my resolutions for 2017

we start the year with a house move and a large renovation project underway, so it’s a bit hard to know what’s realistic to take on in 2017. here are the resolutions i am pursuing for this year:

Personal

1. Take and post a photo a day
2. Organize my online contacts

Family

1. Run at least once a week with Richard
2. Cycle with Maddie to school once weather improves
3. Read a poem for every night of the year with Maddie

Home

1. Create a house renovation book
2. Complete one house project each month

Health

1. Join a new exercise class
2. Practice mindfulness via Breathe app on watch (at least once daily)
3. Run 500 miles

 

my resolutions for 2016

as 2015 draws to a close, I am planning some motivating (and generally fun) resolutions for the next 12 months:

Personal

• Take and post a daily #gratitude photo  Done! I decided quite early on to simplify this and just post photos every day. And this I did, as you can see on http://www.meandmyall.com 
• Try something new every week Not sure. I tracked this for a number of months but then just tried to keep a growth mindset.

Career

• Get MBTI certification Done! In New York City in February. And also Hogan and Lumina Spark!

Work

• Organize my online research and readings No – I forgot all about this and didn’t do this but I would say overall I think they are relatively well organized.
• Interview 10 leaders Done! Enjoyed meeting people and strengthening my research on social leadership.
• Achieve my business goals for 2016 Nearly! 4/5 and the 5th pretty close. So feel good about this one!

Family

• Get family photos taken Done! With our talented friend Wilky. Can’t wait to hang these in the new house.
• Organize a summer camping holiday Nope. Just didn’t get to this.

Home

• Clear out and organize the loft Done, but not in the way I expected! All packed and in storage right now, and I suspect more cleaning will take place in the coming months.

Health

• Join a gym or new exercise class Done! Went back to the LBT classes I attended before the floods and really enjoyed these.
• Run in 12 organized 5K runs No – I really failed at this one. It took me ages to heal from my injury last October and I didn’t get motivated around this. However I did run consistently throughout the year.
• Get a minimum of 20 minutes exercise daily Not sure – I tracked this for the first few months and found it really hard. I think I my bar for what I counted as “exercise” was quite high. I definitely ran / went to the gym 3 to 4 times a week. I am trying to track this again this year with my watch.

my new year’s resolutions for 2015

Personal

Friends

1. Send appreciation cards (done: even designed cards for my company that I could send)
2. Reorganize my contacts (sort of: tried to do this but failed because of technology issues. wish I could fix this one in 2016)
3. Start a running club or find a running buddy (done: thanks Helen, my running partner in Brigidine Running Club!)

Family

Health

1. Run another half marathon (done: Royal Parks Half Marathon, October 2015, raising money for Lupus UK. loved it!)
2. Buy a new fitness monitor (done: love my Microsoft Band)
3. Take a mindfulness course (done: studied with the NeuroLeadership Group, which I really enjoyed. some focus on mindfulness)

Career

1. Write at least one blog post a week (sort of: not once a week. but once a month!)
2. Find at least one brand new direct client (done! more than one!!)
3. Complete my coaching course and ICF certification (done! both the certification and my ACC accreditation with the ICF)

 

my resolutions for 2014

december 31: 2014 didn’t turn out to be the year I expected when I wrote these resolutions, but in looking back, I still did – and enjoyed – quite a few of my resolutions.

In 2014 I resolve to…

Create a home environment that is happy, organized and peaceful.

• Do a 50-item de-cluttering purge. (done – and needs to be done again!)
• Prepare our house for Marikki’s arrival in the autumn. (done – this was different preparation than expected but….we converted our lounge at 38 Kings Road into a bedroom for Marikki for the first three weeks she was here, then found another rental home with more space and moved us all there in September, just a few days after she and Maddie started school. Our current rental is only a few blocks from the first one so we carried Marikki’s bed down the street to the new place!)

Continue to learn and grow throughout the year.

• Continue attending Finnish School and study daily. (sort of – continued on with Finnish School but did not study even close to daily)
• Keep a personal journal with a daily reflection. (done – privately for the first few months during the flooding, and I think it really helped me through that period, but after that I integrated it with my photo-a-day)
• Sketch a daily happy person. (sort of – I quickly bored of the happy people book but this one inspired me to sketch hundreds of animals using the Ames books) 
• Go on a trip with Mom and Dad to Israel. (done – we went in late May and loved it)

Be creative.

• Update my blog and post a photo a day. (done – https://meandmyall.com/)
• Finish Maddie’s needlepoint. (no – again no – I crocheted nearly 50 hats but didn’t even touch this needlepoint.)
• Create a time management tips brochure. (no – hmm. didn’t even remember this one. think I channelled all my creativity into hats)

Focus on what matters most.

• Create a printed family tree. (no – really didn’t remember this one either) 
• Send appreciation cards and continue to keep my 365 salutes list. (done – started an appreciation list and realized I have so many people to be grateful for it’s hard to keep it on a list. but increased my appreciation cards)
• Plan and go on a proper summer holiday. (done –  decided since doing things with family was the best part of this awful year we would go to Disneyworld with Richard’s mum, sister and boys, which was amazing)
• Take one break on my own. (no)
• Sponsor a child from Kenya. (no – talked to Benson about this one but then lost track of it with the flooding)

Maintain a healthy lifestyle, including 5x weekly exercise and healthy diet.

• Run another 500 miles (no – currently only 466 miles, and while I’m planning to run today, there’s no way I’ll run another 35! sigh.)
• Participate in at least 10 organized runs. (no – not even close – ran 1, organized 1)
• Go the spa at least 4 times. (no – went only once with Richard and it was so amazing but didn’t organize more)

Happy New Year!

my resolutions for 2013

Personal

1. Create a daily appreciation list and send cards (done and still in progress: https://meandmyall.com/memy365-salutes-2/. Enjoyed this!)
2. Digitize Finnish language tapes (inspired by this one to enrol in Saturday Finnish school, which I thought was even better!)

Family

1. Visit Samantha and Josh (done–with Maddie in May, and again Christmas. Really fun!)
2. Finish Maddie’s needlepoint (nope – sitting here next to me, made progress but still not complete. never-ending this one)

Health

1. Run another 500 miles, but faster! (done! hooray! www.dailymile.com)
2. Recruit 200 people to run my Run to Read 5K at Brigidine School (organized a successful run and great fundraiser despite horrible weather, but only 71 people registered. Organizing again for 2014!)

Creativity

1. Make a “mood board” journal (nope, decided pretty quickly this wasn’t working. resurrecting this in new form in 2014)
2. Post a quality photo every day (done! http://www.flickr.com/photos/shannonb/sets/72157632410948861/)

Home

1. Refresh my wardrobe (done! turned hangers around 1 Jan and then got rid of things I didn’t wear in season)
2. Eliminate 10 minor annoyances (done! like this one)

 

my resolutions for 2012

Personal

1. Keep a daily log (health, food, gratitude, exercise, etc) (done—including: https://meandmyall.com/favourite-things/ which I have LOVED and will try to keep going with a while longer!)
2. Take a class or lessons in something new (sort of—took refresher snowboarding lessons. not new but really fun)
3. Create a book from my remember blog (still not done. hmpf.)

Family

1. Create a basic family tree (worked with Mom on this and got the details for her family; still working on the other branches. one to continue!)
2. Create a recipe box (done, very successfully with 100 individually designed recipe cards. Love it!)
3. Update www.madelinebanks.com (did this early in the year but I’m not inspired to keep this updated as I don’t love the tool. will give this some thought for next year. still gathering the photos.)

Health

1. Run 500 miles and 5 10k runs (done! plus 18k, 1 half marathon, 2 5Ks!! see www.dailymile.com)
2. Continue to exercise five times weekly (done!)
3. Buy a pedometer/heart monitor (done, decided on a GPS watch instead. thanks Richard!)

Creativity

1. Post a quality photo every day (done—see http://www.flickr.com/photos/shannonb/)
2. Finish Maddie’s needlepoint (not done, but still working on it. determined to finish it in 2013)

 

my resolutions for 2011

Personal

1. Update my personal blog and post a photo a day (done!)
2. Create a book from my remember blog (hmm. didn’t get to this one.)
3. Buy and study a world atlas (one country per week) (studied 6 countries but lost motivation and forgot about it when only once weekly)
4. Create a 50 x 50 list (and get started!) (done!)

Family

1. Get professional family photos taken (done in November)
2. Take a family holiday to Japan (tried but changed plans to a ranch in Colorado after the tsunami)
3. Enjoy at least 24 “family days out” (done, 30 in fact)

Health

1. Drink water with every meal (doing this still, really great way of getting 8 glasses a day)
2. Exercise five times weekly (still doing this too)
3. Create an updated 2011 meal log (did this but pretty bored of it, so trying something different for 2012)

Friends

1. Organize a 40^th Birthday Party (done!)
2. Update contacts on phone and PC (done!)
3. Create a birthday list and send birthday cards (done!)

Career

1. Update my linked in profile (hmm. didn’t do this. probably should)
2. Listen to at least one TED talk per week (not weekly, but I did listen to some amazing talks)

 

my resolutions in 2010

http://shannonbanks.blogs.com/my_uk_life/2010/01/my-new-years-resolutions-for-2010.html

my resolutions in 2007

http://shannonbanks.blogs.com/my_uk_life/2007/01/in_2007_i_resol.html