The Poor Mom Revolution

     Holy moly! It is officially 2024! I can’t believe how quickly the past year has come and gone. I feel like just last year, I was making a plan on how the next 365 days were going to go and what expectations I had for myself and “poof” here we are again. Tons of things went well and we traveled more, saved more and experienced more. I focused on being more present at home, more grateful for everything I have and attempting to live in the moment each day. My 2023 was filled with fighting many mental battles to be more happy than sad, to stop thinking about all the things that aren’t perfect and enjoy the wonderful life we’ve built and be grateful for every relationship and experience I’ve had to get me to where I am. 

    Last year around this time, I had all these goals and expectations, a calendar drawn out for success and just like that I didn’t stick with it. Traditionally, with each New Year we tend to create resolutions for ourselves. These are about making a positive change in our life, whether it’s changing old habits or unwanted behaviors, setting goals and/or trying something new. Most New Year’s Resolutions tend to fail within the first few months as the expectation is either too high, there isn’t a set plan on how to complete or reach those goals or there isn’t a personal connection to it. I’ve personally spent way too much time setting expectations for myself, not completing them and becoming disappointed before I’ve even given myself a fighting chance to succeed. 

     In the teaching world, high expectations for yourself and your students are great, awesome really… unless they are too high that they are unrealistic for anyone to reach. Everyone needs to have a goal that is above where they are so that they have a point to reach. A point to look forward to as this goal or point can be changed, moved and adapted constantly. You don’t just go from reading 1 book a year to 20 without setting expectations along the way in addition to a nightly, weekly or monthly goal. You don’t just start eating better without making a plan to go shopping once a week, decide the meals and set time aside to prep it all. We make these goals that we truly want, but not the plan to put it into action. I am so guilty of this and I’m honestly over it. 

     I don’t know if you’ve ever had a weight loss or health goal like I have over the last few years and have dropped off the workout kick and you want to get back into it. I’ve failed so many times it isn’t funny. My weight has yoyo’d more times than I can count and I have no one to blame but myself. I always fall off the workout wagon and then make a plan to workout 5/6 days a week.  Now that sounds amazing right? I fill out a calendar and start marking off the days, but going from barely working out to 5/6 days is unreasonable. By day 2, I’m so sore that I can barely walk down the stairs, I’m exhausted from trying to get up at 5:45am to workout before work and getting the kids up and I stop. The moment I stop it’s over. I beat myself up over it and take a while to feel motivated instead of defeated. Instead, less is more… I am looking to plan for success this year, by setting a goal to workout 2 or 3 days a week. This allows me to meet the minimum for me to see a steady change in my body and behavior. It allows me to be flexible with the crazy kids schedules and allows me to change dates within the week as needed and allows my body to get used to a few days while not letting the inevitable soreness take over. If I’m feeling good and motivated, I can always add days in between or add in a day of stretching, meditation or yoga for an active recovery.

     I do the same thing with my water goals every year since I barely drink water now! I go from a cup of coffee or tea and no water throughout the day to telling myself I need to drink 84+ ounces and obviously it makes it maybe one day before that’s a total failure. A reasonable goal would be a water bottle or two a day, what is that 20 ounces maybe? It’s more than I normally intake, it’s something I can plan for and is ultimately doable. I’m not looking for perfection. I’m looking for consistency and change. 

     Take a minute to think about the goals you’ve made for yourself. Which of them have worked? Which ones crashed and burned quicker than you could have imagined? What is honestly most important to yourself, your family, your health and well being? What will make the biggest changes in your life? What goals can you have that will genuinely make you feel good about yourself, happy and healthy? 

     My goal this year is to make reasonable changes by giving myself a plan to succeed and not using that pass or fail mentality that never works. Finding things that make me feel accomplished, genuinely happy and excited. I’m constantly on a journey to find hobbies and things that I like to do and doesn’t feel like an added chore I have to add to the crazy day I already have. I’ve always struggled with hobbies and it has always been a sore spot for me. Everyone I know has a bunch of things they love to do, that is either simply for fun, to sell or fill in their downtime and I’ve honestly never had that! I’ve recently found that I love journaling… which is 100% for me. It isn’t something I have to do every single day, it allows me to be creative and artsy and there are no rules. I have found my love of writing again through my blog. It allows me to share what is on my mind or what I’ve experienced and creates a community of like minded people that have the support when they need it. I’m grateful for these new found “hobbies” that allow me to be a little more me and not just the “mom” I’ve been for so many years. 

     I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of choosing a word for the year, but I’m kind of obsessed with it. I found this MyIntent website a few years ago that creates cute little custom jewelry to be worn to remind yourself of what’s important. It allows for a daily reminder of your purpose and goal for the year. It takes the pressure off the resolution or goal and allows you to focus your year on what’s important. Over the last few days, I’ve been really thinking about what is important to me right now and to choose a word to build my year around. Over the last few years I’ve had the words Inspire, Breathe, Big Rocks and Balance. 

     Choosing your word is supposed to be meaningful. It embodies what your plans and goals are moving forward. I always start with making a bullet list of what is important. Things that worked last year and things that didn’t. Changes I made or want to make for the year to come. What my purpose will be to help myself get to where I want to be. The list of words I came up with that summarized what my intentions will be for the new year were: deliberate, fulfilling, gratitude, grounded, inspirational and intentional. Once I’ve narrowed it down, I choose the one that resonates with me the most. I’m a very visual person so after choosing my word, I’ve decided to make a wheel and encourage you to try it too. It allows you to really sit with what you want to focus on and get out of the year to come. This can easily become a whole family project. My daughter and I sat together for a whole hour making our lists, talking out loud and making a graphic organizer and I’m pretty proud of us. We’ll be hanging them up on our wall by our desks as a reminder and we both ordered our bracelets to remind ourselves of our focus for the year. 

     I want to share with you as much as I can and anything and everything that has helped me. I’ll attach my monthly workout/schedule planner, Word Wheel Template, Words of the year ideas, including a few of my favorite websites for you to check out. Please feel free to share your 2024 word, your why and/or your word wheel with us! This community only becomes stronger together. 

Word of the Year/Word Wheel

Words by @CASEYBLANCHARDSTUDIOS

Monthly Workout Calendar

Wear your word of the year:

Http://myintent.org

Bullet Journaling:

http://instagram.com/memoriesbymeyers