December Goals

Good Morning!

I'll start by saying that the craft show yesterday was fabulous! I will give you a full recap tomorrow :)

I have been thinking more and more lately that I should start making monthly goals for myself. I made a list of small goals that I want to accomplish by the end of next year (see my 2012 Bucket List), but they are all relatively superficial, instant-gratification-type goals. Don't get me wrong, those are great sometimes. There were lots of things I knew I would never get around to doing if I didn't give myself a deadline!

However, I would like to start digging a little deeper and making more meaningful goals, or goals that will help me to improve my health and well-being. I will make a few goals at a time so that I don't get overwhelmed and hopefully they will eventually become incorporated into my way of living without my even having to think about them.

I figured that a month is a nice amount of time. It is long enough that you have time to make some measurable progress, but short enough that you won't forget what goals you made before you actually accomplish them. I mean, does ANYONE remember what their New Years Resolutions were for 2012?? Bonus points if you do, but I frankly don't have a clue.

So here they are:

1. Compliment at least one person every day.

It could be someone I know, or a total stranger. It just has to be one nice thing. You know when you get a compliment out of the blue and you basically walk on air for the rest of the day because you feel so great about yourself? I want to be a person who makes someone feel like that every day :)

2. Eat more in the mornings.

Err... Not quite.

If you are familiar with eating disorders, you know that many people have a tendency to want to "save" calories for later. I mean, if you are only going to allow yourself X amount of calories per day, you don't want to "waste" them on a morning snack, right? Wrong. All this does is make you light-headed, grumpy and miserable all day until you eat all of your allotted calories at once and feel sick because your body isn't used to food. Even now that I have been making an effort to eat more, my brain is hard-wired to eat less earlier in the day. Then, if I haven't eaten enough by nighttime, I feel guilty and eat more than my body wants just because I am trying to "recover".

So, I am going to make a bigger effort to eat more in the morning so I can have more energy throughout the day and consume enough calories without feeling uncomfortable. It sounds so simple...

3. Get more sleep!

I have not been good about getting my shut-eye this month. School has been busy, so I have been staying up late to work on assignments and then staying up even later to blog. I LOVE blogging, so I'm not going to stop posting daily, but I need to manage my time better so that I can balance school and hobbies. Hopefully this will be a little easier now that I don't have to get up early for classes, and I am definitely going to catch up on sleep this Christmas :)

4. Focus on my strengths.

This is a big one for me. As someone who has always been hyper-critical of my appearance, I need to start actively recognizing all of the things that are great about me. I need to start looking at the changes in my body and seeing them as gaining muscle and strength, not "fat". I also need to start looking at my positive qualities apart from my appearance. I need to tell myself that I am smart and have a good sense of humour and that I am a good friend. I have so many things to offer the world that have nothing to do with the way I look and it is time I put more effort into developing myself as a person and recognizing those wonderful qualities in myself.

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Well, that's all for today folks! I am going to try to focus on these goals and get back to you on them in a month. Now go and get out your advent calendars!

Happy December!

Have you set any goals for yourself this month?

Do you make New Years Resolutions?