I've never been much of a New Year's resolution guy. I'm big on incremental changes made throughout the year as circumstances warrant or demand. However, I'm also a creature of habit - patterns are a big part of my life - and it just so happens that the best time for me to make a change in my life is when I have a natural break in my patterns, usually when I take a week or two off of work.
The last time I had a break from work like this was in the summer, mere weeks before the kid started her official scholastic career and Amy returned to hers. Any thoughts we had of trying to make improvements went out the window as our entire routine got tossed into a blender and we had to figure out how to get by with our new arrangement.
I'm A 34-Year-Old Married Dad Sleeping With A Student
Prior to that, my last break was last December, when I was finalizing the plans to make pivot in my career, getting out of an industry that moved at a breakneck pace to one that allows me more mental energy for my home life.
This year, though, we've been able to sit back and relax over the holidays with a clear sense of what the next few months will be like for us. So we've taken the opportunity to wipe the proverbial slate clean and try to get ourselves into a better place routine-wise. The goals themselves are pretty standard - eat better, get more exercise, be smarter with our money - but the motivations?
The motivations have never been better.
The kid is getting older. She's more aware of the world around her. And as she starts to establish her own routines, I am realizing that we have an opportunity to put the kid on a healthy, responsible path. In the past, my bad habits were just that - my bad habits. If I spent badly, that was on me. If I ate like crap and let my health suffer, it was my health. Things changed when I got married, sure, but even still, we were independent people, my wife and I.
25 Reasons To Be A Healthy Parent
Now though we have a little person. We can't control her day-to-day in the same minute detail we could before, now we have to count on her establishing good habits that carry her through when we aren't by her side.
So it's time to shape up. The slate is clean. Let's get to it, 2015.
Printer-friendly version