My Goal for 2017

I would encourage you to set really high goals. Set goals that, when you set them, you think they're impossible. But then every day you can work towards them, and anything is possible, so keep working hard and follow your dreams.

Katie Ledecky

Following on from my last post, it is time for me to set a goal, a New Year's Resolution if you will. 

I appreciate that I'm a little late in the day for New Year's Resolutions, but better late than never, and I guess the phases in people's lives don't adhere strictly to the modern calendar.

Not everyone will be ready for a Resolution on the 1st of January. It may come later than that, much later in my case. 

I wasn't ready then, I was too busy waddling through the last few months of pregnancy, and getting ready to attend one of my best friend's weddings. I didn't have the head space for a Resolution. 

I have the head space now. 

I regularly read the Planning with Kids blog, which is amazing and great reading. If you like reading blogs, this is likely to be another to add to your list. Nicole Avery has decided to have a single goal. 

Once she had that single goal, she set out the habits she wanted to form to achieve that goal. You can read more about her decision here.

So I've decided to follow Nicole's lead and have a single goal for 2017. 

My Goal for 2017

It took me a little while to put my finger on my goal for 2017. There were lots of ideas for my personal development whirring around in my head, but none of them seemed like an appropriate goal, which I could then break down into habits that I wanted to work on. 

Eventually I wrote them all down... with an actual pencil (I couldn't find a pen - we were on holiday) and paper. Once I had them all written down in front of me, a theme gradually emerged and, after a lot of deliberation, the goal kind of wrote itself. 

So my goal for 2017 is to improve my mental and physical health. 

I realised that a lot of the times when I get frustrated, or I'm not the person I want to be, the better side of myself, it's because my general health is slipping. Either I'm not getting enough sleep; I'm not getting enough exercise; I'm not taking the time to do something which is just for me. 

I read somewhere that it's important that everyone takes time to themselves to refill their tank, because you can't pour from an empty cup. I'm not sure I'm saying that right, but I'm sure you get the gist. 

My kids demand a lot of time and attention, as they should, they are my people! Unfortunately, so does the never empty washing basket. (I can't be the only one who feels like the washing basket magically refills itself ALL THE TIME).

So I need to look at the time I have, and make sure I am utilising it as best I can, so that I have enough time for self-care, so that I have the patience and the energy to take care of everything else. 

I think I'm going to break it down into two parts, my physical health, and my mental health. I feel like it's really easy to focus on the physical health, because it's usually obvious and something difficult to ignore. Mental health tends to get shoved to the back of the to-do list, and I think it's something I really need to work on. 

I'm really looking forward to working towards my goal for the rest of the year, and I'm hoping to do monthly updates on my progress. I'm excited to see whether a focus on this area of my life can really reap rewards in other areas too. 

What are your goals for the year and how do you intend to fulfil them?