Making Time for the Most Important People in My Life: My March Goals

As I said in my last post, the focus for this month's personal challenge is "relationships."

I share a lot on this blog about my relationship with my husband, some of my previous romantic relationships, and, in a couple of cases, how some of my friendships have changed (or faded away) over the years.  I'm not sure if they're the kind of posts that people like to read, but I really enjoy writing them.  I like sharing these kinds of stories and thoughts, and I always feel so great after I spend some time writing and reflecting on my feelings.  These are also my favorite kinds of posts to read on other blogs, regardless of whether I can relate to what they're saying.  Sometimes I just like to see how different or similar someone else's life experiences are to my own.  (Or maybe I'm just nosy and want to read all about other people's personal lives.)

The point is, I think and care a lot about my relationships with other people.  The problem is that as I get older, it seems to get more difficult to maintain a lot of these relationships.  We all have our own obligations: work, family, pets, hobbies ... The list goes on and on.  And since a lot of my friends and family live far away, properly keeping in touch with everyone on a regular basis becomes even more difficult.

With that in mind, I've come up with a few simple goals for March to help strengthen my relationships with the most important people in my life.

Image provided by Unsplash (unsplash.com) and edited by me.

My March 2015 Goals:

1.  Call/text friends more often.  I don't love talking on the phone, but I'll definitely at least call my friend Jennifer on her birthday this month.  I'll also try to reach out to some of my other friends (probably via text) during the month to check in and catch up.

2.  Have at least one friend "date."  I already have another Skype date lined up for later this month with the same friends I spent 6 hours Skyping with on Valentine's Day (which, in my eyes, definitely counts), but I'll probably also try to either set up a one-on-one dinner with a friend or plan a group thing with some of my friends after work one day.

3.  Have a date night with Eric.  We haven't had a date night since the end of January, and I already have a restaurant in mind to try!

4.  Call my mom at least once during the month.  She and I text quite a bit, but we don't always talk on the phone (mostly because it inevitably turns into a several hour long conversation, and we don't always have time for that).  I haven't called her in a while, though, so it's probably time for one of those really long phone conversations.

5.  Continue going to yoga classes 2-3 times each week.  This is something I've been doing anyway, but it's definitely important to work on my relationship with myself (and my health!) as well as my relationships with the other people in my life.

I haven't been doing a great job sticking with my monthly goals lately, but I think I'll be able to accomplish all of these.  I'm looking forward to spending more time with the people I care most about (even if it's only via phone, text, or Skype!).