Year of (Your Name Here)
When I am feeling wild enough to use a PTO day just for myself, I call it a “Day of Liz”. The day usually begins with me helping everyone else get out of the house (in my pajamas obviously) followed by sitting and s-l-o-w-l-y drinking a cup of coffee while watching the Today Show. Lots of trashy daytime TV will follow, and Netflix will ask me “Are you still watching?” at least twice.
Of course I am still watching you Netflix! Rude.
The best “Days of Liz” are when by 4:30pm I realize I have done absolutely nothing, feel slightly guilty, and then quickly brush my teeth a few minutes before Nick and the girls get home (as if having my teeth brushed will magically make them think I actually accomplished something that day). But hey, if that’s what I need, then that’s what I need.
If I am feeling really crazy, I may go to a movie by myself, or eat lunch by myself, or go shopping by myself…notice a theme here? The key is to do something just for me, and with no one but me.
So how did the “Day of Liz” turn into the “Year of Liz” you ask?
A few months after turning 30, I decided to reflect on my life. Overall, I was incredibly happy. I thought to myself, my husband is my best friend, I have amazing (yet challenging) twin daughters, and I really enjoy my job.
These things are enough for almost anyone to be a happy person, and don’t get me wrong – they are enough for me, too. I love my life the way it is. But I asked myself:
Why have enough, when I could have more than enough?
I figured, if I am in a good place with all of the big things, then this is the perfect time for me to focus on areas that have been ignored. So I imagined if I could snap my fingers, what are the things I’d change about myself or my life in an instant? I got out my non-journal, and here’s what I came up with:
- Purge my crap: over the course of ten years my husband and I had accumulated an unreasonable amount of stuff. We had moved four times and were getting ready to buy a home in the next year. My goal was to touch every single thing in my house and decide whether to keep it (and actually use it) or purge it.
- Get involved in my local government: Don’t worry – I won’t share my political views here. What’s important here is that I felt like I had gotten too old to turn a blind eye to the issues that mattered to me deep down. If I said something was important to me, it was time to move from talking the talk, to walking the walk.
- Lose the weight: My daughters were born in June 2016, and almost two years later I was still above the weight I was when I got pregnant. And that weight was above what I was when I got married. And that weight was above what I was when I graduated college…the classic story we all know and love. I was terrified of the idea of another year going by wishing I had done more the year before. To date, this has been the hardest goal I have ever set out to achieve, and it is the one I have failed the most at over the years.
Hence, the Year of Liz was born. I decided to take an entire year and focus on myself in these three areas; areas which had plagued me for years, but would make me feel so amazing if I could improve on them in any way.
I am now about four months into these three goals and have plenty of updates to share about my accomplishments – and failures – I have been experiencing…so stay tuned!
So with that, a thought experiment:
What would the Year of YOU look like?
4 Replies to “Year of (Your Name Here)”
Great post, My Liz. I immediately thought about my birthday month in October as “Month of Adrienne…” – one day is not enough to celebrate me.
Question: Do you start with 2-3 goals for the full year? What’s standard?
Thank you friend! You are so correct – we need at least one month to properly celebrate you :)!
To answer your question, I really think it depends on the person. For me, I don’t think my brain could handle any more than three, so I wouldn’t go higher than that to start. Starting with one, maybe just two goals is great so that you can really focus. The other thing to keep in mind is that they may have different timelines, obstacles, and systems in place, so it could all get a little overwhelming depending on the goals. On the other hand, they may feed into each other or overlap in some ways – if you have energy to accomplish more than one thing, I say go for it!
What I did not make super clear is I had been thinking about my three goals for the Year of Liz for quite a while. The weight thing has been something I’ve thought about since our days freshman year of college, so several years for that one. The other two are more recent, but are still things that had been simmering for quite a while. The way I decided to approach it was by asking what are the things I would change right now if I could, and those three just popped into my head.
I would love updates and I am always up for talking about it in more detail if you want to have a more in depth conversation :).
Liz, this is really cool. I am so freaking proud of you. I can totally hear your voice when I read this. Keep it up kiddo. Maybe I should make this the year of Ashley!
Every year should be the year of Ashley! And in case it wasn’t clear, the year does not have to start right at your birthday or in January…it can start any time 🙂