Tuesday, January 1, 2013

New Year's Expectations

As like many today I'm thinking of what I want the new year to bring or better yet what I want to accomplish this next year. This is the first time in a long time that I'm not sitting down to decide what races I'm going to do although I already have at least two planned. One marathon in April and one in November. What happens in between is anybody's guess. I really have no expectations on that front. I might do a triathlon or two and I would like to do a few trail races too. But I'm not thinking too much of that right now.

My word for the year I think is expectations. Wikipedia says this: In the case of uncertainty, expectation is what is considered the most likely to happen. An expectation, which is a belief that is centered on the future, may or may not be realistic. A less advantageous result gives rise to the emotion of disappointment. If something happens that is not at all expected it is a surprise. An expectation about the behavior or performance of another person, expressed to that person, may have the nature of a strong request, or an order. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expectation_(epistemic).
This is something I need to work on because my expectations often give rise to the emotion of disappointment. And then I have to deal with that aftermath. No, I set my expectations very high then when they don't workout the way I have planned them to or in the TIME I want them to I hit the bottom. Sometimes I can recover but lately I have not been able to recover as well. And I have dwelled at this bottomless pit for some time now. But I'm climbing out.

Here are my big expectations, and not in any particular order:
~Lose weight (50 pounds). I have let myself become out of control. Or as I say, my give a dam is busted. I'm not sure why. I used to care a lot but because I have the "I don't care" attitude I have gained almost all my weight back. I hardly workout and I definitely don't watch what I eat. And because I lean more towards the addicting personality I have a hard time doing some things in moderation, including cutting down or back on certain "bad" foods. So I think I have to cut them out all together, at least for a while.
~Reduce debt/pay off debt/save: I grouped these together because it really goes hand in hand. Several things will be paid off this year including our car. But I still have a huge student loan and we have no savings. I want to develop a budget and stick to it. I want to do a lot to the house, I want to take a nice family vacation, etc, etc. But most of all I want peace of mind that we have everything paid on time, we have savings, we can tithe and I don't wake up at night trying to figure out how to rob peter to pay paul.
~Daily devotion: This is something I've never been good at. I have every opportunity to get up in the morning with Jim and use that quiet time yet I don't. Of course I've said several, several times that I would get up when he does and I don't. I know if I don't devote the time in the morning, I probably won't any other time in the day.
~Have a weekly date night with hubby: I really enjoying going out and it just be us. Even going to shoot pool or go get a glass of wine somewhere. Of course this usually happens on Friday nights and he works on Saturdays so our nights can't be too late.
~Family game night and family movie night: most likely to be Sunday and Monday nights. I want Sunday to be an unplug day where none of us get online, text, email or watch TV although I think the latter is probably pushing it. I would say no video games but we could play the xbox as a family. I just want it to be us doing something as a family. Of course this is our only day to get things done to the house as well so we will have to see how that goes.
~Don't over schedule......I'm getting better at this. But with two kids in sports as well as my own activities sometimes it feels like we are over scheduled. But if we utilize those days were we don't have anything "schduled" and use that time as a family then I think it will help.
~Be better organized and get things done....I'm good at some and not so good at others. I sometimes suck in the Mommy department, something I need to work on.
~Work on the house....I think we if choose one thing to work on until it is done things will start to get done.
~Take a vacation.......I would love for Jim to make it back to Pennsylvania to see his family. And I would love to go to Colorado again...there are several places I would love to go.
~Get rid of excess things....not buy too many new things, try to reuse, re-purpose and swap. Thrift store, craiglist, word of mouth shopping.....we waste a lot as a family. We eat out way too much. We buy too much food at the store and don't eat it. This also can go hand in hand with the above saving and budget.
~Work with the backpack program at Elliott's school and maybe a food pantry at the church.
~Develop my blog more.....blog more.....I have a lot of good ideas and I like to share and talk so what better way than to do this.

Well that seems like a mighty list. I'm sure I have other thoughts and I should write them down but then I have more to write about then don't I.

No comments:

Post a Comment