Personal Goals Update
I am over halfway through my first term of phase 2! Looking back at the past year feels like throwing myself into a tornado of emotions and disbelief at how it felt simultaneously fast and slow. When I first created my e-portfolio, I created three personal goals:
Set dedicated time each week with my family, and monthly special times with each of my kids.
Have a focus on self care including: adequate sleep, regular therapy, body work, reading for fun, and time with friends and family.
Giving myself grace. I juggle many tasks, and I have to understand that it is impossible to juggle all of them, at all times. Which means I need to give myself grace when I drop something.
This term started off as a bit of a struggle. For the first 4 weeks of classes, everyday I had live sessions, my kids had snowdays, then all of my kids had different illnesses at different times, and then we had a loss in our family. All while I have been navigating my own health issues. I surprisingly have done a decent job at sticking to my personal goals, though my third goal of giving myself grace has been key.
So where am I with each goal?
Goal 1
Set dedicated time each week with my family, and monthly special times with each of my kids.
This goal has probably been the hardest this term. With lots of curveballs thrown our way (more so than I could possibly even remember to lost here) I have struggled staying ahead on homework. I feel as though any time I am home, I am working on homework. While I haven’t had planned time with my kids for the most part, I have had the opportunities for surprise time with them. Such as the day I was supposed to have 3 classes in one day, but the calendar on Canvas was wrong and I was able to spend the day helping at my daughters’ Valentine’s Day parties at their school. Or being able to go to the drive-in diner with my 7 year old and enjoy some homemade rootbeer! Every Monday and Friday my son is home with me, and on Fridays, we try to meet with a friend who’s son is close in age to mine.
Goal 2
Have a focus on self care including: adequate sleep, regular therapy, body work, reading for fun, and time with friends and family.
This one I has been hit or miss. It is hard to get adequate sleep as a birth worker, but I do really try to be asleep by 10:30 or 11:00 at the latest. Which can be hard when I know I have homework that needs done, but I also know that I do not function well without sleep.
I have kept my regular therapy sessions and have been trying to focus on how my physical health is impacting my mental health. I am doing a DUTCH test to determine what I need to do to support my hormonal health, and I have added supplements to help with my mental health.
I have learned that birth work can be hard on the body, and if I don’t take care of my body, I will not be able to do this as long as I want to. I go to the chiropractor every 1-2 weeks and massages every four weeks. Of course, shortly after this term started, the massage therapist I have gone to for years stopped doing massages. Thankfully, I was finally able to get in with someone today!
Reading for fun…this has not happened. At all.
Time with friends and family is one I love, yet I have had to make myself do this on occasion just because I am stressed and have so much homework. Or being around people seems to be too much at that moment. And though this is the opposite of this goal, being able to say no to spending time with friends and family when needed should be listed as a goal. Saying no is hard, but I am proud of myself for being able to say no, just as much as I am for turning off my brain and letting loose with friends and family.
Goal 3
Giving myself grace. I juggle many tasks, and I have to understand that it is impossible to juggle all of them, at all times. Which means I need to give myself grace when I drop something.
This has been the hardest…I am judgemental of myself to the point of fault. The struggle with my mental health over the last six months showed me that my mental health needs to be a priority, and that might mean that I turn in assignments late, the house doesn’t get cleaned, and it is okay that my husband is doing a lot more around the house. I put a lot of pressure on myself that I wanted to keep my 4.0 GPA throughout school, but during my phase 1 assessments, one of my assessors told me that it is okay to let that go, and doing that had been hard for my ego, but freeing.
I also have worked on not having as much to juggle. Saying no to more and stepping away from projects that were too hard on my mental load, but I felt as though I needed to take them on. My pride has learned some hard lessons over the last few months, but I am getting there.
