The new year is like a new birth for me: full of opportunities and potential for limitless self and life design. I am really feeling birth analogies these days, btw. Life is a constant cycle of birth, life, death, rebirth. Exciting.
Usually, when I am designing my "new year's resolutions", I divide "me" up into my roles (parent, student, employee, family member, friend, etc.), and I decide what about each of those parts could use some revamping. Sometimes, I will search through old "new year resolutions" to pick apart the different areas or ways of dividing and defining myself, to get the most out of my new opportunity for growth.
This year, I am going a bit more organic, seamless, grassroots. I'm just looking at my life and seeing what needs some change or growth. This year, my areas of life are: me, family & home, tribe & community, and earth. And here are some of the ways I want to live in each of those areas in this new year :)
Me: me time weekly, crafty and creative even more, read books, commitment to honesty (frankness) to myself and others particularly when it is uncomfortable, slow and gradual living and changing, try interests I've been holding onto and not doing, spiritual growth, Operation Beautiful (more on that later), and staying consistant with my blogs.
Family & Home: harmony, spiritual growth, strewing/learning opportunities, finances, clean home and van, order to the current chaos (like a loose schedule -- more on that later, too), involve kids more in decisions, and organize, simplify, and beautify our home and ourselves.
Tribe & Community: attend the local Unitarian Universalist church, join Spiral Scouts (or some equivalent of a group to meet with every week for a shared purpose), more involvement with our radical unschooling group, and connect more with loved ones.
Earth: baby steps toward sustainable living, and activism through sharing info on my blogs.
After I decide on some goals, I think of methods to attain each goal. This year, I went quite wild with the details. I won't share everything, but I will share some examples of the details, because I am particularly excited about how I found ways to make things work and thought of them myself :))
First of all, I took some vague bits, like "organize, simplify, and beautify home & self" and picked each bit apart, by making a 3 x 2 matrix. So, ideas for organizing home, organizing self, simplifying home, simplifying self, beautifying home, and beautifying self.
Also, I made bucket lists for some things, like the interests I want to finally try, strewing opportunities, things I can do to intentionally feel more beautiful, ways to live more sustainably, ways to simplify and organize my finances, etc.
The one I am most excited about (and ties it all together) is finding "order in the current chaos (a loose schedule)". I am always trying to find a way of organizing some structure in a way that it works and will last, and I have yet to find a way, until (possibly) today. I have tried a checklist (like a chore chart). I have tried a monthly, weekly, and daily schedule (grid style). I have tried using a dry-erase board. I have tried using an app or 2 on my iPhone. Today, I made 3 sections: monthly, weekly, and daily, and I listed things that I would like for us to do as often in each category. THEN, I looked back on my list of "me, family & home, tribe & community, and earth" and fit each important thing into those "monthly, weekly, and daily" lists of things to do. So, for example...
- Once a month my family is going to have a pow-wow to discuss decisions for the family and home (like the next month's budget, changes in interactions between family members, ideas for a big strewing opportunity we will do each month, etc.), I want to do a big project for the home (organize the garage, scan and discard photographs, etc.), take a step toward living more sustainably, shampoo the carpets, go to the library, send pictures to internet-less family, etc.
- Once a week, I want to go for a family walk or bike ride, go to the YMCA for some me-time/exercise while babies play in the childcare there, post a blog post, do a big messy art project, clean the house and van, etc.
- And every day I want to have cuddle time with each of my children, do something intentional to feel beautiful, meditate, eat something uber-nourishing (somedays it is rocky road ice-cream, and some days it is a green machine Naked juice -- hope you get the point of "nourishment"), mop my tile floors, nurse my children in a state of complete presence, and spend 15 minutes (at least) learning or trying something new ("15 minutes of strewing", I'm calling it), etc.
After I filled and organized the "monthly, weekly, and daily" lists to my heart's content, I made a list of ways I could make those lists physical in my life. What I want ends up being a delicate balance between structure & thoroughness and flexibility & simplicity. Currently, I have decided to print out the lists and just check in on them throughout the day to see what I might feel ready to do next. The lists are full of things that will make me feel nourished and accomplished, but if some things don't get done, whatever. Mostly, I want to live a slow-paced, rich and interesting, love- and joy-filled life with my children, and if we are accomplishing that without accomplishing everything on my lists, that's fine, too :))
I wanted to share some of my ways of organizing my plans for the new year and my fresh new structure, in case any of it appeals to you for your own life. I am also very interested in hearing what ways you synthesize and create structure in your life and schedule. Please feel free to share in the comments section below.
***note: my "u" button is not working very well, so if I missed a "u", hopefully it wasn't too confusing to see what word I was trying to type! :)
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