After two months of not doing well on my goals, I decided at the beginning of April to get back on the horse and try again. Overall it went really well. I met almost all of the goals, and am rewarding myself with a massage this week!
Goal I didn't meet- getting to the temple, however, I did have plans to go and they fell through at the last minute so I decided to give myself points for good intentions (I know the path to Hell is paved with good intentions.... but I did do some other good and spiritually uplifting things this month so stop judging me- I'm counting it :)
Reflecting on why February and March did not go well:
It is a really simple and stupid thing, but to start out with, I am using a dry-erase calendar to track myself daily. I didn't erase January and put up February right away so I wasn't tracking myself physically, this led to forgetting and subsequent cheating on the goals. I also didn't pick a reward to start of the month so I wasn't working towards anything in particular, this led to lack of motivation to keep going. Then we all took turns getting sick, really sick which meant my goals were about the last thing on my mind.
Moving into March, on top of being a mom and working full time, I had to add an online course and multiple doctor's appointments on top of an already crazy schedule. Time is my enemy. I straight up didn't have enough time to get out and exercise or think about making my goals a priority.
So that brings us up to April. My class finished up the last week of March, we were all back in good health, I got my calendar started at the beginning of the month, and gave myself a reward to work towards, and it rocked. In fact, I got out and did some sort of exercise EVERY DAY last week!
Thoughts about time:
So if you look up a few lines I said that time is my enemy. A bold statement, that I thought about changing or taking out, but instead I decided to wax philosophical on it. I feel like Time is a tricky thing because there are so many things competing for it. So maybe it's not time that is my enemy but the number of activities going on. Of course the answer to that dilemma is to prioritize, but this is where I struggle at times because with each priority there comes an opportunity cost. Everything I choose to spend time on takes away from the amount of time I could be spending doing something else, and in order to be perfect at everything I would like to put time and energy into there wouldn't be enough time. So the answer to the time dilemma (priorities) creates new dilemmas- how to prioritize.
Work takes out 8 hours from my day- opportunities it allows for:
Supporting my family
Personal enrichment
Socialization
Stretching my brain/ using some of my talents
Recognition of achievements and efforts
Costs:
Not able to spend that time with Jason
Paying for child care
Not able to use that time for household needs (cooking, cleaning, shopping etc)
A whole lot of sitting- not exercising
Socializing with non work friends
Work ends at 4, and I must say, something I feel like I have done really well on is creating a work/life balance. I very rarely work after 4. However, sometimes I struggle with how to prioritize the rest of that time. I typically start putting Jason down around 9, which gives me 5 hours to prioritize the following:
Playing/ spending time with the Baby
Spending time with husband
Cooking dinner
Cleaning
Exercising
Relaxing
Socializing
There are a lot of other things that could be added to the list, but these are the biggies. I do try to combine items, walking with friends takes care of exercise and socializing- but it means less time to cook dinner. Making a menu and planning ahead has helped a lot with the dinner prep- but cleaning up afterward means taking away time to spend with the baby when I've already spent the whole day away from him. However, not doing the dishes/ other cleaning makes for a messy house and attracts bugs which is gross. And then sometimes I feel like if I don't just sit down and relax I might go crazy. So the fight for priorities ensues and time feels like my enemy.
On the flip side- drum roll.... I am quitting my job at the end of the school year! Yay! Tim is graduating and has a great job lined up which allows me to stop working. I am super excited- and this takes out the 8 hour chunk devoted to work which leaves everything else competing for time in the evening. While I am super excited and keep making plans of what I will do with my new found time- sometimes when I think about it time sounds like an enemy again. I am not accustomed to having down time. While the battle for priorities is difficult, there is something easy about not having to choose what to do with the largest chunk of my day- I just know that I'm working. Unstructured time kind of scares me. So I think my next time battle will be figuring out how to fill all the extra time. I'm sure I'll figure it out- stay tuned for the adventure!
