The To Do List for 2014

I love making lists. I make lists for my day, for my week, for shopping, everything. Something thing I like even more that making the list? Crossing things off the list. I'm that person who will add things to the list that I've already done, just so I can cross them off.

 

That's a little part of the reason I love making New Year's resolutions. I love having my list for the whole year, of things I want to do, things I want to try.  And it's so satisfying to cross things off the list at the end of the year.

 

I know that making New Years resolutions gets a bad rap. People see it as a focusing on bad habits, or setting yourself up for failure. I don't care, I do it anyways.

 

I don't even call this list "Resolutions".  I call it "My Yearly To Do List."

 

And just like every other list, the fun is in making it, but the best part is crossing things off and looking back on how much I accomplished.

 

2013 was a difficult year and it was easy to get caught up in the daily feeling of how difficult everything felt.

 

But looking back over my 2013 To Do list, I feel less like the year was very hard and more like the year was very productive. 

 

I had simple goals for the year.

 

Run a 5K

Pass my written boards

Take my boys to the ocean

Finish our basement

 

I did all those things except the basement. But whatever. The basement is still there and can be worked on this year.  Looking over this list is amazing to me. All those things seems insurmountable when the year started. I had never run at all, let alone a 5K. Now, I've logged over 70 miles of running. Boards seemed daunting, but I not only passed, but did very well. We didn't just take our boys to the ocean, we made amazing memories.

 

There is no where to go but up.

 

Now, it's time to get back to the good stuff and make a list.

 

2014 To Do:

 

1. Continue to run: my goal is at least three 5Ks and a 10K. I've invested in this and bought a treadmill so that even the frigid winter or the sweltering summer I know is coming won't give me excuses not to run. I don't have to set any PRs, even though I would love to.

 

2. Pass my oral boards in April. I'm dreading this test much more than the writtens, but I've got a great study partner. If I pass this, I'll be a fully board certified anesthesiologist, so this is kind of necessary.

 

3. Finish that basement. My parents are talking about visiting this summer and having them sleep on an air mattress in the nursery just doesn't sound pleasant. And Bug could also use his own room.

4. Start decreasing my screen time. This is a big one. I know that I've fallen into the trap of being on my phone or on the computer when I don't need to be and it's taking away from time I could be spending with my children. My goal is that when I get home from work, my phone is going to stay plugged in and unused until the boys go to bed. It's going to be a change. But it's needed.

5. Start a bullet journal. Because speaking of lists, this is like the mother of all lists and how to organize them. You can read all about it here. I'm hoping this helps me have fewer scraps of paper in my purse and coat pockets and be more organized in general.

There are lots of other things I want to do: drink more smoothies, hold a plank for 5 minutes, do push-ups daily, worry less about the mess in my house and more about fun with my kids, explore some more of the towns around where we live, plant herbs, get family pictures taken. And hopefully I will do all those things.

But I'm going to focus on my 5 main goals. And hopefully, when next January rolls around, I'll get to enjoy the wonderful feeling of checking them off.