Summer 2017- Goals

School is out, and now it's time to set some goals and expectations for summer. From my years of being a teacher, I have learned one important thing about myself: I like to have a schedule and stay busy. Summers provide a wonderful respite from the craziness of grading and lesson planning, but summers can often also cause me to get depressed because I feel purposeless. After a week, I start to feel lonely, and I ache once more for a good schedule and people to surround me.

Therefore, I feel it necessary for me to plan out a bit of my summer so that I can productively fill my days and keep the depression away. 

Without further ado, here are a few of my goals for summer:

Goals:

1. Go on at least 1 hike every week. I feel badly that I haven't used the myriad of hiking opportunities Utah affords to my best advantage over the years. Yes, there are those crazy long hikes that would take an entire day to complete, but there are also plenty of day hikes and beautiful lakes and waterfalls to explore. I plan on seeing at least one weekly.
2. Read at least 1 book a week. This is another thing I let go to the wayside when I am teaching.  I am an English teacher, for goodness sake! I should be reading books like crazy. But to be honest, I have not been a good reader for the past few years, and I miss that connection I had with books. So this summer I am turning off the Netflix and spending that time with new books. (anticipated reading list coming in a future post)
3. ​Go through each room of our apartment and do some "spring cleaning". Ok, I am just going to say it, but this may turn into packing up our apartment to move to California. Whether that happens or not, I need to do some intense cleaning and decluttering. It is amazing how "stuff" just piles up, and I am in desperate need to get rid of all the unnecessary clutter. 
4. Prepare for a "race". Now, I need to figure out what kind of race I want to do: short 5k run? Sprint triathlon?  I haven't quite figured that out yet, but I need that race to help motivate me to actually exercise. It is tough when you are alone all day to feel the motivation to exercise, so this race will act as my main motivation (that, and the fact that Andrew promised to take me to Hawaii if I get back to my wedding weight...I call that a pretty good incentive).
5. Go to the temple weekly. I feel like I need a balance of goals: health goals, intellectual goals, and spiritual goals. This spiritual activity is another one I have set on the back burner for way too long. I used to work in the temple for 5 hours weekly, but now I hardly attend monthly. That has got to change while I have so many temples close by and there is really no excuse. I know this goal will help  me feel peace and purpose throughout the summer.

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5 solid goals; I feel like that is a respectable and achievable plan. These goals will help me keep a stable focus through the summer plans of family vacation, girl's camp, and pool time.