I came up with 12 goals I’d like to accomplish this year with the hopes of being able to cross one off my list per month to make them more manageable. I thought a great way to hold myself accountable to the things I want to accomplish this year would be to do a weekly update.
After all, we all need a little help staying motivated sometimes. Here’s how I am doing so far:
1. Clean, de-clutter and organize my entire home in 30 days or less. – So far this year I have cleaned my closet, organized my kitchen, decluttered my bathroom, organized my office, gutted the garage, and tackled the laundry room. Last week I cleaned the gazillion little crystals on my dining room chandelier. This week I’m going to work on cleaning the blinds. {Blech}.
2. Fit into the same jeans I wore 8 years ago when we moved into our house. – I can’t give up sweets. There, I said it. I tried last week and only made it 3 days before I made a blueberry pie and then ate the whole thing. I think if I could just give up sweets I could wear those stupid pants. But I can’t.
So I’m back on the pedometer wagon again. Lucy the puggle dog and I have been going on long walks practically everyday for about 2 weeks now. It’s amazing what walking around town for an hour or two will do for you mentally. Seriously, you should try it. Now, if I could just turn off the list making switch in my mind the walks might actually calm me down a bit. But that’s another story.
3. Travel. I am 75% sure we are going to go to Victoria for spring break. After all, what’s not to like about walking around museums and drinking tea for a few days?
4. Send my daughter to college without having a nervous breakdown thus spending a week in bed sobbing. I’ve pretty much given up on this one. Everytime I start to think about it I start bawling my eyes out.
5. Get 3 new teeth. – Nope, not yet. Although apparently my oral surgeon reads the blog. {Awkward!}.
6. Pay off my car. Done!
7. Finish the primitive folk art rug I started 4 years ago. – I made a decision. I don’t want to make a giant 4’x6′ coffee table rug anymore. I seem to be hooking everything BUT this particular rug lately so I am going to pull the extra wool strips out, trim the linen backing and just turn it into a 4’x2′ front door rug instead. All I need to do to finish it now will be to hook the two remaining stars and then fill in the background with antique wool strips.
It was a good idea, but I really just don’t want to waste my energy in making something I am totally not 100% in love with anymore. Does that make sense?
8. Family Day. Do one thing together as a family every Sunday. – We were suppose to go to the Tacoma Rainiers baseball game on Sunday. But at the last minute the HH decided he didn’t want to go. So instead we all wandered off and did our own things. 🙁
9. Secret Plan #1 – Working on it.
10. Secret Plan #2 – Still plotting away.
11. Secret Plan #3
12. Convince the HH we should buy a Salt Box Style House in Colonial Williamsburg. I could dress up everyday in a colonial dress and give tours of our vegetable garden and home and he could hang out in the cellar/man cave with all the other men from the community watching tv and playing with their electronic gadgets.
13. Spend at least 1 hour a day working in my garden. – What would I do without this dog? She is the coolest thing ever. Seriously. Having Lucy around in the garden makes everything so much better.
And yes, those are my husbands shoes I am wearing. 😉
So there you have it, my goals for the new year.
How about YOU? How are your 2014 goals coming along?
~Mavis
P.S. YES, I know I wrote down 13 goals. I’m fairly certain I won’t be able to attain one of them. {gee, I wonder which one?} 
But I wanted to add it in there anyway because I believe in miracles.
Anna Mosser says
No7 isn’t a fail!! It is an adjustment to the goal and it is not as if you are throwing it out or hiding it in the closet. You will get so much enjoyment out of seeing the finished rug!
Mavis Butterfield says
Adjustment. I like that. Thanks Anna.
Teckla says
Ana is right; that’s not a fail. We all change in many ways as we go through life and as she said, you didn’t just stuff it away or chuck it. You adapted it to something you could enjoy and be proud of while moving on to embrace new interests, new goals.
Maybe you should look at those jeans the same way. As we grow through life, not only do we change mentally and emotionally, our bodies change physically, too. Styles come and go and change just as we do. You look perfectly fit and trim and you look good in what you wear now. Why beat yourself up trying to go back to the past. Live now, continue to keep fit and love yourself the way you are! I think you have greater things to do yet, so maybe it’s time to change that focus?
fangirl says
I just finished the book “Farm City, The Education of an Urban Farmer” by Novella Carpenter and I loved it. It’s about starting a farm in Oakland California, in the inner city and becoming closer to the food you eat. It is very quick reading and also inspiring.
Mavis Butterfield says
Farm City is a great book!! 🙂
Dayna says
I like that one too.
James Rancourt says
Hi Mavis,
I read your list of goals and thought I would pass along a lesson I have learned over my close to 70 years. That is, don’t set goals…set aspirations.
A goal is a plan intended to achieve something and that (when achieved) terminates behavior intended to achieve it. Sounds good on paper, but what happens is you set yourself up for frustration and anger at yourself for not having the “what fore or whatever” to achieve it. Basically, setting a goal and not reaching it sets you up for failure.
Perhaps you might want to define your list as “aspirations”. An aspiration is simply a strong desire. And, desires can be affected by events within or without your control. The understanding of this fact mitigates the psychological impact of not attaining it at any specific point.
As an example…you set a goal of becoming a dancer. However, you do not apply yourself and allow things, which shouldn’t, to keep this from happening; or are presented with life-stances which preclude this from happening, you then get down on yourself and begin to loose your sense of self-worth. Now, if you aspire to become a dancer and you or something prevents this from happening, it is easier for you accept the fact because this aspiration is still there even if the aspiration is beyond reach. I remember many years ago…close to 50 of them…the motto of my college was, “It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive.” A quote from Robert Louis Stevenson. And with an aspiration you are traveling hopefully and can reconcile not ever attaining it. With a goal, not attaining it implies failure on your part, hence getting down on yourself for not attaining it.
Think of it like this…you set a goal to be the best person there is…loving, caring, compassionate, spiritual, giving, etc.. Now you are on your deathbed and you look back at your life and see that as worthy as the goal was, you didn’t achieve it…you, in your mind, die a failure. New scenario, you set your aspirations to become the above and you on your deathbed realize that through your attempt to aspire to the above, rather than setting them as a goal and failing, you can pass with a smile knowing you are a very much better and beloved person than you would have been from your trying rather rather than a failure for not attaining.
Keep on trucking girl. I got money on ya.
Hugggs & B*B ~ Jim
Karin C says
You will LOVE LOVE LOVE Victoria, I am a born and raised Victoria girl. You HAVE to go to Buchart Gardens if you have never been I not sure if they are open late yet but the nite time is spectacular as the day, the museum I spent days there as a child and fishermans warf and visit the food place on the warf that is in the old shipping container you will be amazed , have a fantastic holiday
Robin in SoCal says
Mavis I decided I cannot give up sweets either or just plain don’t want to. I plan on passing from this planet with a strong chocolate smell on my breath which means I need to eat it somewhat regularly. So I have a new plan I limit my sweet eating to once a week. For me that is Sunday so on Sunday I have coffee (because I must have sugar in it) and whatever dessert/sweet I want. I have found I do not pig out and consume nothing but sweets on Sunday like I thought I would. I also found I can bypass sweets the rest of the week because I know I am having something on Sunday. I have also found all bets are off if I come face to face with a hot chocolate chip cookie anytime during the week. Something to consider 🙂
Mavis Butterfield says
Something to consider, yes. Or I could just walk 10 miles a day. 🙂
Sharon Rafter says
Blueberry pie is much more fun than pants!
I choose sweets too – life is too short.
Mavis Butterfield says
And lemon tarts… let’s not forget those! 🙂
Erin M says
Hi Mavis. You really will love victoria. The Butchart Gardens are beautiful and I’m lucky enough to live about 15 minutes away. OMG. If you come in by car, you will be right by Fruit Trees and More in North Saanich not too far from the ferry terminal. That is where I got my lemon and lime….and all my dwarf trees. Bob Duncan is an unbelievable resource. He knows everything about growing tropicals here.
If you need any recommendations for anything, I’ve lived in Sidney for 35 years. Feel free to email me.
Erin
Mavis Butterfield says
Thanks Erin. 🙂