A Beautiful Mess has a challenge/idea on her blog to just set yourself Four Simple Goals to achieve before the end of the year.
- choose simple goals that will make your life richer and happier on a daily basis. choose things you may not otherwise get done, but that are not difficult to accomplish.
- do not choose result oriented goals, choose activity oriented goals. for example…. instead of “lose 10 pounds”, choose something like “eat fresh fruits and vegetables every day”. get what i’m saying? positive actions instead of just the end result!
- choose goals that are personal that you believe will truly make your life richer just by doing them! they can be daily, weekly or one time experiences.
COME ON. This is a GREAT idea. I love that she refers to them as “activity oriented goals” – which I think is a key in my life. I feel like I have to achieve a certain result I get overwhelmed. But simple activities that enrich my life? WHO CAN SAY NO TO THAT ONE? I’m so in love with this idea that I’ve spent 24 hours obsessing over what my Four Simple Goals will be.
And I can’t seem to do it.
It’s so hard not to be like, “Finally! Lose that weight I’ve been trying to lose since [insert random catalyst in my past HERE. Suggestions: NikkiZ's birth. Quitting Smoking. Being Laid Off.]” But I’ve been struggling with that since whatever catalyst you chose occurred. So, that seems a bit disingenuous. I want to Be A Better Mom, but that’s not really activity related either. It seems Simple Activity Oriented Goals are a struggle for me.
BUT I DO NOT GIVE UP.
I decided to try NOT to revisit the same challenges I’ve been trying to conquer for years. Let’s do something completely different but that has been lingering in my mind for ages. Little bits of KRAZEE IDEAS that have popped up here and there. Maybe I should nurture those for awhile? Steer away from the standard: Lose Weight. Be A Better Mom. Complain Less. Smile More. These things are permanent fixtures in my mind anyway, things I’m always trying to do. I think this challenge is more about setting goals to do something that will shake things up a bit. Create inspiration in the day-to-day activity. I chose to focus on each goal one day a week so that every week I force myself to at least TRY to achieve these goals. So…WITHOUT FURTHER ADO:
Kim’s (Off-The-Beaten-Path) 4 Simple Goals
- Wear a dress/skirt once a week. I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I’m not a girly-girl. I don’t wear makeup but a few times a year. I rarely fix my hair and prefer the “scrunchy bun” technique. But sometimes I see these free-spirited Bohemian-styled women in skirts and dresses and think: THAT’S the kind of girly-girl I could be. No need for makeup, still. If I don’t want. Just some sort of flowing skirt and fun jewelery? I have LOADS of fun jewelery I never wear because I’m usually in sweats and a t-shirt. I see these women periodically and wonder what that would be like. I never even wore dresses/skirts much when I was working in a professional office. This? Could totally change my outlook on life. Or it could make me flash the neighborhood 100 times a day. I’m not very ladylike, you know.
- One Day A Week, Carry The Camera Everywhere. I often see things throughout my day that I’d like to photograph. But – I don’t want to carry my camera everywhere all the time. Maybe if I picked ONE day a week to do it, I’d get used to it and find a system and force myself to take different photographs outside my normal arsenal of NikkiZ In A Cute Outfit.
- Once a week force myself to eat something different. Maybe try a new recipe, but I’m thinking more about trying new foods in general. Or at least new combinations of foods. I know what I like and even though I’m cooking so much more than 2 years ago, it’s still the same basic menu. I really like Chicken. And Rice. And Pasta. A lot of my meals involve one of those three things. I want to get out of my comfort zone a bit now that I’m more comfortable in the kitchen and try something new. Maybe even something that isn’t A) A Casserole or B) Cooked in the Crockpot. Because at least 95% of my favorite meals come from one of those two places.
- Visit a new place in town once a week. I love Huntsville, we all know that. But again – I’m in a rut just like in my kitchen. I know the places I like so when we want a park, or to shop, or to eat — I have my arsenal of faithful stops we revisit. I think I need to branch out more. Find some smaller stores to try out. New restaurants. Museums. Galleries. I can think of enough to get me through the end of the year just sitting here, not even Googling. Places I’ve wanted to try but that go out of my comfort zone a bit. I get nervous going somewhere new, but isn’t that the point of this exercise? Find simple ways to enrich our lives. Get OUT of my comfort zone, for a change. For some inspiration.
I’m nervous about all of these. I don’t think I realized how much of a creature of habit I am until I sat down to do this. I don’t branch out much. Partly because of anxiety, partly because I never feel like I’m quite cool enough to do these things. Wear a flowy skirt? Carry my camera everywhere? Eat at interesting places or visit galleries? THAT’S NOT ME. I eat BBQ in my Yoga pants (I don’t even do Yoga!) and take pictures of my kids in cute outfits. But I’ve been trying to get myself out of a rut in general anyway lately – why not try to introduce new things into my life as a way of doing that? Maybe I’ll find out I’m just a Maxi Dress Wearin’, Starfruit Eatin’, Gallery Browsin’ Photographer deep down inside.
Probably not. But, you know. We’ll see.













