Approaches in the New Year - My RSS feed is filled with people talking about how their Resolutions have been working for them in this first week of 2013. I usually avoid the entire Resolution bandwagon, but I embraced the notion of a "theme word" last year, based on the idea from Rain over at Honey & Ollie. And since this year my word is FOCUS, I thought perhaps you might be interested in how I've been approaching this notion.

There seem to be a few major categories I find myself drawn to: Family, Fitness, Crafts, Dance, Career. Several of these overlap and may be explained over the months and years. Also, I see FOCUS as a motivation to reduce and declutter, to organize and sort, to keep my material possessions down to the primary focuses in my life. As a method for encouragement, I began making notes in the evening to celebrate various focused accomplishments over the day.

So let's look at January 1-6.

Fitness - Averaged 6.39 hours sleep per night. Walked 24.24 mi, an average of 4.04/day. Averaged 9681 steps/day. My Newest Technique: Walking very briskly for my entire lunch hour at work. There's a university near my work place with some beautiful hills and excellent switchback sidewalks for handicap access: Perfect for brisk walks up the hills. No dance last week, we're still one week out from dance classes resuming post-holidays. I do have a private lesson tonight, which will be nice.

Family - The holidays have been outstanding for spending time with my Sweetie. I'm a little nervous about how my time will be less available, when class season starts again, but what a fantastic way to spend quality time with my closest darlings. I've been able to spend a bit of time on the "house and family" projects, whether taking down holiday decorations, helping cook or clean, or lend a hand on their projects (over mine). It keeps me grounded to remember that not every craft I put my hand to should be for me or my shop.

Dance - Although there has been a lull for classes, I spent some extra time this past week working on my personal notes and study aids. Next up: Spending time studying and dancing through all the DVD training materials in my library (again).

Crafts - Finished spinning one project (still need to set the twist then send it off to the recipient). Made significant progress on the current card-weaving project, because I really want it off the loom and the ability to start something new. Sewed a quick little bag to keep my exercise stretch bands in my computer bag. [Small fitness note: I get in a set of stretches in every time I take the computer out and then put it away again. This is an excellent memory trigger: keeping the bands in my computer bag.]

How's your first week of January been? Any resolutions or focuses or new activities you've been pursuing?

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: An excellent office location for my dayjob.