A new year doesn’t necessarily mean new goals and
resolutions for me but it does always prompt me to evaluate where I am at with
the things I have been aiming to achieve and what plans I have for the year
ahead.
I tend to set myself more goals than resolutions. To my mind goals are more structured and
therefore for me they are infinitely more attainable. Resolutions are typically things I would to
do differently and more related to emotions and behaviours than specific
objectives.
For 2013 I have goals in different areas of my life. I have yet to plan the detail around some of
them but I have an idea of where I am heading and what I want to achieve. For the most part they are things that have
been kicking around in my head for some time and most are things that I have
said out loud in one way or another. I
am taking this opportunity to write them down because the likelihood of
achieving a goal that has been written down is infinitely more than one which
hasn’t.
I am talking about the process I use to set goals over at Eat.Move.Explore today but I also wanted to share my goals for 2013 with you.
The Big Ones
End the year with a
flourishing backyard farm of our own and be well on the way to
initiating/developing a community garden together with my sister.
This is something that has me so very excited. It goes beyond what I have achieved in the ‘what
we eat’ department in the last year and starts to create a degree of self
sufficiency. I am also really excited
about what we will learn and build together as a family
To achieve this I will
- Be patient and not expect it to all happen overnight
- Follow the planting guide and not try and grow tomatoes
right now no matter how much I want to
- Make time to attend to the health of the garden
- Document our progress
Run the Gold Coast
Marathon in a faster time than I ran Melbourne.
I’m not ready to put my time goal out there, I probably
won’t, but the reward for achieving it
is something that would be amazing for me.
To achieve this I will
- Stretch everyday
- Stick to my training plan, including things I hate doing
- Listen to my body (and my PT)
- Train my ass off
Complete a new
qualification
I have three different qualifications that I would like to
complete. One of them has been on my
to-do list for a few years and I am always waiting for the right time to
start. One I need to decide on the best
way to undertake it and the third I have to choose the right qualification to
pursue.
To achieve this I will
- Create a five year plan for the things I want to achieve
career wise
- Decide on a time frame to start studying and which thing to
start with
- Bite the bullet and do it
- Not leave things to the last minute when I do start because
this ultimately makes study more stressful for me than it needs to be. Apply the same focus I have had in other
areas of my life to study for the short periods that it requires.
Build a great community
both here and around Eat.Move.Explore
From Somewhere in My Imagination will be my place for
recording and sharing the everyday stuff.
Eat.Move.Explore is a much more specific lifestyle blog centred on
fitness, nutrition and fun.
To achieve this I will
- Dedicate specific time to research and writing (and not
procrastinate)
- Take more photos and improve my photography skills
- Plan ahead
- Learn how to use my devices more effectively and efficiently
Complete a happiness
project for our family
Steven and I both read Gretchen Reubin’s book The Happiness
Project late last year. There were so
many elements that I found myself smiling and nodding over. Reading the book was a positive thing for
both of us and we want to make changes within our own home.
To achieve this I will
- Stop waiting for tomorrow to actually get started
- Create new habits
- Be positive
Turn our house into a
home
We have been living in our house now for a year and it is
time to make it our home. We spent the
previous four years living in company housing and although we had our own houses
in Mt Isa our options were definitely more limited than they are now when it
came to furnishing and decorating.
To achieve this I will
- Create an inspiration board for each room, whether it is on
pintrest or as actual physical boards
- Work to a budget
- Work with what I’ve got, accept that I’m not going to
convince Steven to repaint the entire house white any time soon.
- Tackle the job one room at a time and give each room a
specific purpose
- Make our outside spaces integral parts of our home
- Use my studio more often
- Document the process
Do a better job of
documenting our year as a family
This probably sounds as much a resolution as a goal. I was doing far more documenting of the
everyday before we moved, the reality is that I also had more time in the few years
I was a stay at home mum. In 2012 I
didn’t do a particularly good job of taking lots of photos, Instagram was my
saving grace.
To achieve this I will
- Take all 365 photos of the Fat Mum Slim photo a day
- Pick up the camera more, not just my phone camera.
- Get the kids involved in documenting the everyday things that they love, encourage them
to write journals.
- Write my own journal
- There are also a whole heap of things on my to-do list but
when I look at them they are things that fit within the larger goals I have set
for myself.
Have you set yourself some goals for 2013? Do they scare you? There are things on that list that scare me,
excite me and make me happy. I guess you
could say that I am passionate about them.
Tatum xx
*Coming Soon*
*Coming Soon*
