How I Did With Doing Things In January

Since my goal for the year is to actually do things, instead of just talking about things I want to do and making plans that never happen, I thought I’d try to do a monthly post with how I did the month before.  Since February is more than halfway over it seems past time for a post on how January went.  I didn’t have a picture that really went with this post, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to share this one of Howard.  I think he looks adorable. 

I don’t think it was a stellar month, but since it’s my least favorite month and it was crazy cold for a large part of it, I don’t think it’s too bad.  That’s what I’m telling myself anyway.

On the blogging front, I did ten posts in January.  Considering the fact that I  only did twenty-five posts total last year, I think ten in a month was a definite improvement. 

For going and seeing new things, we finally went to see the Poinsett Bridge.  It was something we had been talking about doing for years, so it was nice to finally go out there.  That’s the only new place we went in January, but a lot of the places we want to see are outdoors, and it was just too cold to do much outside. 

On the getting rid of clutter in the house front, we did a Pantry Challenge.  We did really well in sticking to it, so we did manage to thin things down, at least in the kitchen, a little bit.  There’s a long way to go, but it’s a start.  I think that also counts toward the goal of saving money/getting out of debt, since it meant we spent significantly less than usual on groceries.

And that’s pretty much it.  I didn’t really do anything toward any of the other goals I want to accomplish.  I’m really not sure whether to call January a success, a failure, or maybe just a neutral.  I guess it depends on how you choose to look at it. 

So how about you?  Did you set any new goals for the year, or choose a word for the year?  How did you do with that in January? 

Word Of The Year

I’ve never chosen a word for the year before.  Honestly, the practice has always seemed a little hokey to me.  Or at least unnecessary.  I’m not a New Year’s Resolutions kind of person.  Maybe it’s because I dislike January so much.

Then I read this post about choosing a word for the year, and for some reason it just resonated with me.  Choosing a word for the year suddenly seemed less hokey, and more like having a plan.  I’m a planner, so looking at it as a plan for the year suddenly made choosing a word much more appealing to me.

So how do you choose a word for the year?  There are well over 100,000 words in the English language, which makes for a lot of choices.  How do you pick one? 

I decided to go with thinking about what I want to do this year.  What do I hope to accomplish?  What would I like to change?  What needs improvement? 

The answers to those questions are essentially the same thing they were last year, the year before that, and so on.  I want to blog more.  I want to finally write a cookbook.  I want and need to become more physically active.  I want and need to get the house more organized, and get rid of clutter.  I want us to be out of debt.  There are what feel like about a million little things somewhat near us that I want us to go see and do.  I want to travel more.  There are things we both want to do with the house and yard, and things we really need to do with the house.  There are things I want to do for other people that I haven’t gotten around to yet. 

So what one word ties all of those things in together?  Write doesn’t cover everything.  Exercise doesn’t cover everything.  Travel doesn’t cover everything.  Improve would work, I think, but somehow it doesn’t feel quite right to me.

I finally settled on “do”.  It seems to cover everything.  All of the things I want to do are just that - things I want to DO. 



I realized that I spend a lot of time talking and thinking about things I want to do, but very little time actually doing them.  That needs to change. 

I realize that suddenly saying I’m going to accomplish all of these things all at once is almost a surefire way to not actually do anything.  At least for me.  I’m not going to suddenly plan a huge trip, write a cookbook, schedule dozens of blog posts, and organize every closet and cabinet in our house.  That’s just not practical, and it’s not really how I operate.

My plan is to DO something concrete toward at least one of the things I want to do at least monthly.  I’m sure it will be different things during different times of the year, and my progress will likely be much faster on some fronts than on others.  That’s okay, though.  As long as I’m doing something I think I’m better off than I was before.  It’s moving in the right direction, and making progress, however slow it may be.  I think that’s really all we can do.  Keep moving in the direction we need or want to go.  Just do something. 

To that end, I’m finally sharing some pictures I took when we visited the Angel Oak in October.  I’ve been meaning to post them since then, but just haven’t gotten around to it.  So I’m doing it now.  I realize they aren’t technically great pictures, but I just really liked how the light and the sky looked coming through the branches.  I hope you’ll enjoy them too.

So what about you?  Do you choose a word for the year?  If you do, what is your word for 2018?