New Year's Resolutions are not wussy

So, I have this prideful thing about me. I think it's pretty common, which is sort of ironic. I don't like to go along with what is popular or generally expected. I want to be different, and special, so, I've avoided being part of the crowd.  I want to stand out, just a little.  The interesting thing about this is that is has caused me to miss out one some pretty cool opportunities, just for the sake of being different. Which is dumb.

Any way, for a long time I never really set New Year's resolutions. When I started to set some I fell in with the crowd and pretty much forgot about them by February.  But last year I did better and this year I'm taking the opportunity to look back, and forward, and see what I can do.

The cool thing about setting goals is that at times like this you get to look back and say "Hey, I did something cool." Not in a prideful way, but in an honest appreciation of what you've accomplished.

I lost my goals from last year. I put them on some poster paper so I had to look at them everyday, but when we we moved I, understandably, threw it away. 

I remember a couple. One was to read 50 books, including one good non-fiction book and one quality fiction book each month. Kinda blew that one out of the water, go me. (If you care, you can see what I read on my Goodreads page here.) I'm still trying to decide if I want to up the ante on that or leave it alone. I read a LOT last year, sometimes more than I wanted to to just to keep on track with the goal, and I'm not sure I want to do that again. 

I also had a goal to make a particular sum of money. That fell flat on it's face. Part of this was due to my own lack of chutzpah, and part was due to our move date being changed so it threw off my plans.  Most of it is due to my tiny gumption though.  Which is something I want to improve this year.

There was the whole half marathon thing.

via GIPHY

So, that's something. 

I also I had goal to do a pull up. I've had said goal for about 7 years and have yet to get there.

I am still working on regular 6:00 scripture study, but I think I have improved drastically over the last year. I did finish the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants this year. Sure do love those. 

So, what am I going to work on this year?

I've looked through my 40 by 40 list and picked a couple I think I can get done this year:

• Become CPR certified. I hope with the new year I'll be able to fit one of these classes in now.
• Take one month break from junk food. I plan to do this over Lent.
• Memorize the Living Christ. I meant to do this in December, but December is busy!
• Go camping with the kids. I think the Pacific Northwest is going to be ideal for this.

This year's goals are proving trickier.

I'm having a hard time with a physical goal for this year. I want to do some strength training, but I just don't know how to go about it at home/with kiddos.  The gyms I have access to don't have child care available and don't have good weight equipment in the you-can-see-your-kids areas. I would also like to do some swimming, but that would require me getting up at like, 5:00, and I'm just not sure I'm up for that yet. I'm thinking about doing another half marathon, but I don't want to be cold again.  That was not fun.  Of course, hot doesn't sound so great either. 

I have decided on a reading goal though. Are you ready for this? Book people will understand what I'm talking about: I will read all the fiction novels I own. My sister asked if this included any books that people buy for me during the year, and I said yes. So, if you want to make my goal harder, here's a list of options for making my goal more difficult. We counted what I have and it's 12 or 13 right now, most of them are heavier stuff I've never been in the mood for.

Which leads me to a 40 by 40 goal: to read every book I have chosen to own. The "chosen" part refers not to books that have been gifted to me, I still choose to own them, but to books my husband buys but I have no interest in reading.  

I'm still reeaaaallly unsure about going back to school to get a teaching certificate. But I do feel like, at least right now, I can make time to seek out more students.  So, by the end of the year I would like to have a small studio of 4-5 students that I teach regularly. If anyone has some ideas on seeking out flute students, I'm open to it.

I'd really like to get some more repertoire under my belt too. Any one have a favorite piece for flute?

For my spiritual self I decided I needed to adjust my scripture reading. I thought about doing a year in Preach My Gospel, but decided now is not the time.  I think right now I need to get to know the scriptures better. So, I want to spend some time reading slowly.  Reading everything straight through the past few years has been cool, but I didn't get much of a chance to ponder things. I need more time to think and chew on doctrine. I took a class on scripture study in college and one of the points they made was the importance of looking for principles in the reading.  It's easy to read the scriptures like a novel; beginning to end, nice story, maybe a good moral involved.  But you get more out of it when you look for eternal principles and apply them to other parts of the scriptures.

Another thing that has helped, the few times that I've done it, has been meditation before studying the scriptures.  10 minutes or so helps to get my mind awake and ready to think about things.  It helps me to practice focusing on just one thing at a time so that I can read with out remembering my to-do list for the day.


So, here we come to the summary part.

Drum roll X~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2016 Goals!

• Learn weight exercises that can be done at home, or find a way to spend time at a gym sans kids
• Read all the fiction books I own (E's excluded)
• Have a studio of 4-5 regular students.
• Learn 3 new pieces of music
• 20 minutes of scripture study each morning, searching for principles.

I'm sure I've forgotten something, but I'll update later.