Tag: New Years goals

Happy New Year!

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Well another year come and gone- can you believe it? As I mentioned yesterday, 2014 had some drastic, pretty great changes and I never imagined when 2014 started that it would end so awesome- serious, awesome boyfriend, new job, new apartment, friends engaged and pregnant… it’s so crazy!

Last year, I wrote up a bunch of “goals” for 2014:

1. Be more present.
2. Slow down and learn that it’s OK to say “no”.
3. Practice more yoga.
4. Focus more on the present, less on the past. Focus more on the positives, less on the negatives.
5. Become a better instructor and become a personal trainer.
6. Grow Burpees to Bubbly.
7. Be more financially stable.
8. Be more accepting of myself.

I put goals in quotations because more than anything, I just wanted to be more aware of these things and to work towards improvement in these areas. Most of these goals were not achievable in the sense of being able to check them off and say “yup. goal achieved”. Rather, they were areas of improvement I think I’ll continuously want to make in my life.

When I look back at 2014, I think I really have come a long way and have grown into myself even more. As far as 2015, I don’t really have any big, lofty goals. I am not going into the year hoping I’ll teach X amount of classes. I’m not hoping to squat XXX amount of weight. I’m not thinking about getting X amount of unassisted pull-ups (although I would like to get to 5!). I’m not working on going strictly paleo or losing X pounds. I’m not looking to buy a house.

Rather, I am just looking to stay present in my day to day activities.

I want to stay happy, healthy and fit (<—- get it?! 😉 )

I want to save more and spend less.

I want to explore more fitness trends and get more certifications.

I want to continue to become stronger at the gym, while also continuing to take time off from the gym when necessary and realize a good workout is not the end all, be all.

I want to meditate more, practice yoga more, and find peace with stillness and relaxation.

I want to cook more and experiment in the kitchen.

I want to get to Maine more.

I want to live passionately- in all aspects of my life, because where’s the fun in just going through the motions?

So, what about you? What are you looking forward to this year? Do you like to make resolutions, set goals or just open up to whatever the new year has planned for you?

Happy New Year, my friends- thank you for being so wonderful! I hope this year brings you happiness in everything you do!

 

 

 

My Thoughts On Being “Type A”

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Happy Friday, friends! I hope you’ve all had a good week. Mine has been good and even though I’m not working from home today (hopefully exciting news to share with you soon), I’m still feeling like it’s Friday- woohoo! I’ve got a little bit of a “heavy” post for you today, but I’m hoping some of you can relate and we can get a good discussion going in the comments section. So, read away and let me know what you think!

If you’re on Facebook, I’m sure you’ve seen this post, which gives 16 signs of being a little (or a lot) “Type A”. Since I frequently joke about being super Type A, I couldn’t wait to read through the article; I just had to see if I was really, truly Type A or if maybe I just carried some of the Type A traits.

Waiting in long lines kills you a little bit inside.
You’ve been described as a perfectionist, overachiever, workaholic or all of the above.
You bite your nails or grind your teeth.
You have a serious phobia of wasting time.
You’re highly conscientious.
You’ve always been a bit of a catastrophist.
You frequently talk over and interrupt people.
You have a hard time falling asleep at night.
People can’t keep up with you — in conversation or on the sidewalk.
You put more energy into your career than your relationships.
Relaxing can be hard work for you.
You have a low tolerance for incompetence.
You’d be lost without your to-do list.
At work, everything is urgent.
You’re sensitive to stress.
You make it happen.

Verdict? Holy crap. If being Type A was on a scale of 1-10, 1 being not at all and 10 being the definition of… I am right there with a big ol’ 10. Woof. I mean, it wasn’t a huge surprise, but I didn’t know that I would pretty much be/do all of them so much “by the book” (or article in this case).

With that said, this article made me think… a lot. While I like and appreciate a lot of these qualities that I have because I think they have been a huge factor in why I am where I am today, there are some that I’d like to be more of a 4 or 5 on a scale of 1-10 instead of the 10 I currently am.

As I mentioned in my New Years Post, this year it is my goal to relax more and stress less, go with the flow more and schedule less, live a little more carefree and worry less… you get the idea. Basically, it’s very natural for me to be the way and act in a way that’s listed out above, but is that “good”? Is that “healthy”? I do all these things for myself to be healthy and live a healthy lifestyle (workout, eat well, try to not drink too much, take the stairs and walk when possible, etc.), but am I doing too much? Is my need for overachieving, succeeding and always wanting to be better an unhealthy trait? Is my fear of wasting time, taking on too many things, saying “yes” even when I want to say “no” and having an inability to relax creating an unnecessary stress on me? Sometimes, yes, I think it is.

I’ve talked to my friend Athena about this before because I know she can relate. I remember telling her about one particularly upsetting weekend when my Type A came on strong. It was a Sunday last summer and I was really stressed… to the point my sister told me I was being a crazy person. The week had been crazy busy and I had a bachelorette party in NH on Saturday night so when I got home Sunday morning, I did go a little crazy. I was so stressed about cleaning the apartment, doing my laundry, going grocery shopping, getting my blogging done and working out that I was literally tunnel-visioned and wouldn’t stop until I got those things done. It was a terrible, terrible feeling and although my sister told me to relax and forget about all those things because they weren’t things that I HAD to do, I couldn’t. That’s the hard part… it’s when you know something isn’t really that big of a deal, but you make it out to be.

But, for me, it’s easier to just get the things done and off my list (I ALWAYS have a to-do list going and I love the feeling of crossing things off. Sometimes if I do something that wasn’t on my list, I add it just so I can cross it off…) when it’s bothering me and THEN relax. If I relax and push things to the side, when it comes time to face them, I am even more stressed than I was to begin with.

Knowing this about myself is one step closer to working on letting go of some of those thoughts and “type A” qualities in favor of relaxing, going with the flow, being spontaneous, putting more into a relationship and choosing that person over something on my to-do list, etc. I don’t always have to be in a rush or on a time schedule. I don’t always have to have a to-do list. I don’t always need to do X amount of things on one day because I did Y amount of things the day before. I don’t need to be home by a certain time so that I can blog and make my lunch for the next day. Because you know what? Life will still go on if I don’t do those things; I will survive, haha. Although it’s hard to imagine, it will all be ok if I let go of things for a day, few days or even a week. So, that’s my goal for this year. To loosen up and work my way down the 1-10 Type A scale and get a little more balance in my life.

I want to hear your thoughts! Where do you find yourself on the “spectrum”? Do you relate to any of those Type A qualities that I listed above? What’s something you want to work on this year?