I just read Courtney Carver’s post How to Make a Love List. Her suggestion is: Instead of a list of New Year’s resolutions, create a list of things you’d love to do or start this year.
I love this idea, and I think this is a very good point in my life for it. I spent the last few months of 2011 feeling discouraged with some things in my life, like a lack of progress toward goals. I began doing some reading and thinking about goals, minimalism, de-cluttering – simplifying my life in general.
photo by Libertinus (flickr)
As soon as I read Courtney’s post, my eyes drifted to the window and my thoughts turned with longing to things I’d love to do this year…
- get back into woodcarving
- continue learning Mandarin
- de-clutter my house
- travel
- and more…
The interesting thing about writing down your “love list” and looking at it in black-and-white is the realization that most of these things are really quite possible. There’s no reason not to do them other than our own bad habit of not prioritizing the things that are important to us. If you take an honest look at how you’re spending your time and think about whether or not the things you’re spending it on are important to you, it’s pretty likely that you’ll be able to clear up a little bit of time to spend on something on your love list (really: is watching TV more important than your top wish?).
Even if you start with only one thing, the joy you’ll get from that time will likely encourage you to free up more time for other things that are important to you. That’s what I’m going to do this year.
How about you? What’s on your love list for 2012?