I mentioned in my last post that one of my goals for the year is to cut back on clutter. One very emotional way I did that was to get rid of a box stuffed full of books. My dear friend was able to help me pack them up this summer in preparation for the eventual day that I would take them to the used book store; two weeks ago, I finally got up the nerve to do it.
It was hard.
I felt like I was giving away part of my childhood. Many of the books I had had for years upon years (okay, so that may be a little bit of an exaggeration, considering my relatively young age), and some of them were editions of Black Beauty, which I collected as a child. Seeing someone else pawing through my books and putting a price on the heads of my old friends was difficult.
It was made easier, though, by my leaving the book store with some new friends, including some more Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Tom Swift books, The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Ten Years After by Alexandre Dumas. I think I parted with about 35 books over the course of two days and came home with 13. I still have credit left at one store and look forward to using it, when I have a chance, to find more books to make a part of my adulthood. Besides, even if I have physically given away books that have been on my shelf for years, I don't have to lose the memory of them. It's just time to make room on the shelf for a new phase of my life.
Tuesday 28 January 2014
Monday 27 January 2014
Setting Goals
Yes, again, it's been ages since I've posted. I'm terrible at keeping up with this blogging thing, I know! One tough thing is that I don't feel that I have much to write about. Let's face it, the life of a stay-at-home mum, and a pregnant one at that, is generally neither exciting nor glamorous. I enjoy sleeping, eating, and sleeping some more, and I spend most of my time driving to and from appointments or spending time at said appointments. In fact, just this week I have four appointments over three days. Yahoo.
Anyway, today I wanted to talk about setting goals. With the changing of the years, the popular thing to do is to make resolutions; I prefer to set goals. Resolutions just seem so vague to me, without real substance. It's hard to maintain a resolution like "lose weight" (how much? by when? for that matter, how?) or "clean up" (where? how much? does it involve getting rid of things, or just rearranging?). To me, it's easier to set a concrete goal using the corny but helpful SMART mnemonic. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Related is the variation I use, although there are plenty of others that may suit you better.
After rotting my brain on Pinterest a bit (one thing I do when I'm not sleeping, although I do occasionally eat at the same time) I came across this relatively old but still relevant post from moneysavingmom.com. It inspired me to set goals for each week and each day, as well as setting big goals for the coming year. For the last three weeks, I've had a "Things to Do" notepad on my desk with a list of goals for each week. One recurring goal is to get rid of five things. I'm trying to cut back on the clutter, and what better way to do that than by finding things to get rid of, one way or another? Well, I suppose that getting rid of things is the only way to get rid of clutter, but I digress. Slightly.
Also important to me is knowing exactly what I've accomplished, so I keep another note pad on my desk (this one reads, "Why not go out on a limb? That's where the fruit is.") for a list of everything I accomplish each week, big or small. It's encouraging to me on my bad days to see that I haven't been totally unproductive. Maybe I've written letters to my friends, or done some important banking, or sorted through a pile of paperwork. Maybe it's been a good week and I've done all three. Either way, I know that I've done something that's important to me.
The point of this all is that setting goals is necessary to my accomplishing anything. With that, I share this weeks goals with you, in the hope that it may inspire you to set your own goals.
Goals for the week of 27 January
1. Find five things to get rid of.
2. Sort one box from storage.
3. Finish reconciling 2012 bank statements (done!)
4. Finish colouring Monkey's valentines.
5. Clean off the top of the dog's crate. Again.
Things that I've done in the week of 27 January
1. Finished reconciling 2012 bank statements.
2. Made appointments with the vet, hairdresser, and physiotherapist
3. Banking, banking, banking.
I figure if I can finish one goal a day, I'm set, although some goals (like paperwork) may take a few days of plugging away before they get completed. Do you set goals? What's one goal you'd like to accomplish this week?
Anyway, today I wanted to talk about setting goals. With the changing of the years, the popular thing to do is to make resolutions; I prefer to set goals. Resolutions just seem so vague to me, without real substance. It's hard to maintain a resolution like "lose weight" (how much? by when? for that matter, how?) or "clean up" (where? how much? does it involve getting rid of things, or just rearranging?). To me, it's easier to set a concrete goal using the corny but helpful SMART mnemonic. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Related is the variation I use, although there are plenty of others that may suit you better.
After rotting my brain on Pinterest a bit (one thing I do when I'm not sleeping, although I do occasionally eat at the same time) I came across this relatively old but still relevant post from moneysavingmom.com. It inspired me to set goals for each week and each day, as well as setting big goals for the coming year. For the last three weeks, I've had a "Things to Do" notepad on my desk with a list of goals for each week. One recurring goal is to get rid of five things. I'm trying to cut back on the clutter, and what better way to do that than by finding things to get rid of, one way or another? Well, I suppose that getting rid of things is the only way to get rid of clutter, but I digress. Slightly.
Also important to me is knowing exactly what I've accomplished, so I keep another note pad on my desk (this one reads, "Why not go out on a limb? That's where the fruit is.") for a list of everything I accomplish each week, big or small. It's encouraging to me on my bad days to see that I haven't been totally unproductive. Maybe I've written letters to my friends, or done some important banking, or sorted through a pile of paperwork. Maybe it's been a good week and I've done all three. Either way, I know that I've done something that's important to me.
The point of this all is that setting goals is necessary to my accomplishing anything. With that, I share this weeks goals with you, in the hope that it may inspire you to set your own goals.
Goals for the week of 27 January
1. Find five things to get rid of.
2. Sort one box from storage.
3. Finish reconciling 2012 bank statements (done!)
4. Finish colouring Monkey's valentines.
5. Clean off the top of the dog's crate. Again.
Things that I've done in the week of 27 January
1. Finished reconciling 2012 bank statements.
2. Made appointments with the vet, hairdresser, and physiotherapist
3. Banking, banking, banking.
I figure if I can finish one goal a day, I'm set, although some goals (like paperwork) may take a few days of plugging away before they get completed. Do you set goals? What's one goal you'd like to accomplish this week?
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