Essential 2019

I know the craze and fad of listing our word or theme or resolutions of 2019 has already come and gone. I know many of you have already given up as most of these ideas fail according to all the things we read. I do believe that with proper planning, dedication, and a committment to action that revisiting our lives each year to examine how far we have grown and where we want to go next is really important. Often times the reason why our goals fail is because we are layering another thing to do on top of a life already too crammed with things we cannot currently achieve.

This is why it has taken so long to solidify my plan for 2019. I have decided to not add more to my plate, but to focus on less and focus on what is important. I have chosen this type of mindset before and I do feel that in the last part of 2018 I have done a remarkable job being more insightful with decisions and saying no to many things.

My word for 2019 is ESSENTIAL. I am using this not just as a word, but a theme for all aspects of my life to examine my decisions. I know the word is quite massive and can cover many things so I have decided to break my thinking, planning, and operations around four words that will be my categories of focus to help me stay accountable.

For my health I am getting back to the basics of really taking care of myself once again. I have not done a good job at this at all. When I say health I do mean more than the big old number staring at me on the scale. I am focused on losing weight through healthy habits, but I am focused on my physical heatlh, mental health, and emotional health.

I particular,

• I do want to get back to a reasonable weight that does not make me cringe when I see pictures of myself.
• I do want to get back to high intensity excercise that I used to crave and love so much.
• I do want to add mindfulness to my day.
• I do want to focus on how to improve my sleep as my lack of quality sleep is taking a toll
• I do want to focus on creating spaces in my day to help me keep centered on what is important in my life.

For my wealth I am not planning on becoming a millionaire, but really looking at an aspect of our lives that not many people want to talk about – money. Unfortunately, this topic not only creates tensions among people, but can also be a huge factor in relationships. While my wife and I have not had this issue, I am working diligently to develop ways to understand our financial situations better to be better prepared for the future and for our kids. Part of this is to eliminate the unknown which leads to stress. I will be focused on creating a plan to reduce debt, save properly, and live a life that does not have us counting pennies and stressing about financial situations and bills.

For work, I want to continue to build up the strength and confidence to say no to work that I am not devoted and or passionate about. Part of any job is doing work that must be done so it is not like I am striving for a utopian mindset. Instead, I want to focus more on the work that I was hired to do and not just being a cog in the system. If I want to make the impact I want to bring to my job, then this means not saying yes to everything. A hard part of my job is keeping this balance. I want to continue to be a voice for educators. I want to spend more time with educators in their classrooms working to help them see themselves and students in new light.

Even more important is being focused on work hours. I need to stop getting up at 4 am and working until 6:30 before I head to work all day and then finish up in the evening with more work. I am really striving to work during work hours and letting the rest of it go until the next day. Very hard to do when work and home blend together but it must happen.

This is perhaps the most important of them all. I do believe they are all interrelated in some capacity. I have already begun the journey in this category, but am working to become even better in 2019.

This section I want to focus on

• decluttering and removing all things from my house that don’t prove essential to help us keep in perspective what is important(this will help with the wealth category)
• remodel and update spaces to promote the decluttering process
• create a home that creates ease when you walk through the door
• be home more with my wife and kids
• make our home the foundation for which all things develop

In the weeks to come I will be sharing updates on these new habits of focus. I cannot wait to share my new notebook for 2019, bring on new guests to the podcast, create some upcoming challenges like the Declutter Learning Challenge back in December, and more. I have plans to reshape my newsletter, my writing, and more. I think by having a clear vision in which to make decisions it has already started to impact what I do and how I do it for the better.

How are you coming along with your plans? I would love to hear about your strategies and systems to keeping yourself accountable. Leave me a comment so we can all learn! Until next time, remember what is important in life!