2012 Bucket List

So this year I am doing as I usually do and will have a motto for my year. Sometimes it’s one word, sometimes it’s a quote. This year, I have two words that I think are very important for me. I was going to do something completely different and was all ready to post about it but then this morning I realized I needed to change it. So I’m changing it up last minute. This year, my motto is:

Live Purposefully

I want my life to be lived on purpose. I want to do more than go through the motions of daily life; I want to be alive, on purpose. I want my life to mean something to me. I am done just going through life without feeling its intent, without disciplining myself to use my time effectively, without living every moment to its fullest. So this year I am going to focus on living on purpose.

In addition to my yearly motto, I decided to set some general resolutions and goals – in other words, I am going to have a 2012 Bucket List. I am hoping that by utilizing some things I’ve learned from “The Happiness Project” I will keep up with my bucket list and make this a fulfilling year.

Before I share my list, I wanted to share something from “The Happiness Project” in relation to goals and resolutions.

Gretchen Rubin says, “You hit a goal, you keep a resolution. ‘Run a marathon’ makes a good goal. It’s specific, it’s easy to measure success, and once you’ve done it, you’ve done it. ‘Sing in the morning’ and ‘Exercise better’ are better cast as resolutions. You won’t wake up one day and find that you’ve achieved it. It’s something that you have to resolve to do every day, forever. Striving toward a goal provides the atmosphere of growth so important to happiness, but it can be easy to get discouraged if reaching the goal is more difficult than you expected. Also, what happens once you’ve reached your goal? Say you’ve run the marathon. What now—do you stop exercising? Do you set a new goal? With resolutions, the expectations are different. Each day I try to live up to my resolutions. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail, but every day is a clean slate and a fresh opportunity. I never expect to be done with my resolutions, so I don’t get discouraged when they stay challenging. Which they do.” (The Happiness Project, 288.)

Ah, this is why I love goals and resolutions. Both are integral to intrinsic happiness but for different reasons. I’m definitely going to keep up my monthly resolutions, which I’ll post later.

Since I’ve learned that resolutions and goals are different, I’m going to break my bucket list into separate categories that help me feel organized, thereby making me happy. This will also hopefully meet the expectation that it will help me keep my goals/resolutions instead of giving up, which would also make me happy.

2012 Bucket List: Goals

• Read 24 new books
• Read all the standard works in a year
• Get pantry shelves built {Dan is actually doing this but I’m putting it as a goal here because we really want/need it done}
• Switch Livie to a booster seat
• Graduate Livie to a toddler bed
• Wean Livie from the bottle {this is the one I’m most nervous about – suggestions? advice?}
• Plant a vegetable garden
• Read all 2012 Conference talks
• Read Les Miserables
• Learn to count to 10 in 10 different languages
• Take a photography class
• Do the Tableau Tuesday posts again

2012 Bucket List: Resolutions

• Be more social
• Learn more about other countries
• Be better about repeating myself—as in, quit doing it
• Eat healthier—fruits and veggies in place of sweets
• Exercise consistently
• Build my relationship with Dan—go on dates
• Memorize scriptures—I’m resolving to memorize one a week
• Take more photos
• Blog more frequently
• Identify the common factors in my grouchy moments and work on them so I stop having grouchy moments
• Learn to decipher the line between hunger and boredom
• Be more energized
• Stick to the organization binder and cleaning schedule to keep up with the housework
• Be mindfully grateful—keep a gratitude journal
• Don’t get lazy and throw everything off this summer—discipline!

Yep, I’m aware that this is a lot of stuff. It’s a big list. But I don’t feel daunted at all. Honest. I think it’s because I am looking for improvement, not perfection {cue last year's motto!}. Especially on my resolutions list. I’m going to utilize my monthly resolutions to help me stay on track. And I’m going to actually keep track—as in on paper. Something I’ve definitely learned is that I’m not going to do it if I don’t have a written expectation and a way to track my progress.
Just a note: yes, I'm aware that many of these resolutions are somewhat vague. As I said, I plan on creating specific monthly resolutions to help me out with the general ones. :)

Since today is the first Tuesday of the year and I'm going to post Tableau's again, this is the first photo of the year.

I’m excited! I hope you are excited for your 2012, too!