Thursday, January 8, 2015

Monthly Personal Challenge Link-up: December Results

Not Entirely Perfect

I'm usually much more organized when it comes to writing up my monthly personal challenge results, but this time I completely forgot about it until I got home from work today.  This would normally be okay since I actually get home pretty early ... Today, however, Eric and I had dinner plans with one of my friends who was in town for work (and who we hadn't seen in over a year!).  So instead of working on a blog post, I decided to spend some time getting ready and then enjoyed my evening out.

After a great evening of laughing, crazy stories, and awesome Indian food, I've finally found the motivation to sit down and discuss the results of my December simplify challenge.

To be honest, it was pretty difficult to come up with a goal for December's challenge.  December is such a crazy month for most people (myself included), and sometimes you really just can't remove a bunch of shit from your calendar.  I felt like my goal for December was kind of lame, but it was really the only thing I could come up with.

In case you've forgotten (or you're new to this blog), my December "making things easier on myself" goal was to simply not send out any Christmas cards.  I just wasn't into it this year, and I really didn't have the time or energy to write the kind of heartfelt messages I like to include in my cards.

I'm pretty sure I don't have to tell you that this was one goal I had no trouble achieving.  And while I did feel a little sad that I didn't bother to send any cards out when we started receiving some from friends and family, I was mostly just relieved.  We spent a lot of time in 2013 writing cards and addressing envelopes (you know, the shit that comes with getting married like sending invitations and thank you cards), so it was really nice to not deal with any of that in 2014.

I was going to try to come up with my January personal challenge goals this evening, but it's getting late, I'm tired, and I have to be at work at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow.  So I'll have to come back to this tomorrow (and, just a warning, it will probably be another late post since I have a yoga class in the evening).  I will say, though, that I'm excited to come up with some ideas because the theme is "complete."  I often struggle with completing projects in my personal life (never in my professional life, though, thankfully!), so I think it will be fun to challenge myself.  I also think I'll actually feel a real sense of accomplishment if I can stick with these goals, so hopefully January is a successful month for me!

9 comments:

  1. I don't think that's a lame goal at all. One of mine was realize whatever you're doing is enough. Initially I thought it was lame, but by doing that I didn't make myself go crazy sending cards to people I missed or getting last minute gifts or baking cookies when I was under the weather. And I really did enjoy the season more!

    Thanks for linking up!

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  2. I'm sometimes the same way with completing projects. My career life strives. Good luck this month. I'm happy you have been linking up with us! Can't wait to read your results.

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  3. […] though, I’m ready to talk about my goals for January.  As I mentioned on Thursday, the theme this month is “complete.”  As I also mentioned, I sometimes find it […]

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  4. Thanks! I agree that sometimes it's difficult to take a step back and realize that whatever you're doing is enough (especially around the holidays), so that was a great goal to have. In the end, it really should be about spending time with people you care about and just enjoying yourself. I think as we get older, it gets harder and harder to remember that because there's more pressure to find the perfect gift or bring treats to a family event or throw the "perfect" holiday party. Hopefully next year I can look back on this and remember to focus on doing what I can without stressing out over the little details. I'm pretty sure it will make everything much better!

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  5. Thanks! I've really enjoyed participating in this link-up! I love setting goals for myself, and I think putting them on this blog helps motivate me to actually achieve them. It's a lot harder to say, "I don't feel like doing this anymore," when you know you have to share your results at the end of the month!

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  6. I didn't do cards this year either and it was great. It really is time consuming, so I feel like if it'll just stress you out, why bother? I did do e-cards that got e-mailed to each person, people seemed to like those!

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  7. I do like that idea since it's both a time and money saver. It's definitely something I'll consider next year when I'm trying to figure out how to make the holidays less crazy!

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  8. I wish I'd made a conscious decision not to send cards... I ended up spending a zillion dollars on gorgeous cards from Etsy sellers and they are sitting in a pile still. Maybe I'll pretend it was intentional. :)

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  9. Etsy is evil that way. I've been actively avoiding it for a while because it's such a dangerous place ... There are just way too many awesome things (and almost none of them are cheap)!

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