Creating Simple Living Goals

Summer — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:49:06 +0000

If I had a basic family goal, it would simply be to live greener. But what exactly does that mean? Breaking it down into chunks I want to live more naturally, to live simpler, to live more sustainable. Can I break those goals down even more? Sure. I want to garden, to have more homemade than store bought, to want less, to smile more, to be happier with what I have.

I could keep going, breaking it down smaller and smaller, crafting out a real agenda for what I want from this life. But I haven’t. Because for some reason, in my head just saying “greener” was good enough. It isn’t.

If you want to get something out of life you have to know what it is that you want, you have to set goals. Small goals and big goals, goals for today, goals for next year, goals for fifty years from now. I need to focus on my goals.

I want to start having weekly family meetings. We talk a lot during the week, but I think it would be useful to have a specific day set aside for real conversation and connection. To map out where we are going in the coming week and where we have been.

I want to bring back bed time. Most nights I’m so tired, and the baby is crying, and the kids are in different stages of readiness, and Michael needs to go to bed early, and I have work to do in the quiet, and bed time was thrown out the window. I want to bring it back. A real bed time, with stories and talking and connecting.

I want to further reduce our stuff. Two moves in two years meant we already parred down so much. But every day as I walk past boxes still unpacked I know we can do more. After all, we have been surviving just fine with this stuff in boxes. We can survive just fine with it gone completely. I want to go through at least 2 boxes each day and clear them out of my house.

I want to craft more. I have so many supplies just sitting there, waiting to be used. I want to make something, I need to make something. I will take time each day to work on a craft project.

I am going to make an effort to revisit my short-term wants every month. Typing them out, seeing them on the screen and knowing that the world can see them helps me to stay focused.

Making Green Plans

Summer — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:36:27 +0000

photo credit: purpleslog

Making a general goal of “going green” is about as likely to stick as a snowball in July. If you want to complete a goal you have to be specific, you need a set goal that you are striving for in mind. You need a to-do list.

My overall goal is to be be greener, and in doing so to be healthier and happier. Being greener however, means something a little different to everyone and has about a dozen parts to it. So to know exactly what I want I am going to break it down into specific goals.

Grow a garden to help feed my family
Eat more whole foods, learn to cook more from scratch meals
Reduce my trash by reusing as much as possible and buying less disposable items
Become better at sewing and knitting to make things the family needs

It’s only four simple things so far, but starting small means I am more likely to do the things on the list. If I make a huge list of things to do I’ll never get to any of them. So this is where I will begin.

New Greener Family » setting goals

Creating Simple Living Goals

Making Green Plans