I haven’t posted in a while. My husband has been bedridden with a fractured patella and I have not-so-quietly been going insane.  Today bedridden husband I are both sick. So my parenting consists of letting my kid binge watch his Christmas present (Rachel and the Treeschoolers). And telling him that I will turn it off if he doesn’t throw the trash IN THE TRASH.

While my kid is learning science concepts from Rachel, I finished up my goals list for 2016.  I added a couple new habits to work on, reset my goals for the habits I am continuing in 2016, and set a couple reasonably achievable goals that are one-time events, not habits.

Here they are!

New habits

• Gratitude – Name something I love or appreciate about myself. Goal: 350 times by the end of 2016.
• Living Space – Do some intentional cleaning. Goal: 50 times by the end of 2016.

Continuing habits from 2015:

• Movement –  Strength workout: 160 times in 2016.  Take an intentional walk: 200 times in 2016.
• Fueling – East a green vegetable: 355 days in 2016. Take Vitamin D: 355 times in 2015.
• Sleep – Finish my food for the day by 8pm: 225 times in 2016. No TV shows started after 9pm: 250 times in 2016. In bed by 10pm: 250 times in 2016.
• Gratitude – Name something for which I feel grateful: 350 days in 2016.
• Marriage – Date with my husband: 10 times in 2016. Say or do something nice for my husband: 250 times in 2016.
• Savings: Deposit at least $10 into my family’s emergency fund: 50 times in 2016. Make a pot of rice and beans: 45 times in 2016.
• Living space:  Get rid of 500 items from our home in 2016.

And a couple one-time, non-habit based goals:

• Enter my first weightlifting competition
• Take a child CPR class

Depending on how these go, I may add more habits throughout the year. As I recommended in Part I of my series on setting sustainable habit goals, it’s really important to choose one habit to focus on at one time. When implementing a new habit goal, your chance of success is around 80 percent if you choose one goal at a time. Those odds drop down to 30 percent if you work on two habits at a time, and even lower for more habits. (So why am I choosing 2 new habits? Because they are not exactly new; I just want to solidify them a bit before I move on to something else).  However…..I do get antsy sometimes. I can think of lots of habits I want to add to my life!  So, I keep a list going of habits I am interested in working on in the future. Then, when I decide I am ready for a new habit, I’ll choose from this list. Writing it down on a list helps me “get it out of my system,” for the time being – it allows me to empathize with myself and “hear” my desire to work on other habits. And I remind myself that patience is my friend, and I will get there at a later time, and I am maximizing my chances at success at each individual habit by adding them slowly.

So, here is my current list of habits in the queue. I will likely add some of these in 2016, but not yet. These are  in no particular order….

• Chopping vegetables
• Bringing bags to the grocery store
• pelvic floor rehab, alignment, and breathing exercises
• doing something myself instead of asking my husband to do it.
• ring rows or Pendlay rows, 5×5
• push ups or bench presses, 5×5
• unloading the dishwasher in the morning
• putting the phone away while I get ready for work
• screen time breaks
• initiating play with my kiddo
• putting phone away during family meals

What will you be working on in 2016? Drop a comment!