Trying to Do Better in 2024

As 2023 was winding down, I started thinking a lot about what I did well throughout the year, and what I could do to try a little bit harder. It became blazingly obvious to me – I’m either on fire or I’m not. There is very little in between. When I left my job in May, my goal was to fulfill my lifelong dream of becoming a writer. Reality is, I didn’t write at all – for MONTHS. Life was crazy, we had a lot going on, and I wanted to focus on my family. Writing was not a priority. I decided writing would happen when the kids went back to school. Then the girls started school, and I dove into some projects around the house. These were things that needed to be done, and I was on a serious time crunch to complete. (And I still need to write about it). The chores took so much effort, I still didn’t find time to write. By October I realized if I wanted to write, I was going to need to treat it like a job, devoting hours at a time. Of course there were issues with my website when I tried to post, and it took quite a bit of time to resolve those problems. I was really happy when I finally was able to get the blogs about our summer trip to California completed. (https://tryalittlebitharder.com/the-official-epic-story-of-us-california-adventure-part-1/#comment-4) Or…well…mostly completed. One still needs to be completed and posted. Suddenly the holidays were upon us and things got crazy – a kid with an injury requiring umpteen thousand doctor appointments – I got sick – and well – writing again took the back burner. Excuses, these are all excuses.

Soooo back to what I was saying about I’m on fire, or I’m not – when I was trying hard to complete projects around the house, I worked my ass off and got them done. When I was trying to fix my website and post about California, I worked my ass off and got it done. But when I don’t make myself a schedule and force myself to stick to it, I sometimes don’t get anything done. I will scroll to the end of the internet, wander the house doing God knows what, I really can’t say where my time goes some days. Keeping that in mind, I set some goals for 2024.

The idea of a New Year’s resolution bothers me, so I don’t set any. I don’t know why – I guess because its a known fact, people don’t stick to resolutions very well. Maybe some would consider my goals a resolution, but its not how I choose to view it. Everything on this list are things I’ve already been doing, I just want to do more or better at each of them.

Here is my list of goals for this year: 

-intentional workout of 15 minutes or more every single day

-sleep more

-drink less

-read 15 minutes every single day

-write every week day

-post 52 blogs this year

-if its not a hell yes, its a no.

-random acts of kindness every week

As I sit here on January 31st, I have done some of this very well. Some are still a work in progress. I actually implemented the first goal around December 27th and I have 100% achieved that goal thus far. Most days I far exceed the 15 minute goal, but some days its a quick walk on the treadmill, Sunday it was two – one mile long walks to and from the car at the AFC Championship game, some days it may be a yoga video. The point is, I’m focusing on moving my body every single day. It doesn’t have to be crazy, it just has to be something. (For those that don’t have an Apple Watch, here is the description of the “rings” you see in the photo below.)

We have also done pretty well at getting to bed earlier – not as often as we would like, but more consistently earlier than we had been.

Less alcohol is being consumed – we had gotten into a habit of having a drink every night while we watched TV. Drinks are now limited to special occasions during the week (Brian’s bday and a date night), or weekends only. This was an easy change to make! We now drink flavored sparkling water in fancy glasses after the kids go to bed.

I have not read every single day, but I have read more days than I have not.

For whatever reason, writing has still gotten pushed to the back burner. This is only the second time this month I have written. Clearly I need to work on this goal and get cracking if I’m going to hit that 52 mark!

I am working hard to implement the hell “yes mentality” – I got this idea from a friend and I love it! My issue is not so much the yes, because I tend to default to YES – its the “no” that is hard. This is definitely a work in progress for me. I have another blog I started last year (and still need to finish), but feel will pair well with this mentality. It will get finished and posted in February!

Lastly, the random acts of kindness needs some work – its an open-ended goal so I need to figure out exactly what I want to do with it. I have volunteered at a local food bank a few times this year, something I’m looking forward to doing more often. I have a few ideas I’d like to try – I just need to formulate a plan. Anything we can do to be kind and make another person smile, is definitely something worth doing! 

The lack of sun, the stress of a kid needing another medical procedure, the crazy schedule with school, all of it has bogged me down a little. I am working to get myself back on track again. That’s the thing about life – we have to train our brains to pull us out of the mud sometimes. We can change our mindset, we can move our bodies to get the blood flow and oxygen we all need to boost our moods. We can read a book and escape reality for a bit. We can do something to help someone else and remind ourselves how good our lives are. We can say yes to things that excite, or maybe even, scare us a little. We CAN and should say no to people or things that don’t serve us well. Its ok to waste a couple hours scrolling the internet from time to time, but that’s no way to spend your life. The reality is, that isn’t reality. Almost no one shows their real REAL life on social media – I mean who wants to watch that? I could go off on a tangent here! Long story short, hours spent scrolling social media are actual moments of your life you never get back and is time that could be spent doing something much more useful.

Back to the moral of the story, reflecting on the month of January. I’m keeping my goals for the year in mind, I’m trying hard not to waste my days, but I’m also giving myself some grace. Clearly I have work to do, but I am trying a little bit harder every single day! I’m sharing all of this in an effort to hold myself accountable. If I fail to share my progress, or to post for a week or two, please call me out on it! We all need to be held accountable from time to time. I would love to hear what your goals are for this year – its never too late to get started! With that said…I need to go workout.