My Goals & Intentions For 2018

This year I waited a little farther into the year to talk about my goals and intentions on the blog. I mentioned it a bit in this post back in January, but this year I want to get back to the things that matter most in my life–to infuse my life with meaning, intention, and value. And the best way I knew how to do that was take the time to slow down and figure out what those things were.

So I took a couple months to myself to identify some of the things I wanted to focus on and how I could take meaningful steps toward achieving them. Throughout the process, it was especially important for me to formulate practical actions and sustainable routines that would result in lasting lifestyle changes. And while I’m open to these goals ebbing, flowing, and adapting to my life as it inevitably will change over the next 10 months, I believe that I have developed a solid set of intentions for my life moving forward. Intentions that I hope will guide me toward a more balanced and fulfilling life.

In developing these list of goals, I tried to keep them defined (concrete) enough to have meaning, but broad (malleable) enough to allow myself room to explore how best to achieve them. In doing so, I’m allowing myself to make small changes over time, which is much more sustainable than a bunch of large changes all at once. It also enables me to be gentler on myself when things don’t pan out certain weeks (as I knew will happen from time to time). Overall I feel like I’ve finally settled on a good list of ideas to strive for this year. So without further ado, here are my goals and intentions for 2018!

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Goals & Intensions

Physical Health…

Workout 3x per week. | Perhaps predictably as far as new year goals go, the first couple items center around physical health and fitness. My physical health has taken a beating over the past half a year. Between the stress and turmoil of my prelim exams to dealing with the mental obstacles of rebounding from such an endeavor, my physical fitness and health has taken a back seat to just about everything. I’ve settled on the number of 3x per week for exercise as a good compromise between my work obligations and a commitment to my health. This number allows me to let myself off the hook for finding time everyday, but still forces me to make working out a priority since 3 days a week won’t happen on its own.

One thing that has helped jump start me on this goal is working out with a personal trainer in a small group of friends once a week. Having this session set up every week means that it is one less workout I have to worry about coordinating. It’s the same time every week, so it’s easy to form a schedule around. Another great perk of this training session is that it provides me with the opportunity to meet up with a small group of girl friends once a week! So if nothing else, even when my class and research schedule get crazy, I can have a type of “social hour” at least once a week.

I love running (and would like to run a half-marathon this year), but the unpredictable snow and cold in Boulder in the spring make this type of exercise an inconsistent solution at best for me. To keep “cold weather” from becoming a recurring excuse for not working out, I invested in a REC fitness class pass for the gym on campus. For $85 a semester, I can take unlimited classes–like Zumba, Yoga, Pilates, Kickboxing. I have yet to use it, but I’m excited to get my groove on at Zumba and my relaxation and meditation zen on at Yoga. My biggest hurdle with this one will be remembering to bring my workout clothing with me to campus each day. But I’m hoping that once I get into a good routine of classes each week, it will become second nature.

Clean Up My Diet + Eat More Veggies. | The second part of physical health, next to exercising, is the eating portion. Without much more needing to be said here, I need to start cleaning up what I put into my body and viewing food less as a stress reliever and more as a fuel source. While studying for my prelims and barely making it through finals last year, I formed a lot of really bad habits as far as my diet is concerned. So I’ve started making it a priority to always surround myself with healthy snack options, like carrots and pre-made smoothie drinks, throughout the day to decrease my chances of going for less-healthy options for convenience.

If I’ve learned one thing since focusing on cleaning up my food choices, it’s that convenience usually rules supreme when it comes to hunger and a busy schedule. So if I can focus on making healthier options more convenient than junk food, I’ve found that I can break my bad food habits more easily. I’ve also started buying pre-packaged salad kits to make throughout the week when I’m craving a small snack (and making them last over a few days). The salad kits may cost more than buying a head of lettuce and a bottle of dressing, but I’ve found that their convenience far outweighs the price. And for me right now, as I’m trying to form better habits, that’s what I’m choosing to focus on. The kits make me much more excited to eat salad since I don’t have to worry about putting everything together in the few spare moments I have before catching the bus in the morning. I simply throw the salad kit bag in my lunch pail (dressing, lettuce, toppings all included) and add in a fork and glass container to mix everything in and I’m out the door! It’s almost too easy. Perhaps once I’ve got my healthier habits down, I’ll move toward making my own salads, but for now this seems to be doing the trick!

To be honest, I’ve always enjoyed more of a plant-based diet, but it requires foresight and planning for the week. What generally happens is that Allen and I don’t make plans for dinner until the night of, which means we automatically default to tried and true recipes (which usually require meat and starches). To combat this habit, I’d like to try a new recipe every week or two to get a few more plant-based dishes into our main rotation. If you have any recipes that you love, please leave a link to them below! I’d love more new ones to try!

Mental Health…

Keep on top of school work. | Start early. Keep on task. Finish early. Seems easy, right? Oof, this one is actually a lot harder than you would think (at least for me!). So far–only 2 months into the semester–I have already pulled several near all-nighters to complete homework assignments. And to put it bluntly, it has been rough. Over the past few years, I have experienced severe anxiety and crippling guilt associated with procrastination and to burn out. While there aren’t too many solutions that I’ve found to help with the burn out, I can fix the severe anxiety and guilt I feel from procrastination by simply starting earlier on my assignments and projects. So right now, that is what I’m going to focus on–the things I can control. It won’t be fun, but I’m hoping it will help with my feelings of inadequacy and stress. Having the time to ask insightful questions and really get a good grasp of the problems I’m solving will help with a better overall understanding of the material as well (as opposed to rushing through an assignment and having a surface-level understanding).

Learn healthy ways to deal with stress and anxiety. | Continuing on the topic of mental health and well-being, I’d like to find and implement healthy ways of dealing with my stress and anxiety.  Because let’s be honest…there’s no getting around it in my chosen profession. My job brings with it an inevitable amount of stress and anxiety that just can’t be ignored. So I’ve committed to dealing with them instead of trying to get rid of them (which is pointless). Exercise has continually been linked with reducing stress and increasing confidence and happiness, so I’m hoping that my commitment to working out 3x per week will help. But I think it’s time for something more dedicated to improving my mental well-being than just exercise on its own.

I recently downloaded the free Pacifica App which has stellar reviews for helping with anxiety, stress, and depression (all of which I suffer/ed from). I’ve set up the app on my phone to ask me how I’m feeling at random times throughout the day to keep an eye on potential triggers for stress and thoughts of despair. There are also tons of instructor-led meditation and breathing exercises that you can choose from to do right at your desk at work. I’ve found that even the 1-minute breathing exercise is incredibly helpful. I would also like to start going to a therapist to talk about some of the other issues I’m dealing with, such as Imposter Syndrome and feelings of inadequacy. I always say I don’t have enough time to make an appointment, or even worse I wait until I’m no longer stressed and tell myself I don’t need talk to anyone because I feel great now. But the truth is I need to make time–I need to make it a priority–and get into a regular routine of talking with a professional about some of the issues I’m struggling with. It’s hard to ask for help. But I’ve reached a point where I think it’s necessary. And ignoring it is only doing myself an injustice.

Prioritize friendships. | Friendships are so important, and I haven’t been making any time for mine. That’s not to say that I don’t have any friends, but I definitely haven’t been putting in the time to making those friendships deeper, more meaningful, and life-lasting. School seems to always get in the way of my making time for my friendships. It’s something that I’ve told myself I just have to live with for now and it’s only a phase–it will get better in time. P.S. – If you didn’t know, graduate school is seriously one of the most selfish professions you can have because you always have to put your research, your school work, your never-ending schedule ahead of everything else in your life. Or so it seems. I don’t think it has to be this way all the time.

So this year I’ve committed to changing this. I’ve been in college or graduate school for nearly 10 years now and I’m tired of telling myself it’s going to get better soon. Instead of waiting for something to change, I’m going to make a change. And that change starts by making time and prioritizing the amazing friendships and relationships that I have. Every week I’m going to dedicate an hour or two to doing something with friends. Whether that is working out at the gym together, or making a long-distance phone call to catch up, I’m going to put in the time that my friends (and myself!) deserve.

Practicing Contentness…

Live with less. | It’s no secret that I’m in the process of decluttering my apartment and overhauling my life. Quite to my surprise, this “living with less” project has become much more than a simple exercise in getting rid of more than I’m taking in.  Since I started the big haul of tidying up my apartment, I have felt 10x lighter. And believe it or not, even though I’ve been working on things since January, I’ve still got months to go. But even still, this feeling of lightness has never left. With each new load I take to donations or sell at consignment, I feel happier and more at ease with things in my life. Something about removing the physical baggage in my life helps to also remove some of the mental ones as well. I know this process won’t be easy or quick (this mess didn’t create itself over night and I am an insanely sentimental person), but I’m dedicated to making it happen this year. It’s going to happen and it’s going to be amazing and freeing and life-changing.

And beyond just getting rid of things, I’m going to stop buying things. I don’t need them. I truly don’t! I don’t need the material things I crave to feel complete and society (and PR companies) tell me I need to feel good. I can make happy and find contentment on my own and without the things they tell me I need. And I’m tired of feeling like I don’t have any control over the matter. Because I DO!! I totally do! I need to change my spending habits and find contentment with what I have. Because it is enough. I am enough. And instead I want to replace these unhealthy habits with healthy ones and spend my time on strengthening friendships, building and maintaining my self-worth, having incredible experiences, and making a lifetime full of memories. Because, really…is there anything better or more worthy of my time than those?

Books I’d Recommend: Chasing Slow by Erin Loechner, Soulful Simplicity by Courtney Carver, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, The Year of Less by Cait Flanders, The More of Less by Joshua Becker

Keep to a Budget. | I have struggled with keeping to a budget and not overspending for years now.  That’s right, years. It’s not something I talk about here on the blog (or with anyone really) because it’s a part of me that I’m slightly embarrassed to admit to myself much less anyone else. I alluded to my unhealthy relationship with buying things in this post earlier this year. I was really proud of myself for admitting it somewhat publicly in that post because in doing so, it allowed me to admit my flaws to myself too. Writing that post signified (at least to myself) that I was finally ready to confront the issue, do something about it, and make a change in my life for the better. So I’ve spent the last couple months evaluating my spending habits by tracking every single thing I’ve purchased and coming up with a budget I’d like to start following next month (and all the months after). I’m not an expert in budgeting (obviously) so my first attempt may not be an overwhelming success story, but I would at least like to take the first step toward spending less money, appreciating the things I already have, and leading a more fulfilling life without all the things cluttering it up. I’m tempted to share my budgeting journey with you all here, if you are interested. I think through sharing our struggles, failures, and triumphs through this process, we can all learn to be a little more fiscally responsible and more in control of where our money goes after it enters our bank accounts.

P.S. – I was truly inspired by Cait Flander’s year-long shopping ban in The Year of Less, and am currently trying to work myself up to something like that.

Environmental Health…

Reduce my waste. | I’ve recently been reading Zero Waste Home and while I won’t be employing everything suggested in the book, it’s been a huge eye-opener as far as the amount of waste I produce and how it is negatively impacting the environment. Beware, after reading this book, you won’t be able to “unsee” how much waste you produce! It’s shocking! For instance, did you know that biodegradable materials (such as banana peels, food waste, compostable cups) that are thrown into the landfill become non-biodegradable because the conditions are such that proper decay can’t occur? I didn’t! I always thought that adding my food waste to the trash would help things to decompose. Wrong! It actually adds to the problem and makes it worse. Yeah…that means that the trash bag(s) you throw out every week that end up in the landfill aren’t going anywhere for long long logn time. And this Earth isn’t getting any bigger. If anything, from population growth, it’s only getting smaller. So we need to take action now at solving this problem before it’s too late–you don’t have to be a “green nut case” to see that change has to happen.

After delving into the topic a little deeper, it seems to be a case of not having the right resources or information for people like you and me to make an informed decision on the topic. And guess what?! There are so many little , easy, totally doable ways that we can start making a huge difference today–you and me right now! So I’m going to start hosting Zero Waste Home Challenges soon where we can all learn a little about reducing our waste and ensuring that this home of ours is here to enjoy and inhabit for generations to come.

And those are my goals and intentions for 2018. I’ve already started to see positive changes in my life, health and overall happiness since beginning to implement these into my daily life. And I’m so excited to see how prolonged achievement of these ideas will lead to a lifestyle I can be proud of.

What about you? What are your new year goals? How have they been going?

You might also like…Why I’m Taking Things Slow in 2018 and Last Year’s Goals & Intentions.

Photos by Noah Berg

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Top: J. Crew | Vest: Banana Republic (similar) | Jeans: Rag & Bone (similar; last seen here and here) | Boots: Old Navy (similar; last seen here)