At the beginning of January, I sat down a few times to write out my goals and resolutions for 2016 and was attempting to get 16 of them (I like the challenge of 16 in ’16). But life and work happened as it normally does, and I never quite finished my list (and this blog post) and it sat unfinished on my desktop.

One thing I did notice and kept coming back to was that so many of my goals and resolutions were pretty basic ones that I continually keep adding every year, things like sleep more, drink more water, eat healthier, and so on – things that just make me a healthier person. Which shouldn’t be just goals that you make to yourself at the beginning of each year, they should just be given things that you constantly strive for and take different shapes depending on where you are at in your journey, and what your bigger goal is.

After reading Melinda’s latest blog post about having to chose between three aspects of your life, work, family, fitness, friends and sleep {read that post here} her comments on being able to re-prioritize your goals or acknowledging when it’s okay to table one while you work on a different one, is okay. Let me repeat again – it’s okay to table goals occasionally when life happens. Things happen, and will always happen, that change the course of your path and cause you to re-focus on something else. It doesn’t mean that you have entirely lost sight of your original plan or goal, it just means that you’ve found a healthy way to balance your life and stress.

After those few moments of clarity, I was able to focus more in on my specific goals for the year, as well as realize that all of these goals can’t be accomplished or worked on at the same time, but are goals that I can shift around in my life depending on my work-life balance, my health and my friends.

Goals and Resolutions For Life

Here are the “goals” that I will continually work on, but have decided that these are more life goals instead of New Years resolutions.

• Drink More Water: your body really does do and feel so much better when you’re well hydrated.
• Get More Sleep: Your body does so well when you’re well rested, even going to bed 30 minutes earlier than you normally do can make a world of difference.
• Read More and Less Screen Time: I feel that these two go hand in hand, and that if we find we’re putting down the phone or tablets more often, we’d either be having more real conversations or reading old fashioned books {and I’ll allow magazines as well!}.
• Save More Money: We have a wedding in October, we want to buy a house, have a family, go on fun vacations and have a retirement we can enjoy – all of which requires saving just a little more than I already do. So if getting all of this means skipping Chipotle every so often, I’m completely okay with that. {Want a fun way to save some extra money? Check out our 52 Weeks of Fiscal Fun post}
• Explore More: It’s easy to become creatures of habit, always going to the same restaurant, getting the same thing at the coffeeshop, doing the same weekend routine. But learning to be a bit more adventurous in our lives is exciting. And this can mean something different for different people; for some it means discovering a new hiking trail and to others, it’s trying a new hot place for brunch. The world is a big place, why not try to experience new things when we can.
• Get Outside More: I’m completely guilty of this, especially since I give the excuse that I live in Minnesota. It’s so easy for us to go to work all day inside, head home, make dinner, head to the gym, then head back home and enjoy some tv, with the only outdoor air we get being the walk between the car and our homes and work. Fresh air, it can do wonders for your mental clarity. Just try taking a 15-minute walk outside everyday during lunch time and see what happens. You just might like it.
• Take Better Care of Overall Health: It’s easy to think about losing weight and getting healthy in that sense as our overall health, which it is a big factor don’t get me wrong, but sometimes it’s easy to forget about the small things that contribute to our health. Dental and optometry checkups, drinking more water, wearing ear plugs to loud concerts, checking blood pressure, wearing sunscreen, etc – all important.
• Stress Less: As a society, we are too stressed out – stressed about our kids, the state of the nation, money, job security, work-life balance, health. Which makes it that much more important that we each find ways that helps ease our stress, whether it’s meditating, going on walks, going to the gym, doing yoga.

My Goals For 2016

Meal and Food Prep

Since last year, I’ve already started dabbling in meal and food prep, but want to, and need to, get more serious about it this year. My fitness journey this year is about weight lifting, increasing my strength and loosing body fat {note I didn’t say lose weight here… but that’s a whole other post and story} and having food ready to go is important, especially when life gets busy or stressful. I also very much enjoy cooking and trying new recipes, and so taking meal preparation more seriously means I have an avenue for making cooking a regular activity.

• Goal #1: Have lunch prepped for everyday of the week by Sunday night and have 3-4 dinners ready to go as well
• Goal #2: Try 2-3 new recipes per month

Crafts, Art and Coloring

I’m an artistic person who also loves crafting – all of which I don’t typically have time, or at least, currently don’t make time for in my life. This year, I’d love to begin to make time for it, whether it’s my photography, my t-shirt quilt, coloring or even painting again.

• Goal #1: Complete t-shirt quilt by December
• Goal #2: Finish my photography website
• Goal #3: Craft when I can – I’m not the type to just do a craft to do one, but if there’s something that I can make by hand, why not try it out!
• Goal #4: Color a few times a week – it’s been said that coloring can be one of the best de-stressors for you, so whether it’s taking 10 minutes during lunch or 10 minutes before bed, get more coloring in.

Build A Home

While I won’t be actually out in the dirt building my home {I’ll leave that to Melinda}, I want to start building a “home”. I will be getting married in October and want to start planning our lives and setting up the foundation of family. Which does include starting to actually figure out where and when we’ll be purchasing a home, but also creating new traditions with Warrior0341.

• Goal #1: Determine location/region of where we want to have a home
• Goal #2: Start one new tradition that we can carry on throughout our lives, no matter how small or silly

Things I’d Like To Accomplish In 2016

These are things that I’d like to possibly accomplish, but understand that these fall into the category of goals that I’m okay with tabling.

• Compete in a fitness competition
• Visit college friends who live out of state
• Go tent camping at least a few times this summer
• Develop an online store for my photography

What are your goals and resolutions for 2016… and for life? Be sure to share with us, we love hearing what other people are working for!