Investing in 2014

Last year I choose a theme word instead of a specific goal as my New Year’s resolution.  This was, of course, in addition to working on the 101 tasks I’ll be completing before the end of this September.  As I wrapped up my year of being intentional, I began thinking about what word I should choose to shape 2014.  Let me share a bit about where my mind’s been the past few months.

For some reason, discussions about self-care have been popping up everywhere lately.  It came up at the Healthy Living Summit.  My grad school professor mentioned it several times this past semester.  It’s in people’s blog posts.  And it has been crossing my mind that I don’t always do what’s best for my body and soul; I like to overcommit and I pride myself on being busy.  Self-care is not something I’m intentional about.  I knew it had to be part of my 2014 goal.

I am also very conscious of the fact that I’ll be turning 30 this year.  I’m not unhappy about it or scared or upset or annoyed or anything, just sort of fascinated.  Me? 30?  Really?  I often feel closer to 17 than 30.  Maybe no one ever feels grown up, despite appearances?  At any rate, I’d like to meet my own definition of 30 a little more closely.  And with 30 being kind of a big deal, I’ve also been thinking about what I want to be at 40 and 50 and 60 and so on.  As the famous quote goes, “Tomorrow you’ll wish you started today”.  This year I want to develop worthwhile habits and skills with long reaching benefits on a number of fronts.

Last year’s goal was all about being intentional – doing things on purpose.  But I feel like so much of that goal was wrapped up in doing as much as possible, in as little time as I could manage.  I  wanted to make lists and check things off.   I was all about spending every moment of my time being productive.  But after a year of that, I’m realizing that it’s important to focus on achieving quality and not just quantity.

So this year, instead of getting things done for the sake of doing them, I’m going to invest.  Some of the things on the following list are very similar to the items I was intentional about last year, but now I want more depth than breadth.  I want to grow, develop and strengthen the things that really matter.

I want to invest in:

• my relationship with God, as a relationship, not as a daily task
• my relationship with Brian, through meals together, dates and better communication
• our house, by thoughtfully making improvements and purchasing furniture
• friendships, through letters, emails, texts and in-person visits 
• long-term skills, such as sewing, organizing, writing, and of course cooking
• finances, by continuing to monitor all our spending, getting serious about paying off student loans, putting more into my retirement and making some decisions about future goals
• myself , because sometimes the best thing you can do for you is put your feet up and rest, paint your nails or go for a walk
• this blog, with more quality posts and original content
• my body, by getting back on the long-neglected fitness train
• causes that matter, such as local organizations and church, where I often talk about being involved but don’t do much in actuality
• my students as people, because there are more important things than checking off all the Department of Education standards, but I sometimes forget that 
• my nephews, Brian and I now have nephews on each side of our family so there’s a lot of spoiling to get started on
• the present moment, whatever it is, because life is short and I don’t want to miss it while staring at my to do list