Jul 7, 2014

12 Resolutions: July (and June recap)

This year I'm playing along with #12Resolutions on Twitter and Facebook. The idea is to set yourself short-term, achievable goals, one each month. 

For June my goal was to save money by taking the train to work 3 days a week, and bringing a packed lunch at least 3 days. (I work 4 days a week).

Well, I'm chalking this one up as a success. I didn't take the train 3 days - more like an average of 1.5 days out of 4. But that's 1.5 days more than I had been taking it before.  And lunch...well, I brought in a packed lunch EVERY DAY! How's that!

The benefits were as I expected: I did save a bit of money, and my days were moderately more active for the extra walking and standing that public transport forces on you.

The disadvantage of making and bringing lunch: virtually none. I had had cynical thoughts that it wouldn't be much cheaper by the time I bought extra sandwich stuff and snacks at the supermarket (not true - it's still cheaper) and I thought packing a lunch every night would be a major drag, based on the fact that I find making my kids' lunchboxes a drag. Not true - making my own lunch is much more interesting than making my kids', because as I do it I'm thinking "ooh yummy" and looking forward to each bit. 

The disadvantage of public transport is just as I remember it: the commute takes longer, and is more tiring. But hey, that's life. I can't afford to drive into work every day, so it's back to the rat race for me.

Tokyoform/Flickr


So, on to July.

This month I am concentrating on my emotions and reactions. 

Sometimes, I feel a bit like this:

mar.al/Flickr
And when I am overly-stretched, or tired, or I haven't been taking care of myself, my emotions can get the better of me and I can react badly - the whole time scratching my head and wondering why.

'Exploding Harbor' by Justin Gaurav Murgai /Flickr

At my age my  emotional states should not be a mystery to me. And when I slow down and really listen to myself and pay attention to what's going on, I can usually figure myself out. 

So this month I'm resolving to pay attention to my moods and feelings, and to take a moment to consider them, before I react.  I will keep my commitments manageable, know my limits and my needs, and NOTICE my feelings before they get to the stage where I am going to explode with rage or get all weepy and want to retire to a dark room and feel sorry for myself.

I don't do either of those things all the time, by the way. But I can get frustrated/angry/anxious too easily and can get better at managing myself, keeping things on an even keel so that stress, anxiety and over-reactions are at bay.

I think I know what I need to get this done. And I anticipate, as I go through this month and do all my noticing and listening to myself, that maybe other things will come up too.

So, this month should be interesting. I'm pretty psyched for this resolution. It's not as concrete or measurable as the others, so it doesn't let me slide in on statistics. This one is going to take some real work.

Oh, and I have a mini goal to add as well: Pandora has challenged me to complete a unit in my course, and she'll do the same. So, I'll work on that as well.

Here's to July (even if I'm a week late). Have a great month!



#12Resolutions:

January: walk 5 times a week (done - I now walk daily)
February: write 2 short stories (failed - wrote none!)
March: write 1 short story, and start Project Management course (done)
April: visit GP and complete or schedule the follow-ups (done)

May: complete one module of Project Management course (failed)

June: working day money savers: public transport and packed lunch (done)

July: pay attention to needs, moods and emotions to manage reactions 

12 comments:

  1. Wow, great post and resolutions . Good luck.

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  2. Wow. Your July challenge is something I need to work on too. Badly. Quite often (mostly) I reach meltdown status because I have been ignoring what my body is telling me. And I know it. And keep sinning.
    Good luck - and perhaps I put on my big girl panties and follow suit.

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    Replies
    1. I think it's not uncommon, EC, especially for women. I've started telling Y what I need instead of expecting him to know - even though part of me still grits my teeth and thinks "FFS, we need to do the same stuff we have to do every day, why are you asking me?". I'm getting there slowly.

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  3. I need to pay more attention to my moods and emotions too. I know that half my trouble is spending too much time on the computer, because I don't type fast or do anything else fast it takes me a long time to get things done here. This leads directly into my other problems, not getting enough book reading done and not getting enough sleep.
    I love that expoloding harbor image!

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    1. Isn't it fantastic? I keep coming back just to look at it. Yes, what you describe is me too - I have been spending too much time online and much as I love it, it eats into everything else that you also need: reading time, sleep, relaxation time doing other things. I read a great article all about how when we over-commit and get too hung up on our "distractions" it makes us cranky and all messed up - so true.

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  4. Here is the article I read recently, which made a whole lot of sense:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachel-macy-stafford/the-important-thing-about-yelling_b_4484027.html

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  5. Congratulations on your achievements so far....by the end of the year you will be a whole new person.

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  6. It is amazing how much buying your lunch actually costs each year. I enjoy packing my lunch more than anyone else's in the house. Good luck with next months goal.

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  7. Hi Jackie,

    You are still going strong. Moods and emotions would be a tricky one for me - particularly at work!

    :0)

    Cheers

    PM

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  8. So sensible...to try to stop yourself before the red mist falls, rather than feel guilty after. I'm cranky as hell at the moment - seem to go for calmish to shouty in seconds. No tolerance whatsoever! Good luck, I'll be really interested to hear how it goes :)

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