resolutions, part ii

As a follow-up to yesterday's post, 

I wanted to highlight this mother's take on resolutions. 

Here are some of her points that stuck out to me,

that I will happily copy.

I've realized that resolutions for me are all about balance. Finding, or rediscovering balance in my life. [...] My New Year's resolutions for this year are combination of goals that I know bring me balance and happiness, and goals that I hopewill bring me greater balance and happiness. If my new goals help, I'll keep them. If they don't bring the balance I'm hoping for, I'll scrap them and try something new. [...] Over the years my problem has been that I only set big goals. There's nothing wrong with that, but I find there is a disconnect for me unless I plan on a very basic level. So my goals this year are manly small ones that will lead to a greater outcome.

• do the hard things first (this has been a paradigm shift for me. I used to try to work up to the hard stuff or push it off until absolutely necessary, but I've learned that if I take my day by the horns and get the crap I don't want to do first, then I have the rest of day to do whatever I want. Guilt free.)
• leave the house with ten minutes to spare (in NYC you never know what you're going to get with your building elevator, public transportation, and other issues along the way, and ten minutes seems to be a good buffer. It means that we are often rather early, but we are almost never late. That is a good feeling.)
• prepare the night before (I struggle with 'level 2 planning,' so I'm often running out the door with my stroller on fire because I didn't plan ahead for 9-12 "oh, that will just take a second" tasks. We pack lunches, lay out clothes, prepare the stroller/diaper bag, set out the mail that needs to be taken out, etc.)
• end the day with a vacuumed floor (we do this after dinner), clean counter tops, and an empty dishwasher (so that we can start the day with a clean home and keep it that way)
• continue deep cleaning on Tuesdays, light cleaning Fridays and
• continue the mantras "do it now, or it won't get done" and "keep it clean before it gets dirty" (both have changed my life for the better) and add "simplify"

via {kensington blue}