Fresh Start for the New Year

A new year is upon us and I’m excited for the things to come. I plan to travel to new places, meet new people, cook new recipes, read new books, and learn new things. I’m excited for a fresh start and an opportunity to accomplish new goals.

When making my resolutions for the New Year, I decided I needed to use a new strategy. Usually I get too goal-happy and end up with a list of 25+ goals, so I’m not surprised when I fall short on at least 20 of them. This year, instead of asking myself “what do I want to do in 2018”, I asked myself, “who do I want to be in 2018?” This question prompted me to write goals that I don’t think I normally would have.

I want to be a person who has more courage, who is more grateful, and who works harder. I want to accomplish more and stretch myself to the limit each day. I want to serve others more and be a better mom (or at least a more patient one.)

This year, instead of my usual long list of goals, I’ve decided to pick four different types of goals to focus on: mental, physical, financial and personal. My goals for this year are to be more grateful, run a marathon, pay off my never-ending student loans, and to cook dinner at least six times per week… and also to floss more (sorry Dr. White).

To make my goals seem more manageable and realistic, I broke them down individually using the SMART method. SMART is an acronym for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely, and is used to help people achieve their goals. The toughest goal to break down with this method was to be more grateful. I made myself a gratitude journal and have decided to measure my gratitude by writing down one thing each day that I am grateful for. My goal with this process is to train my mind to recognize gratitude in all situations.

I know achieving these goals won’t be easy because I’m trying to change behavior, which is always an incredibly hard task, but I’m up for the challenge. Growing up, my dad would always say, “Make sure you’re bettering yourself each day.” So, even if I only improve a little bit in each area, then I will still consider the year a success because I’m better than I was the year before.

Published in The Tremonton Leader in January 2018

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