My Small Improvements List

For as long as I can remember, New Years resolutions have always been something to think about and prepare for as the new year approaches. I don’t think I’m the only one to admit this, but I have never been good at making and keeping resolutions for the whole year.

January always feels like a fresh start to me. A time to simplify, create new habits, clean-up and so much more to feel as ready as you can be to have a successful year. I have tried and started doing some of these things for the past few months, and because I have appreciated how I have improved, personally, I am going to continue with these improvements into the new year.

I am not here to share all of my improvements for 2022, because honestly, I don’t think I know what all the improvements are (yet), but here are a few that I wanted to share with you.

My Small Improvements List for 2022:

1. Make Me-Time Once a Week a Priority. I live a life where I tend to be with someone in my family almost every hour of every day. I love my family so much, but I crave the time to be alone and do something independently. Scott has been such a blessing with helping me find times to have Me-Time, and it has been just what I’ve needed some days. Over the past 3 years of being a mom, I have especially learned that I get burnt out from the day to day tasks I hope to complete while I’m home and with my family. Getting the time to go get my nails done or meeting up with friends for lunch has been exactly what I need to feel refreshed and ready to get back to my ever-day mom life and tackle all that I hope to accomplish in a day. Why I put that pressure on myself, I don’t fully understand why, but I am a planner and organizer (hello enneagram 3!) that loves to have a list to check things off to have a more successful day, week month…etc.
2. Stretch & 55 push-ups a day. I have been able to build strength and improve my physical and mental health with my everyday CrossFit workouts. This year, my physical health may look a little different. We are currently going through another FET (frozen embryo transfer) in hopes that I will be pregnant in a few short weeks. Our first daughter was born pre-term, with no real explanation, so my pregnancies are considered high risk. With that being the case, I don’t know if I will be able to continue the workouts in the same way I have been. So I hope trying to do simple movements everyday like stretching and push-ups will be something I can maintain through a pregnancy, even if I end up needing to modify what I’m doing.
3. Build a stronger relationship with God. There is so much in the world that creates distractions and takes the place of the time when I could be strengthening my relationship with God. I have allowed these distractions to become habits that I don’t think to question. They have taken the place of when I could be reading the scriptures, praying, sitting in silence to hear God speak to me. Almost every morning this year I have taken the time to read a few chapters in the Old Testament and I have already noticed how much it has blessed my everyday life, in the simplest ways, and I want to allow that to grow and develop throughout the year.
4. Read books for fun. When was the last time you sat down to read a book, just for fun? I went longer than I’d like to admit not reading for fun. When I was teaching, a part of our daily schedule was read-a-loud. I loved it and my students loved it, most of them did at least. So, why didn’t I continue reading like this…I still don’t know. I’ve been collecting a list of books to read and this is the year I’m going to work on reading the books on that list.
5. Embrace minimalism. Living in a smaller home has taught me a lot about the benefit of minimalism. I tend to hold onto things that I may not need, so I am working on going through things more frequently and get rid of things that we aren’t using or that take up unnecessary space. Although I started this last year, I want to continue doing this because I feel so much better living in a more minimalistic home, full of things that I need and things that I love.

I’m sure I could add more to the list, but those are the key improvements I want to work on throughout the year. They may be simple things, but they’re just right for me and I feel good about working on them this year.