After my house is clean, my laundry done and my meals planned for the next week, I finally have the head space to think about how I want to improve myself for the next year. I like the idea of resolutions. Sure - we may not keep all of them, or any of them, but it’s still nice to have some conscious goals to work towards in the name of self improvement. 

LISTENING

I’m trying a lot harder to do less talking about myself (when I’m nervous, it’s easy to do) and instead hear more of what others are saying. Asking open ended questions “how did you do that?” or “tell me more about that” are helping me in this arena. I think I’m a pretty extroverted person, but I sometimes feel really awkward in social situations (read: nervous blabbering mentioned above). 

MAKE ME TIME COUNT (or less reality tv & mindless social media)

Uhhh. I watch way too much TV, especially at night after Felix goes to bed. I’m usually in relaxation mode and don’t want to work on the blog so it’s easy to just plop onto the couch and turn on The Bachelor (ok ok ok, I’m still going to watch it, it’s just reruns on E!, HGTV and The Food Network that I need to cool my jets on) I also think this would be a great time to get back into reading, something I admittedly haven’t done at all since Felix was born. 

And like most people on the planet, I spend too much time on my phone which doesn’t really increase my overall happiness more than anything I could be doing instead. I want to cut that addiction and really limit my facebook and instagram scrolling (I’ll probably narrow them down as well). I think an alarm clock in the bedroom instead of having my phone in there will curb my scrolling time too. On that note, if there’s ever something you absolutely want/need a personal answer for, email is the best way to reach me! 

TWO MINUTE RULE

This is one I mentioned yesterday and from last year’s resolutions. When I’m on it, it really works. In short - if there’s a task that can be completed in less than two minutes - do it now. And trust me - there are a lot of things that can be scratched off your list in that amount of time! Picking up toys, vacuuming, switching over the laundry, emptying the dishwasher, etc. Just carrying a load of whatever up or down the stairs on my way makes everything a little more settled. 

ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE

Eliminate the negative. Embrace the affirmative. And don’t mess with Mr. Inbetween. 

Happy New Year!