Goals for 2016

Connie Goff

A new year is coming and with each year comes an opportunity to set and achieve goals. It’s a new beginning. It’s time to take stock in our lives and decide how to make some changes for the better.

When setting goals, it’s important to make a plan. Think about the steps you need to help achieve your goals? Some goals will take longer, some require more steps.

A number of areas come to mind when considering my goals in 2016.

First off, I want to attempt to become closer to God. I need to plan each day to have a serious conversation with God so I can better understand the plan He has for my life. (Because sometimes I juist don’t get it.) This is going to require some much needed quiet time to ponder and think. (Sometimes just quiet thinking is nearly impossible in our busy house.)

I know I need to cultivate more patience and understanding with my family members. It’s hard at times, though, because it’s a two-sided situation and those other members of the family may not see things the same as I do. (Honestly, it looks like some of them could be a little less frustrating. Oops, I digress.) This goal will require a bit more planning — possibly a little more “sweet talking.” We can’t always anticipate the reaction others will have while we are attempting to make changes — and it’s often difficult to cultivate certain attributes in me without cooperation. I suppose every family is the same. My family definitely knows when I’m trying to bribe them. It generally doesn’t work.

In my list of goals, I will include organization — like every year. With so many people running in and out of the house, dropping their stuff everywhere, things can get out of hand. I have attempted to become more organized in many ways, none of which appear to have worked by the looks of things.

Through the years when we had small children in the house, and later teenagers, I attempted to use “job charts,” you know, those that hang on the kitchen wall with household chores all organized and little spaces where the “job doer” could attach a sticker of their choice as they complete a particular chore.

I remember when my mother had a such chart for personal hygeine habits. Take a bath, sticker. Brush your teeth, sticker. Comb your hair, sticker. It was great. I guess I was more motivated when I saw my stickers than my children. By the end of a week or two, the chart on my kitchen wall had gathered more dust than the top of the TV.

In later years, when Roger and I were empty nesters, I occasionally mentioned the possibility of our having certain “jobs” around the house. You know, Roger takes out the trash one week and I do it the next. But I eventually stopped because I just didn’t care for the laughter coming from the chair on the other side of the room.

Each year as I evaluate my life and come up with my “to do” list, an area I attempt to address is that of physical health. Eating right. Getting enough rest. Exercising.

I’ve tried different mind sets to help me in this area. There’s the “I have to do this or I’ll die!” tactic. I’ve tried the “oh, I’m going to feel so much better” way of thinking.

I’ve tried the “I want to feel better about myself” thing. I’ve also tried the “this is going to be so much fun” thing. Whatever, I’m mostly disappointed with my results.

This year I have perused the Internet for what other people are doing to get in better shape?

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m probably not going to feel like I did in the 60’s because, alas and alack, I am now in the 60’s! What the …?

(I’d like to insert my latest complaint here. I was not, at any time, given an instruction book for life. Nobody ever told me how to be a wife, mother, or person.)

So, I’ve decided to make a change in my Internet search for fitness programs. And what to my amazement, I came across the nearly perfect plan for an over-weight/over-60-year-old.

Here are the suggested steps I found, all sound reasonable, and simple enough. The only thing I might add is music — whatever music “moves you.”

Here’s what you do:

• Stand on a comfortable surface.

• With a 5-pound potato sack in each hand, extend your arms horizontally and hold for one minute. Then relax. Repeat as many times as you can without becoming exhausted. Each day you’ll find that you can hold this position a little longer.

• After two weeks, move up to 10-pound potato sacks.

• After a month, try 50-pound sacks.

• Eventually, you will be able to lift 100-pound sacks in each hand, holding your arms straight out to your sides for one minute.

• After you feel confident at this level, put a potato in each sack.

By golly! I think I’ve found just the right program to fit my busy schedule.

I hope all of you have established your goals for 2016 and know the steps you will be taking to enable you to achieve them.

Onward and upward, I always say!