I believe in New Year’s resolutions. I think that I have mentioned that is blog posts before. I remember GuyNextDoor once telling me how dumb he thinks this is. He is really fit, and I think his thought is that New Year’s resolutions are for overweight people that will overcrowd his gym for the first couple of weeks in January. I myself am guilty of setting diet and fitness goals that I never achieved. Yet, I do not feel shame towards this.
If nothing else, the setting of New Year’s resolutions every year, has taught me a great lesson in setting realistic goals. I am one to aim for the stars. What I have learned is that your only reach is for the stars then you will grasp at nothing. My past failures at New Year’s resolutions do not discourage me from setting goals again this year; instead, it directs me to the setting of more realistic goals.
What do I want to achieve in 2016? Let me think about that.
First, 2016 is the last full year before I am the parent of a high schooler. In the fall of 2017, Brainy Bird will start high school. PANIC!!!!!!! Time to PANIC!!!!!!! I intended the next sentence here to be me coping with the panic and offering myself a calmness and perspective. Instead, I am still feeling the panic. As I sit here and think about the next sentence in this paragraph, I am still coming up with – PANIC!!!! Now, the tears are starting to stream down my face.
The most important thing that I want from 2016 is to enjoy my time with the Birds. We always have a great time together, but I know that they enjoy this time even more when I have something special planned for them. By something planned, I do not mean an expensive outing to an amusement park, movies, or whatever. I mean a night at home cooking a special meal, playing some board games or watching a movie from when I was a kid.
In 2016, I want to continue to focus my energy on teaching the Birds home economics in the form of planning meals, budgetting and shopping for groceries and preparing and enjoying home cooked meals. Last week, Brainy Bird made my day with a conversation that he had with another seventh grader about class electives for their spring semester. Brainy Bird is again looking for an elective related to computers. His buddy that he was talking to had decided to take home economics. He thought that this would be great for Brainy Bird to take as well. Brainy Bird’s response, “Why would I ever sign up for that? My Mom teaches me all of that, only better as it is it is without a microwave.”
A second focus for me in 2016 will be to maintain my perspective and not let my past cloud my present or future. I live an amazing life. I have been living this amazing life for more than five years now. The challenge is that the tragedy, betrayals and heartache of the past put fear and doubt in me today. I sometimes doubt those that I should trust the most. They are people that I am unworthy of having in my life, and it is never something that I want to take for granted. When the Birds are with their Dad or their friends, I want to spend as much time as possible with my own friends, and I want to invest the right amount of time in furthering my career. I cannot imagine a better job than the one that I have right now, and I want to continue to my career advancement with the company that I am privileged to work for.
Lastly, in 2016 I want to focus on my health. I want to lose that last 12 pounds; I want to fit into my size 2 pants, and I want to run a seven minute mile again. I know that this will be the year that I finally fully recover from what my surgery in June of 2013 and dating GuyNextDoor did to my self-image. Ironically, I say that with confidence despite having just had another surgery at the end of 2015. 2016 is going to be an amazing year for me because I am focused on the things that matter most to me in my life.