12 Changes in 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
So when one of their conversations turned into the idea of 12 Changes in 2012 - making 1 change per month to gradually integrate it into life - I knew it was something I had to do. Slow works for me, as does repetition and allowing some mistakes and/or slip-ups as we try to better ourselves.
Because I've been sick the first few days of the year, the months I was assigning my changes to kind of became part of an elimination process; a few I couldn't do since the sickness got the best of me (and still is, really), others I already knew there was no hope to complete in January anyway. However, I'm happy to see that I'm actually keeping to a few of them already, so there's hope in my future yet!
So, such follows my 12 Changes I plan to make in 2012.
>January: Eat fruit 1-2 times per week. This kind of happened since I was downing oranges in the hopes of fending off being sick (I don't like orange juice but love oranges...go figure), and so far I've managed to eat apples, pineapple and oranges - and it's only the 3rd! I forget how much I love fruit, and I have no idea why I backed off eating it in the first place. Delicious, and kind of an easy one to integrate. Start off the year slowly, but surely.
>February: Exercise 1-2 times per week. I wanted this to be January's, but being sick has already made me bed- and couch-ridden for 3 of the first 4 days of January. So, February it is! I used to run 3 miles every other day, and play tennis two or three times a week - ideally I'd like to get back to that by the end of the month, but we'll stick with the realistic plan of just exercising at all weekly.
>March: Skip Soda 4 meals a week. My dad is addicted to Coke, so it's consistently in my house - and I consistently drink it. I've figured out that it's not that I want Coke, but I like to have something other than water, so I've been attempting to get cranberry juice, apple juice, and iced tea worked in. It might not be that much healthier than Coke, but...it has to be a little bit, right? The goal is to have soda cut out of my diet by 2013, but we'll just try cutting it down for a month and see how that goes first.
>April: Drink More Water. To go along with the cutting soda, I know I definitely don't get the recommended daily intake of water. Hopefully I'll substitute all those meals accompanied by water, as well as have it constantly throughout my day. In college I used to bring a water bottle with me everywhere, so I'm thinking I'll get back to that.
>May: Comment on >5 blogs each week. I am a terrible, terrible blog friend in that I rarely comment on blogs. I know it's horrible, and of course I always appreciate people's posts - but for some reason, I completely fail on the interaction part. My excuse is that since it's all in a Reader, I'm just a lazy fuck who can't click over to the post - which is a terribly poor excuse! I love my blog friends, and I hope to be able to properly start expressing so this month. Hopefully it will be well over 5 blogs (I follow 200+!), but I'll set a bar low with 5.
>June: Clean/maintain my hard drive once a week. I am constantly downloading things: pictures for blogs, personal photos, music, ebooks (I can't believe I admitted that...), movies, craft templates, pretty much everything. They all automatically go to one folder, which of course means that folder is an absolutely mess. I also don't rename files often, so I'll have images that are like "982349_132_r" and I have no clue what it is. Hopefully if I can set aside time weekly to get it all taken care of, it'll maintain itself nicely and I won't have to search 4 folders and 978234 files for that picture of a bunny.
>July: Blog 3-4 times a week. Normally I would put this a bit higher, but I just launched a book blog so I know it's going to take a few months to figure out how to handle having 2 and getting everything sorted. Looking back at the end of 2011, I was really disappointed that I hadn't blogged consistently during many of the months - I like having records of my days and getting to revisit fun memories or realize that I've gone through situations before and will make it through. Hopefully consistence will turn into habit and i won't have that same disappointment at the end of the year.
>August: Walk to the library twice a month. I am quite fortunate to live within a mile of a library. However, revisiting that lazy fuck thing, I never, ever walk to it! I always drive. Mostly it's because I usually lump library visits with errands so I'll just drop by at the end, but I've realized I am wasting a great exercise opportunity here. I go to the library at least once a week (usually twice, and on occasion it has been three...one week it was four, but we're not talking about that) and need to take advantage of this. And maybe if I'm feeling braver, I have another library 3.5 miles away, and another 4 miles away, and yet another one about 8 miles away...future goals, maybe?
>September: All Electronics (laptop/ipad/tv) of by midnight. I know we're all guilty of this: constant connection. The last thing I do is check my email, turn off my computer, and hop into bed. The first thing I do is roll over, grab my phone, and check if I've gotten any emails or texts. And that's terrible. I've read that it takes our body at least an hour to really shut down after we've turned off all exterior electronic stimulation (which could be the cause of a lot of tossing and turning before bed). There is nothing that important on my computer that I need to have it attached to me at all hours of the day, and in September, I intend to embrace that idea and have them all off by midnight.
>October: Wake up by 9am three times a week. Tying into the electronics off by midnight, I'm hoping that means I'll also go to bed sooner - which means I'll wake up earlier, too. This may be forced to change when I eventually find a job, but for now, my hours of living are about 11am-4am. And that's so unhealthy it makes me cringe just thinking about it. Especially in the winter months because I lose almost all daylight! Morning is productivity, and in October, I will make it happen.
>November: Finish a novel. Ok, this is kiiiiiind of cheating since November is NaNoWriMo, but I can do that, right? My changes, my rules :). I consistently do NaNo, but I've yet to finish any of my stories! This year, I will. I WILL.
>December: Keep car tidy. Hopefully I'll keep this throughout the year, but December always turns into a ridiculous month with the holidays and rushing everywhere. Gifts, gift wrap, bags, food from on the go, leftover cookie platters and cupcake bins are always going in and out of my car, and things get left behind. I keep my car pretty clean anyway, but there's always a bottle or something rolling somewhere. December will hopefully close the year with a tidy vehicle.
And there we have it! Everything seems simple enough where I can slowly get it into my daily habits, and hopefully end 2012 an improved version of myself.
If you'd like to join, the more the merrier!
12 Changes Twitter: @TwelveChanges
12 Changes website: http://12changes12months.wordpress.com/
1 comments:
I love your goals! I might have to "steal" some of them, especially eating more fruits! I might make mine fruits and veggies. Good luck!
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