2023 Thoughts

I still need to recap Christmas but that feels like a lot. So for today I am sharing some of my (rambling) thoughts on the new year. I love a new year! Fresh start, clean slate, the refreshed desire to organize, declutter and be more efficient. I have always been one to set a resolution and prefer an actual resolution as opposed to choosing a word for the year or something in that vein. But in the past, I’ve often made large sweeping resolutions that, like many people’s, get tossed to the wayside by mid February (or earlier). 

In 2021, my resolution was to read through the Bible in a year and I did! I loved the feeling of having actually accomplished something that I set my mind to 365 days prior. There were bumps and hiccups and days (more than a few) I had to play catch up but I made it. And I think part of the reason is because it was a very actionable goal. It wasn’t abstract or a focused on something too general. There was a specific goal, a specific number of pages to read and a plan for how to do it. I am sure I also set a goal last year but honestly can’t remember what it was, which tells me I probably didn’t stick to it. But hey, I birthed a human so I feel confident I grew exponentially in 2022 whether I stuck to my resolution or not. 

In thinking about this years goal though, I wanted to get back to something actionable. A friend of mine who is an author, shares a weekly newsletter that shows up in my inbox on Monday mornings. (I highly recommend you check her out- she’s a phenomenal writer!) A couple of weeks ago she shared her own thoughts on resolutions. She talked about focusing on something small that could still make change in your life. She shared her pervious year’s goal (get dressed every day- like more than yoga pants) and her plans for this year (switch to decaf after her morning coffee) and while they were things that many would consider small/ordinary/insignificant, I could really see how these small changes could impact your day to day as a whole. Allowing her to feel more prepared for the day and less jittery throughout. So I tired to think of something in this same wavelength. And I landed on…wash my face. 

Now you might read that and be concerned…”Maggie, you don’t already wash your face?” and rest assured, I do wash my face. But not always as consistently as they tell you to. I know I should wash it first thing in the morning and before I go to bed. But in all honestly, it mostly just gets washed in the shower (where I now keep my face wash because I’ve accepted that’s who I am). I don’t wear makeup or other products regularly so I’ve never felt super guilty about skipping the evening cleanse and thankfully I have also been blessed with pretty good skin that doesn’t suffer many breakouts or other ailments. However, I am in my 30s now and I want to take care of myself and my skin. So this year, I’m going to try to be better. I will most likely still wash my face in the shower in the morning, a habit I don’t see the point in changing. But I am going to consistently wash my face each night before bed. It feels small, but I think my skin will thank me for it in the long run! I also am hoping that beginning to set up some more consistent morning and evening routines will help me day feel bookended with order and calm as opposed to rush or exhaustion. 

And while that is my one resolution- wash my face everyday- the thing I will look back on and say yes I did it, there are other things in my life that I want to tend this year too. Not things I am making specific measurable resolutions for, but things I want to be mindful of in 2023. 

One of the biggest of these is the time I spend on my phone- both the quantity and quality. In general, I want to spend less time on my phone. I know I’m on it too much, I know I need to be on it less. Having JB around helps with this goal partly because I just can’t be on my phone as much when I’m hanging with him and also because he’s a big motivator for why I don’t want to be on it all the time. I don’t want him to ever think I’d rather be doing something on my phone than enjoying time with him. Also, he wants to chew on it all the time and well I’m sure that is super germy so there’s another reason. I’m not setting a number of minutes/hours I can be on it, I just know in my head I want to be more conscious of how much I’m on it and be more purposeful about when those times are. I also want to be more mindful of the quality of my phone use- so less social media and mindless candy crush and more kindle app, audiobooks/podcasts, blogs etc. 

I also hope to continue working on decluttering. Hubby and I have done a few sweeps of the house to declutter and donate some of what we don’t use but I still find myself wanting less. So I’m hoping throughout the year we can continue really considering the things we own and deciding what works for us in our life and what could we give away to allow for more space and room to live life as a family. 

And as always, I think I say it every year, I want to read and write more frequently. Hopefully the less phone time will help with this one but I want to meet (or exceed) my goodreads goal this year and do my best to blog more consistently. I give myself plenty of grace with the blogging because there just isn’t always time (or motivation) but I enjoy the art of writing and want to push myself to keep that muscle strong! 

This was long and wordy and mostly a giant brain dump of what I’ve been thinking about over the last few days but I do find that having your goals out in the world helps motivate you to reach for them. Cheers to 2023, 2022 will be tough to beat but I can’t wait to see what it holds!