Habits I Want to Cultivate in 2015

Last week, I explained why I am not setting any formal resolutions or goals for 2015. Instead, I'll be focusing on little attainable habits that hopefully will make things easier once baby girl does make an appearance.

Why habits?

Once a habit is established, it becomes second nature. It's not a difficult game of willpower. It's not one more thing to keep track of. It's just something you do. Here are some habits that I already have in place that truly make my life better and easier:

• Making the bed each morning.
• Weekly meal planning.
• A regular (now bi-weekly) grocery day.
• A (flexible) laundry schedule. 
• A morning rhythm/routine with Kiddo.

Each of these started out as something I had to plan for, but over time, they became second nature. Monday (or every other) is grocery day. I plan our menus the night before. I do laundry at least three times weekly - usually Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This gives me the time to catch up between days if needed. My morning routine with Kiddo took some time, trial, and error to implement, but now that he knows the routine, our mornings usually go pretty smoothly.

Barring a battle of wills, of course. Three is a whole new ballgame.

And the main reason why I want to cultivate good habits now? Once baby girl arrives, I'll need some norms and routines to keep the house in order so we don't lose our sanity.


Sitting down with Hubby, I brainstormed a few habits that I would like to make part of my daily life in 2015. I started by thinking of some areas of my life where I'd like to see change, improvement, or growth. As much as I hate to do this considering my previous post, we'll call them goals. Using those "goals" as my guide, I jotted down some basic habits that should hopefully get me there. 

10 Habits I Want to Cultivate in 2015:

Goal 1: Keep A Tidier Kitchen

1. Wash Dishes Right Away. (And Clear The Drying Rack Before Washing More Dishes)
2. Sweep The Kitchen Daily.
3. Keep Kitchen Counters Clear. (This will probably require a few smaller habits to truly accomplish.)

Goal 2: Keep A Cleaner House

1. Do one cleaning chore each day.
2. Purge unnecessary and unused items regularly, to a designated place.

Goal 3: Keep Christ At the Forefront

1. Daily Personal Devotions 
2. Daily Family Devotional Time
3. Regular, Planned Devotional/Prayer Time As a Couple

Goal: Blog Smarter

1. Go to bed by 10:00 p.m.
2. Plan ahead for future posts using Google Calendar.

 A few of these are habits that we already were working on in 2014, and I would like to continue (such as the personal and family devotions). However, most are new. Some are simple, and others may involve multiple steps and planning to accomplish. But in general, they are broken down into small, digestible steps that I really think I should be able to accomplish.

How I Plan To Make Them Stick:

• Introduce only on one or two habits at a time.
  Too many new things at once will spell failure. By focusing on forming only one or two (related) habits at a time, I hope to make them second nature before taking on more.
• Add a new habit every 3 weeks or so.
  I would like to have established many of my housekeeping habits before baby girl comes, so I'll try to keep on top of this. The general rule of thumb is to take 21 days to form a new habit, so I'll allow myself about that much time before I move on to something new. Once I feel like I have a handle on the habit I'm working on, I'll be ready to focus on another.
• Accountability.
  I'm going to enlist Hubby's help with this one. So far I've been working on keeping up with the dishes and sweeping the floor every morning after breakfast. He's been really encouraging when he notices these are getting done. He also isn't afraid to gently (for the most part) remind me about my commitment to a particular goal if he sees I'm starting to slack a little. In addition, I may blog about this on occasion (no promises) to share my accomplishments or when I need an extra boost of accountability.

Tell Me About You:

Do you have any helpful habits that make your life run more smoothly? What did you do to make those habits stick? Are there any new habits you want to cultivate this year?

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Why I Haven't Set Resolutions for 2015

 New Year's Resolutions.

Do those three words make you cringe? Or maybe the thought of a new year ripe for improving makes you giddy. I know both kinds.

I definitely fall into the former category. I hate feeling like a failure, and more often than not, that's what happens. Most resolutions are made to be broken. A lofty idea that's given up by the end of February, if not before. I don't often beat myself up over things, but I HATE making commitments I can't keep.

That's probably why I tend to play it safe - but that's a subject for another day.

I know I'm late talking about this. Like, big time. After all, we're half-way through January. Most bloggers posted about their goals on January 1st and have now moved on to Valentine's Day. (But really, what else is new?) I wasn't even sure I was going to write about resolutions at all.

Why I'm Not Setting Formal Resolutions or Goals

Last year I set "goals," which sounded less intimidating than resolutions, but in honesty, it was just a matter of semantics. Goals, resolutions, or whatever you call them, are often lofty and hard to maintain. This proved true for me since I fully completed less than half of last year's goals. :-(

And no, I don't want to talk about it. :)

But it isn't just because of past "failures" that I'm scrapping the goals this year.

 

There are three main reasons why I will not be setting formal resolutions in 2015: 

1. They can be difficult to track. Last year I got a bit overzealous and made 18 goals! Granted, several were once-and done easy goals, but many more were long-term, requiring something to be done each month. I started out strong in almost all of them, but quickly lost steam, which brings me to #2...
2. Life happens. Setting an agenda for a whole 12 months doesn't really seem to work for me. I made some really great goals last year, but as my year went on, I realized not all of them were really going to work with my current stage of life. Add on the survival mode I encountered in my first trimester of pregnancy, and many things just didn't happen. My energy was sapped and I lost ALL motivation to even think about goals.
3. I'm having a baby. This is definitely the biggest reason I'm avoiding resolutions this year. A new baby (especially with a toddler already) means a lot of transition and a good measure of the unknown. Some babies sleep all the time and others will cry seemingly non-stop unless they are held and rocked. Since pretty much all my friends have two or more kids, I know this very well. Since I have no idea how things will go once baby girl arrives early this spring, it didn't seem fair or realistic to set big goals and resolutions for myself. 

So, does that mean I'm not going to attempt to improve myself this year? Not exactly. I have a workable plan in mind to help me have a smoother 2015. But it's not your traditional set of goals or resolutions. I'll be sharing about my plans in a future post.

So, tell me about you:

Have you set any resolutions or goals for the year ahead? How do you plan to make them happen?

I link up at these fabulous link parties.