, and ended up going back to that. We did really delve into a lot of the Old Testament this year though, and worked to understand what was going on anytime we didn’t feel like we understood the phrases and what not. I’d love to get the “for Latter Day Saint Families” sets of the scriptures, since they include a lot more in depth information, and go through those with the kids instead.

Overall: I’d really liked the idea of dividing my goals up into focus areas, however I think I ultimately gave myself too many, too-specific tasks, to the point that I pretty much ended up letting a bunch of them slide. Focusing on just a few goals (like the Walmart spending, and learning to swim (thanks for your help there Ty!)) seemed to help a lot.

I kinda wish I’d done this review *before* announcing a New Year’s Resolution to blog every day. I do think I’ll modify that one slightly to say I need to publish at least 6 posts a week. Every day could get rough in really busy times. Generally, though, I think if I put in a lot of thought and am about to post on Facebook, I ought to post it here instead. I’ll keep working on that and refining it a bit so I can be sure I’ve got something that will be realistic.

For now, though, I notice I tend to spend WAY too much time writing (leaving you with way too much to read!), and I need to trim that down and learn how to be more effective with my time and language. But, I am going to bank on that article I linked the other day, and the idea that consistent, quantitative practice is the way to go. I’m hoping to apply that to other areas of my life as well. We’ll see how I’ve improved by the end of the year, right? Happy 2014!