Where does the time go?

Earlier this week, I had a few minutes and my planner, and I wrote down a quick list of things I spend my time doing and things I want to spend my time doing. There is some overlap, and there are things on the do but don't want to list that have to be done, but I think it is very common that we have things we want to do but don't because of our excuses, however valid they may be.

With January almost gone (already?!), I liked this "different approach to goal setting: Next year, choose, plan and achieve goals that bring you joy, ease and happiness - not only when you achieve them, but along the way as well." The author goes on to say: "we spend way too much time in our life doing things we don't want, that we're not good at, with people we don't like, and without getting any reward."

There are things that we don't want to do, but have to be done. Last night, I had to clean up cat poo before the dog got it, then went upstairs to go to bed and found more (poor kitty is sick but I certainly didn't care at that point!) to clean up. While doing the clean up, the other dog made noise in the laundry room, so I caught her in-the-act. She had jumped over the raised baby gate that is supposed to let the cats in but not the dogs. So I grabbed a (tall) playpen and put it up with a gap for the cats. It can't really keep the dogs out but it will be loud going down.

So, "don't create goals and activities that involve struggle, complication, hardship and sacrifice." Rather than setting a goal to exercise, I can set a goal to hike, skate, or run agility with my dogs, since those are things that I like and are on my list of things I want to do more. "Do something every day." Now, that is a difficult goal!