LeeAnn Schaefer
February 21, 2010
Personal Accountability Essay
Life as it Goes
In life there events that occur that force you to refocus your energy and reorganize your priorities. Whether these events are tragic or beautiful they make us take a look at what we have been doing with this life we are given. We look at what we really want from ourselves and we question if what we are doing is working to achieve those goals. If we can eliminate the process of having and extreme event occurring, forcing us to evaluate our actions we can, in turn, succeed in achieving our goals. To achieve our goals we must clearly state what our goals are, identify ways in which our lives are working or not working toward achieving our goals, and improve our methods if they are not working toward the achievement of our goals.
After self-reflection I have identified that my main goal in life is to be an amazing wife and mother. Many things that I do now would not seem to correlate to being a wife or mother but after thinking hard about it I realized that my lifestyle now has a huge impact on my future and my children and husband’s future. If I make the necessary lifestyle changes now I will be able to continue that lifestyle when I am a mother and will be able to pass it along to my children. The changes I will make include: doing something active (i.e. run, walk, crunches, etc.) at least 3 days out of the week, keep a clean living environment everyday, and drink at least one glass of milk, juice or water a day and eat at least a fruit or vegetable each day. These changes will help morph my day to day life into a healthier lifestyle. One goal in particular that I have made that does not correlate with my physical health is that I will continue to knit or crochet everyday and will consistently work to improve my skills in knitting and crocheting. This is something that I believe fits into the mold of an amazing mother and will also help with my emotional health by taking time out of my schedule to relax and do something I enjoy.
When I managed my time I noticed that though I wished to do all of these things, they did not happen. By analyzing my time schedule I found that I would focus more on my school work than on preparing a meal or taking the dogs for a walk. I worked obsessively for hours at a time with my studies. Though this accomplishes my goal of graduating and having a career, this obsessive behavior with my studies prevented me from maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and thus, being an amazing mother and wife. Another thing that I noticed is that when I finish with my studies I do not pick up my room (so as to have a clean environment), instead I will immediately reward myself with knitting or crocheting. Though this is one of my goals it is something that I need to limit more in order to achieve my other goals as well.
In order to fix these issues I can use some simple fixes. One way to fix this is by using the time during my long study sessions that my attention wanders slightly to pick things up around my room or make my bed instead of surfing the web or facebook. Another solution would be to make my healthy lifestyle a habit by setting fixed times for when I go for a run on Tuesdays or when I begin to make my lunch on Saturdays (and every other day). By ensuring that I have the time ‘booked’ I will not replace it with my obsessive studying on accident. My knitting and crocheting are the easiest part of my new lifestyle change because I enjoy it and, in a sense, need it. By only allowing myself to knit or crochet when my room is clean, if I ate properly and if I did some physical activity that day my goals to be a wonderful, amazing mother and wife are more in reach.
Though I knew that I had a goal to be an amazing mother and wife, I did not know that it was my main goal. By re-evaluating my life and what I wished to change about myself I was able to see with clarity my true desires. With these simple changes in my everyday life I will be able to easily obtain my hearts deepest desire, one day at a time.
