Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Setting Goals - Oh baby!

     J and I were at a New Year's Party and we had a conversation with a friend who told us about her vision for 2014.  First she talked about the successes that she experienced with the professional goals she set last year for her outdoor adventure company.  How the company hit its target profit mark, how it validated her decision to leave the law and work at the business full time.  Then she talked about how this new year she was going to allow to do creative things with the company and she shared with us two projects she had lined up to try to make that happen.

     I have to say, it was really inspiring to hear my friend talk about her plans.  She wasn't obnoxious and she didn't come off as a person who drank the Kool-Aid.  She was a woman with a dream and plan.     

    Between the conversation with my friend and it being the new year, it made me think about my own  personal and professional aims.  So today I did some reading on goal setting and there is one idea that I take from all of it: to successfully achieve any goal, we need to identify specific steps that will get us to that goal.  Basically, it is great to dream, but you actually have to get off your butt and do things to make those dreams reality.  Like my friend did. 

     Hopefully, 2014 is going to be a busy one for me.  There is a wedding to plan and a trip to the World Cup in my horizon.  I want to spend time working on my writing and going hiking.  I want to build a career and not just worry about getting the next job.  This is also the year J and I are going to try to have a *gulp* baby.  

     Trust me when I say, it was weird to I write down "motherhood" as a goal.  I mean, really bizarre.  Like really, really bizarre.  For the longest time, not accidentally becoming a mom was a very big priority.  But as J and my gynecologist have pointed out, my ovaries aren't getting any younger, and I see my window of opportunity slowly start to close. 

     I was thinking about the specific steps I needed to take to get this whole baby making business going.  Obviously there is going to be a lot of "bow-chicka-bow-wow" in my future.  Have to say, I'm pretty excited about that.  But since it is still several months before we toss the birth control out of the window, I looked at other things I could do to help my chances at becoming a mom.  

     Apparently, for those women (and men!) who are thinking about making a baby, there are things that we should be doing up to a year before we actually start "trying".  To help increase our chances at having a healthy baby, diet-wise we can make sure to eat foods that are rich in Omega 3  and folic acid (folate).  Toxin avoidance is also a big thing.  Below is a link to one of the better articles I read on the topic, brought to you by the good people over at WebMd.  It is a little overwhelming, but I have a little over half a year to figure it out so fingers crossed ...