Photo Credit Annie Spratt
In January 2024 I made a commitment to forgo the resolutions and goal lists and just live life. The YOLO mindset I built my kitchen around, I took on with tossing aside goals, lists (which if you know me, you know I LOVE lists) and just do life. YES, I can hear your “but Lauren” and you are right, there is a time for list, goals and plans and yet other times, well let’s just say living for the day yields its own rewards. I want to take the time to share with you what I accomplished by not setting a goal, which surprisingly led to bigger results versus what I would have accomplished if I set specific resolutions.
This past year rather than saying I was going to read X number of books, and never making it to that number, I said I am going to make more time for reading. I ended up joining a couple of book clubs, read some amazing reads, which I will definitely share with you in an upcoming piece. I learned so much from reading and the more I read the more addicted I became to Barnes and Noble. I probably read way more books than my goal would ever have been and somehow trying to find time was never a factor.
Health and Fitness tend to always be a part of my past resolutions. I was beyond happy to not to be going up and down the win column in this area. I went through the year mindful of the importance of health, without having a plan or weight/calorie intake goal. At my age, you just kind of know where you need to be. The coolest thing I never saw coming this year was meeting a neighbor in Florida who was a former professional athlete. My plane back to Chicago was delayed, so I decided to chill out by the pool. That’s when I met Ed and he was more in shape at his age than I would ever dream of being at my age. After a pool side chat, I was taken in by his wealth of fitness and health. I really became aware of (AHHA MOMENT!) what it took to have an enjoyable active lifestyle as you age. Now, without any resolutions or goals other than consistency, I have been working on actively aging with grace. Cool how God gifts you with his people.
In 2024 I didn’t set any travel goals. If any opportunity arose and fit into my schedule, I’d consider it. So, to say I had no goal of heading to Italy in 2024 would be a big understatement, but in October I found myself there. I don’t even know if my first travel goal last year would have been Italy and yet I experienced an epic trip that no goal could have imagined. December came and at the last minute we put together a trip to Telluride, which was one I’ll remember for a lifetime. I know my college kids will soon be out of the house and trips like these are going to become less and less. I’m grateful to hold onto more time spent with my kids who think their parents are pretty cool.