Personally, I prefer goals to "resolutions" - perhaps because, as I was reading in an article earlier this week, resolutions usually seem rather vague, which is probably why so many fail to keep them. I find the more specific a goal is, the better chance I have of accomplishing it. So I've been hard at work over the past few weeks, designing plans for my 2015 - and will continue to do so for the next several weeks as I get things in order.
I thought I'd share a few of my goals with you in today's post, as well as some tips for successfully setting (and keeping) your own goals for the year....
This will be the first garden season in our new home, and I am both excited and nervous about the prospect of growing a real, good-sized garden. While I have gotten my feet wet, so to speak, over the past 12 years in Ohio, I've always been quite limited in terms of garden space, so while I have gotten somewhat accustomed to the seasons, the first and last frost dates, and other climate-related factors, I really haven't had the chance to make a go of it on a larger scale - one that could actually allow me to produce a fair amount of my own food. With 5 acres of farmland now under my feet, I am not quite sure exactly where to start....
How much of each crop should I grow? What kind of soil amendments do I need? What new animal pests will I have to battle with? (Squirrels were my nemesis for the past 8 years, but I don't see many of them here. However, deer are abundant.)
I suppose these sticky questions are mysteries that I will have to answer over time, by experience. In the meantime, I will spend the next few weeks developing a garden plan - which crops we will grow, and where - so that when spring comes, hopefully I'll be ready to go full-steam ahead. Fun with seed packets and gardening magazines awaits!
Goal #2: To Make Our House Feel Like Home
While I love our new house, it remains woefully disorganized, with myriad boxes in piles for which we have no shelving or storage areas. The walls remain bare, and with the same dingy paint as the day we moved in, and though we plan to install wood flooring, for now we are stuck with steam cleaning the faded carpets and making do. In 2015, my goal is not to try to fix/update everything we want to do in the house (which is a multi-year project for sure), but to accomplish things that will make it feel like our home. Painting, some artwork on the walls, and furniture that we select together will be a great start, and I think should be reasonably achievable.
Goal #3: To Make A Living Teaching Others the Essential Truths About Healthy, Holistic Living
This is by far the loftiest goal, and I don't expect to complete it entirely in 2015; it is an ongoing goal that I plan to achieve over the next several years. As you may know, New Holistic Living's mission is to provide natural solutions for those seeking to take control of their health, and live happier, healthier, more holistically balanced lives.
But for me personally, what gets my juices flowing is discovering and sharing with others the essential Truths which we often ignore or simply fail to recognize within the hustle and bustle of modern life. These Truths are what hold our universe together, and what I believe that our species is just now beginning to wake up and realize on a larger scale. I am excited to be a part of this journey of awakening, and I hope you will join me as together we seek and find the keys to our future as a more enlightened people. (A lofty goal, as I said!)
Now, I promised you a couple of tips for setting and achieving your own goals or resolutions, but I'll keep it short and sweet.
First off, as I mentioned above, the number one reason why most people don't achieve their goals or keep their resolutions is that they are not specific enough. However, along those lines is also the fact that they don't have a process in place to achieve them.
It's great to set a goal or make a resolution to lose weight and get in shape this year. Obviously that's Step 1. But how are you going to achieve this goal? If you don't set down a plan of how you will do this, it likely will never happen.
For example, if your goal is to get in great shape this year, you have to do 3 things:
1. Eat cleaner, healthier foods on a daily basis.
2. Eat fewer calories than you burn. (If you want to lose fat.)
3. Exercise consistently - and do exercise of the right type to help you burn fat, build muscle, and boost your metabolism. (See our Exercise page for some of our recommended ways to do this.)
We are here to help you with these 3 things, so please explore our website and subscribe to our newsletter for more information! We regularly post articles exposing the Truth about healthy eating habits and truly good food.
Rather than just saying you resolve to get in shape this year, take a good look at your lifestyle and see how you can incorporate these 3 elements into a process that will help you actually achieve your goal. That way, when next year rolls around, you can set a new resolution, instead of the same old one that you didn't achieve last year! Trust me, it will make you happier, healthier, and more balanced.
Happy New Year!
Rose.