Goals.

I believe in bettering oneself.

When I am going through difficult times, or when I am not satisfied with how I feel about my life, I often find myself pondering on the things that I am doing, and what I could do better. I then like to formulate a plan to improve those things that I am dissatisfied with.

I am a goal setter.

Recently, after finding ourselves in a bit of a funk, DJ and I decided that we needed to make some changes in our life. 

First, we set a goal to eat healthier, fresher foods. 

This goal was particularly difficult for me. 

As the wife who does the majority of the cooking, setting a goal to eat out less and cook at home more meant meal planning, grocery shopping, and turning on the stove.

Like I said, difficult.

I set about creating weekly meal and shopping plans, and after about a month of committing myself to my routine, I am proud to say that I am getting used to things. We are eating out only about once a week, usually on the weekends, saving SO much money and reducing waste by shopping every week and only for things that we need, and we are both feeling healthier and happier as we introduce whole, healthy foods into our bodies. 

Our next goal involved keeping a clean home where the Spirit would be welcomed and easily felt. 

Our cleaning routine historically has gone something like this:

Spend 10 hours every Saturday cleaning and scrubbing and doing the laundry and then trash the place throughout the week and do it all over again next Saturday.

It was exhausting and super disappointing to come home to a house that got messier and messier as the week went on. Not to mention the fact that I could rarely go out on Saturdays due to the giant mess that I had to clean. 

DJ and I decided that we would dedicate 10-15 minutes a day to pick up the house. In addition to picking up each day, I have also been trying to do one bigger chore (such as vacuum, dust, scrub the toilet, etc.) and a load of laundry each day to minimize the amount of work that I will have to do on the weekends.

I am still working on getting the bigger chores into a cyclical system, but I seriously cannot BELIEVE how much of a difference a clean home has made. It is SO refreshing to open the front door and see a spotless living room, and then continue on to see that the dishes are done, the bed is made, the laundry is off of the floor. The irritation that was caused by messiness is gone, and because we are dividing the workload and doing a little bit each day, DJ and I have more time to spend with one another and less time to stress over a messy home. We are pretty proud of ourselves for doing such a good job the past two weeks, and I think that because there has been such a drastic change in the atmosphere of our home that we are both very motivated to continue keeping our home peaceful and clean. 

Our next goal has been to exercise weekly. 

DJ has been doing an AWESOME job at this one, going to the gym 3-4 times a week and going on bike rides in the mornings on the days that he doesn't go. 

I, however, have been once in the past month.

I really hate working out and sweating, but I do know that it is supremely important that I exercise on a daily basis. Therefore, I have set a goal that beginning today, I will try my hardest to go to the gym 3 days this week. This morning, I woke up a little bit earlier than usual and packed a bag of gym clothes and DJ and I made a plan to meet at the gym after work. I am trying to be committed and preparing ahead of time always helps keep me from bailing at the last minute. So, we will see how today goes, and I really hope that I can get my lazy bum working out 3 times this week! 

Wish me luck.

Finally (for now - there will be more goal setting in the future, I'm sure of it!) DJ and I have been trying to be more committed to studying our scriptures and praying together every single day. We have always struggled to be consistent with this, and we have felt the blessings of doing so missing from our lives. We decided that we needed to make a greater effort to follow the Lord's counsel, and have started reading and praying each day. Some days we do a really awesome job and read a chapter and then write about our thoughts and feelings, and other days a half hour after going to sleep I have to wake DJ up because we forgot to pray and we hold hands and say the prayer in bed. We are definitely not perfect, but we are feeling a difference. The Spirit is more present than it was and we are able to easily recognize the Lord's hand in our day to day lives. It is such a blessing to be able to read and pray together, and I regret that we haven't been more diligent in the past. I look forward to continuing to grow closer together and to the Lord and seeing the blessings that will manifest in our lives through our dedication.

Goal setting is super important to me. It's a part of my personality, a part of who I am. Some people can better themselves naturally and effortlessly, but I have to look ahead and make a plan to get where I want to be. If I'm not setting goals for myself, I am not progressing. But I am thankful that that is the way I am, because through goal setting I can look back at where I was and see where I am now and easily see the changes I have made. I have big plans for myself, and one step at a time, I will get there.