New Week's Resolution - Week 25 (Apr 14 - Apr 20)

nossmf

Welcome to the first week of the rest of your life! Now seems like a perfect time to select a New Week's Resolution.

What is a New Week's Resolution? It's exactly the same as a New Year's Resolution, with two important distinctions: it only lasts for one week, and you can start one any time you want, rather than just once per year.

So what's wrong with New Year's Resolutions? According to some quick Google research, just one thing: they DON'T WORK!

• 23% of people quit within the first week
• 43% quit by the end of January
• 80% quit by mid-February
• 92% fail to make it a full year

Why such high rates of failure? Probably because most resolutions fail to follow these simple steps from the SMART method:

• Specific - "exercise more" is vague; "hit the gym twice this week" is specific
• Measurable - did I go twice? Yes or no?
• Achievable - "drink a gallon of water per day" may not be realistic; drink 8oz is
• Relevant - if it doesn't matter to YOU, why bother?
• Time-bound - keep your goal for this week something quick you can reach THIS week

With these thoughts in mind, what is ONE thing you want to do this week? Some examples may include:

• Hit the gym two times this week
• Cook a meal from scratch three times this week
• Go to bed no later than 10pm every night
• Limit myself to one alcoholic beverage this week
• Finish two pages of my family photo album

...and so on. While this is very similar in nature to the famous "Just Give Me 10 Days" series, that challenge focuses primarily on weight loss and diet control, whereas this challenge is of a broader nature, including interpersonal relationships, home improvements, health and fitness and more. Just pick something specific you wish to focus upon, set a number goal you can reach (or not), and make status updates to document your progress. This will be a judgment-free zone: if you do not reach your goal, take the time to figure out why not (too big a goal, life happened, etc), and forgive yourself, because you can always try again next week.

nossmf

Getting setup for this week. My plan is to continue what I started in previous weeks, and add one more focus item every week as I go. Eventually older items will drop off the list, not because I no longer want to do them, but because they will have become so ingrained a part of my daily routine that I no longer need to record them to make sure they get done.

Past focus items successfully transitioned to un-monitored habit:

Floss every night before bed
Clean litter box every night before bed
Kiss wife within one (1) minute of arriving home from work, gym, store, church, etc
Wearing my glasses every day, all day
Park in furthest spot available
Read 10 minutes daily
Wash dinner dishes the same night they're used
Get at least six hours of sleep every night
Check parakeet water daily
Record receipts same day spent
Wash hands before preparing ALL meals
Spray down counter/oven after every meal
Fold laundry same day it gets washed
Shave daily

Tasks completed thanks to this weekly challenge:

Complete digital cookbook
Clean outdoor grill

Ongoing focus items:

n/a

New focus item:

This week I'm going to start including some flexibility training into my fitness routine. It's one of the four pillars of fitness (nutrition, strength training, cardio, flexibility) and the only one I've been neglecting. Once upon a time I used to be able to do the splits, reach well past my toes, and more. I expect to encounter some pretty stiff resistance (see what I did there?) to reintroducing stretching, but it's a fabulous method of injury prevention, and let's face it, at my age that's something I need to embrace. So ten minutes every day spent stretching, that's the goal. (Theoretically I could split it up…minute here, minute there…rather than all at once, but that'll just make it harder to remember if I hit my goal or not.)

AdahPotatah2024

Ongoing focus items that are not quite habits:

- attempt at using all the groceries I have w/ zero waste..
- Cook only 3 good meals per week with enough leftovers for 2 days (Restaurant on Thursday/pizza Sunday)
- organizing books, clothes, and papers and donations after decluttering

*prioritizing hobbies that include quality time with friends and family, especially daughter( a little less time spent on solitary activities I enjoy atleast for the next few years)*

Organize closets this week..I saw a good idea to use the hall closet for a papers. I might move my blankets to the bedroom closets and towels to the bathroom and try this out!

ironfoxmetal

I love this as I set weekly goals for myself by way of to-do lists.

This week my goal is to spend 2 hours a day (in between work clients) doing acreage clean up. It may not be 2 hours at once but cumulative. I will set a timer to make sure I get the full 2 hours in.

I have a LOT of work to do to get ready for the gardening season and new chicks coming. I've decide to massively expand the garden this year and put up a small hoop green house, but to do that means brush cutting and taking down trees - then cleaning up all that mess. It's overwhelming TBH but if I do it in chunks it becomes more realistic.

mar_sbar

My big goal for the week is to get back into working out at least 3 days a week after recovering from being sick. I hope to get at least a 40 minute full body workout at the gym early in the morning. Wish me luck!

nossmf

Monday

Stretching…check!

nossmf

Tuesday

Stretching…check! (Knocked it out this morning after my treadmill workout.)

nossmf

Wednesday

Stretching…check!

AdahPotatah2024

Still working on a designated closet for papers (and for sale items)😬

nossmf

Thursday

Stretching…check!

nossmf

Friday

Stretching…check!

nossmf

Saturday

Stretching…check!

AdahPotatah2024

✔️ for week:)

nossmf

Sunday

Stretching…nope