Happy New Year! About those 2017 Resolutions…

I’m cautiously optimistic about 2017. I know we’re not supposed to treat 2016 like a red-headed stepchild, but it really was a crazy year all-around. I’m a resolutions person, so when I sat down late last week to begin thinking about my goals for the year — I could really only write down one…

I want to do less. Or make it feel like I’m doing less…

What do I have in mind for the new year?

I know those of you who know me will laugh, because I’m just that person who wants to go, go, GO, and DO ALL THE THINGS, but gosh it’d be nice to have this year be a little tamer. I know it’s a lot to ask with a busy family, family business, full-time job, and basically another business (which just encompassed another business), but one can hope. Or maybe I just wish to be a little more confident and comfortable in my pacing of it all. Or both.

So while everyone takes a different approach to setting their intentions or goals for the New Year, I’m going to just give you a nice list of desirables, categorized by my life’s various channels. Because I’m old school, and because hearing one more person say their word of the year is “thrive” or “minimalism” will probably make you as crazy as it does me. And since I’ve been such a shitty blogger, I’ll also use my aims for this year to tell you a little about last year.

Happy New Year

My Beeb

My goals for this year are just to be a stand-out model human in all areas I can control for her to continue to watch. Because she does that a lot now. She watches and mimics everything people do, and it’s fun guessing where she’s picked up her latest schtick. Like running around asking for someone by saying “INSERT NAME, are you there?” I’ve tried less to be the “best parent” I can be and have focused more on being the best person I can be this past year — and it seems to work a lot better for my mindset.

She’s obsessed with Libby (our very dear old kitty), so I also need to be a good cat mom to keep her healthy. Otherwise you might hear a desperate post looking for a pear-shaped old black cat to sneak in the house so KK doesn’t know she’s passed on. Last night I rolled over in bed and KK literally had her under the armpits snuggling her like a stuffed animal.

My Neilyo

I need to strive to be as good of a person as Neil is. I don’t deserve him, and I want 2017 to be the year that I finally leave my “new mom” crazy behind and resume being his wife. Parenthood is a mile-a-minute, but there is little now that I can’t handle with the tools and coping mechanisms I don’t already have. It’s not like the first year. I can deal. So I need to chill with the frenetic, crazy pace I’m running around the house in day-to-day and just…be more…wifely?

I also need to talk him up more. He’s doing a lot of really impressive stuff — both at work and in his racing hobby — and who doesn’t love a good cheerleader and wingman sometimes to make you feel good? I could be doing a lot better there, he’s got a really good year coming up.

My Career

I feel like this year was all about doing work, and not necessarily learning or filling my cup so to speak. I worked harder this year than any other, but I really only feel trained and not better for it. So this year I want to focus on filling the cup, learning to do new things, and revisiting my skills in order to do all the things I do better. I think that was the biggest takeaway from my CrossFit Level 2 — that you have to constantly be learning and tailoring, while you are still doing.

I know that all probably sounds really pie in the sky, so here are a few of the tactile things I have in mind:

Update this website with a bit more of the creative re-direction we’ve had over the past year.
Learn to rapid-build/edit videos, richer multimedia content.
Experiment with podcasting or just find a way to get on someone else’s podcast.
Rediscover my writing voice — it’s in there somewhere.
Build conscious narrative on my social media channels — not just spotty posts here and there.
Finish both mine and CrossFit Fringe‘s websites and focus on better usability and client profile matching.
Pick and choose just one new road a week to explore (it’s hard, so hard).

My Fitness

It’s always nice to feel like whatever I put in this category is just gravy on a situation that is better than I could have ever imagined. My programming is amazing, my community is amazing, and I think the only thing I’d like to add to it is a little yoga, more for just body awareness and recovery than anything else. Neil suggested that I create a little space upstairs in our house, and I might buy a hot yoga punch card to keep it interesting.

My Self

Ah this is tough. I think for myself I just want to have a calmer year, and really savor all my experiences. I feel like I just rush through everything and onto the next thing, and not really stop to be present. An unlikely next goal after that is to put myself into more uncomfortable situations because I know that’s where the most personal growth tends to happen.

But alas, always the practical person I am, I have some more specific goals as well:

Read 45 books. I keep the same GoodReads challenge as last year because it’s the perfect amount of books. Might as well stick with what works right?
Re-do the upstairs office to make it more family and lounge friendly.
Plant some trees in our yard and reclaim our recreation in it.
Take KK tent or cabin camping.
Enjoy driving my new car