Clearing the Chaos By Creating Habits
My life has become unmanageable, so despite the fact I hate New Year’s resolutions, I have to do something. My house and farm are a mess. The weight I’ve put back on makes my body hurt and I’m having migraines again. My mindset is just complete trash right now. Frankly, my life has spiraled into chaos and something has to give, but clearly the goals I’ve set in the past haven’t helped that.
I’ve tried many of the ways self help books suggest you set goals…big goals, small goals, quantifiable goals, goals broken down into mini goals within the goal. Really none of them have lasted though and my life has become completely unbalanced. So I’m trying something slightly different. I want to be happier and healthier as a whole complete balanced person. I don’t want to focus on just my weight or only my business. There are 6 areas of my life that I think will contribute to a happier me if I make improvements in them.
These six areas are:
- Physical Health
- Mental Health
- Spiritual Health
- Relationships
- Home
- Farm
I couldn’t think of a single thing I’d like to improve in my life that wouldn’t fit into one of these areas. I considered setting specific quantifiable goals that anyone would be able to tell if I reached them or not, but realized that has never served me in the past. So I thought I’d try a different way. Instead, I’m setting general goals that are more open ended and possibly easier for me to feel successful at. I figure any improvement is better than no improvement.
So here are the goals for each:
- Physical Health-I want to be healthy enough and have enough energy to do the things I want to do.
- Mental Health-I want to be mentally well enough to handle the things life throws at me without becoming overwhelmed.
- Spiritual Health-I want my soul to experience the full range of human emotions without hiding from the negative ones or feeling unworthy of the positive ones.
- Relationships-I want a more meaningful connection with not just my family and friends, but also the people in my community and even complete strangers.
- Home-I want my home to be a place that feels comfortable, welcoming, and safe for anyone who enters it.
- Farm-I want my farm to inspire others to connect with nature, learn new things, and embrace where their food comes from.
Not a single one of those goals is something I can check a box and say “I did it!”, and I’m ok with that. There’s not a single number on the scale that’s going to determine if I’m healthy enough to enjoy a hike or not. There’s not any To Do List that is going to guarantee everyone feels welcome in my home. However any improvement in these areas will be a win as far as I’m concerned.
Instead of breaking these goals into smaller goals though, I’ve decided to focus on creating lasting habits that will help me see improvement in these areas. I think a new small habit in each area every month will make them more likely to stick and not overwhelm me with too many big changes.
Here are my new habits for January:
- Physical Health–Drink Water. I am chronically dehydrated. This is from a combination of not drinking enough water and also consuming way too much caffeine. Being dehydrated contributes to fatigue, brain fog, and weight gain. So this little change potentially could have huge results for me.
- Mental Health–Journaling. There’s a lot going on in my brain and I think journaling every morning while I have my coffee will help me sort some of it out.
- Spiritual Health–One Happy Thing. Every day I plan to do at least one thing that makes me happy. It doesn’t have to be something big, just a little thing to bring me some joy.
- Relationships–Daily Kindness. Every day I’m going to make sure I say or do something kind for somebody else. I actually feel like doing something nice for somebody else makes my day better.
- Home–Get Rid of 3 Things. Every day I’m going to find 3 things that I can throw away or give away. I can’t organize clutter. So the first step is too start getting rid of some of it.
- Farm–Get Rid of 3 Things. The farm also needs decluttered so I’ll be doing the 3 daily things with it too. By the end of January I will have gotten rid of over 100 items with this method.
That’s it! That’s my first set of habit changes. They’re small easy things but could potentially make a huge difference if I make them a habit. None of them will take very much time each day. None of them require any expensive tools or equipment to do. It’s the last week of December, but I’m starting them today. I figure an extra week to get in the habit of having new habits won’t hurt me. And there’s no reason I have to wait til New Year’s to start improving my life.
Are you working to improve anything for 2024? How are you going about setting your goals?