More & Less: 2017 vs. 2018.

I love New Year’s goals, but I always approach them differently. Sometimes I spend weeks thinking about them, sometimes I come up with a list on January 1st. Sometimes I’m extremely detailed, sometimes I just have a general idea of what I want. 

This year, I wasn’t feeling like setting specific goals. Instead, I wanted to look back at the last year. I wanted to try my best to pinpoint when I felt my happiest and when I didn’t feel much happiness. The things I did that made me feel my best, I want more of those. The things that caused me to feel less than great, I want less of those. 

So that’s my take on 2018. More & Less. 

M O R E

Yoga. Looking at 2017, every time I got into the habit of doing yoga, I felt better. Physically and mentally. So this one is a no-brainer. 

Passion. I touched on this here. I don’t want to just make it through my days. I want to feel passionate about things. 

Travel. I got to travel a lot last year, and it was amazing. Here’s my take on that: For me (because I am responsible for another human), it takes a little bit of time to plan. But that’s time I could have easily spent doing something like watching TV. It takes a little bit of money. But the money I spent on gas or plane tickets, I could have easily spent on eating out or buying new clothes I didn’t need. Traveling always made me happier, always left me feeling refreshed. Those are things I want more of in 2018. 

Writing. Outside of blog posts, I didn’t write too much in 2017. But the times I did (like here), it made me feel alive and passionate and excited. I need more of that this year. 

Reading. 2017 was a pretty slow reading year for me (Jack learned to walk this year, so my free time went down by about 24829%), but I read a lot the last week of December. It makes me happy, plain and simple. I want 2018 to be a happy year, so more books, please. 

Time outside. Beach days, boat days, pool days. These made me happy last year. I was made to be by the water, I think. Another thing I did last year was take Jack for a walk (that I slowly tried to turn into a run) every morning. The days I got moving and got fresh air always seemed to go better than the days that I didn’t. So more of that. 

L E S S

Assuming people’s motives. I. Am. So. Bad. About. This. SO BAD. If someone doesn’t respond to my text, I immediately assume they’re mad at me. If someone says they’re having a bad day, I immediately assume I did something that made them have a bad day. That’s ridiculous, I know it’s ridiculous, you know it’s ridiculous. Yet I did a lot of that last year. This year, I want to assume the best, or at the very least, assume that if something is wrong, someone will tell me, I don’t have to make it up in my head.

Planning ahead. This is a weird thing to set a goal of doing less of, I know. But the phase of life I’m in, it’s nearly impossible to plan ahead. And the times I did try to plan ahead last year often left me feeling stressed or disappointed, and I want less of that. So I want to embrace this season of spontaneity and not worry so much about plans. 

Doing things I don’t want to do simply because I feel like I have to. Plain and simple. Life is too short for this.

Guilt. At the beginning of the fall, I had one of the best weekends of my life visiting my best friend and going to see our favorite band live. It was absolutely amazing. The following week, someone who reads my blog sent me a long and detailed email about how I would look back and deeply regret that weekend (and any other travels I did over the next 16 years) because I chose to spend it away from Jack. I knew that weekend left me feeling happy and refreshed. I knew I needed it. I knew that 95% of the time, I spend 24 hours a day with Jack. But I still let that email from a perfect stranger make me feel so guilty. And it’s impossible to feel guilt and joy at the same time. This year, I choose joy. 

Negativity. I am an extremely positive person by nature, but 2017 tested that. Looking back, the times I gave in and was just negative in my thoughts and words, it didn’t help anything. In fact, it made me feel worse. I want less of that for sure. 

This isn’t a comprehensive list by any means. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s just the beginning for me and my year. But I really like the idea of approaching a year by knowing what I want more of and what I want less of. It helps me see what I should say no to and what deserves a yes. It helps me know what I should spend my time on. 

What do you want more and less of this year?