Habit Goals - 2023 - and a small reflection on goals themselves.

I am into goals this year.

I've always loved goals.  And schedules.  I remember making a "summer of fun" binder for myself sometime in primary school, filled with all the things I planned to do - books I planned to read, lists I planned to make... I'm sure it had a "Best Summer Ever" sticker on it.

I also remember something going wrong early in the summer and me getting upset and throwing the binder away.

It turns out, my lack of resilience is not a new phenomenon.

(this post takes a sad turn from here for the next 2 paragraphs:)

I'm also acutely aware how lucky I am with my goal setting.  In December 2017 my friend Amy wrote about how excited she was for the new year - she was almost 5 months pregnant with her rainbow baby.  Leo was stillborn the next day, Amy was diagnosed with cancer in the spring, and she died in April of 2018 at the age of 32.

Amy and I used to joke a lot about diets and health - we both talked about losing five or ten pounds.  We both were pretty good looking (in the way twenty something North Americans living in in the UK are) but I'm sure we spent a long time talking about going to the gym and/or eating more salads.  When Amy got cancer she lost weight quickly.  I remember her writing that she finally had that "dream body" but the dream body was literally killing her.  

When I think about goals I remember to hold them loose and consider how lucky I am to even make goals.  To have the opportunity to enter 2023 generally healthy, and with a healthy family.  To make goals based on "normal", with the limitations of "normal".  My life, even the pre-goal version, is someone else dream.  Not some far away person from another land, or even some person from another century, but someone from down the street or across the road.  I try to be continually in awe of how lucky I am. 

So while I would like to get into better shape (why did I not realize how fit I was in 2013?) And be a better human, I'm starting from a place of pretty huge advantage.

With that long preamble, here are the habit goals I want to try out for at least some of 2023:

• Eat 5 fruits and vegetables a day (incorporate more fruit!)
• Flossing habit (ie not just the week before the dentist)
• Continue daily gratitude in evening
• Get a regular morning routine back (not sleeping till kids get up)
• Get into a yoga routine (3 times a week is a habit)
• Get back into strength training - lift heavy things (return of the bench press?)

These are not necessarily everyday goals, maybe trial add-on goals for a month?  I'm sure all of these habits would make me a better person.  But these are the 6 I've picked for 2023, and hopefully fortune will allow me the chance to trial all or most of them, and maybe even keep some as life habits. (FYI gratitude is a learned habit from 2021ish)

If you are a goal setter, I hope you have a healthy list of goals for the new year, and that your goals are built on a foundation of good luck and good opportunity as well.