2018 Desire Map

It's the end of January, so by now most people have given up on New Year's resolutions or are sort of getting tired of them.  The one perk of being super pregnant this time of year is no one trying to sell my weight loss products and programs... figure they'll wait until after my baby is born to do that.  (eyeroll)

But I didn't want to start the new year, a year that is going to be life-altering, without some thought behind my desires and wants.  So when my friend Lindsey mentioned she was doing The Desire Map again this year, I knew that I wanted to give it a go.

The endstate to The Desire Map for me was all about three words that would guide me in 2018.  Sort of my personal mantras for the year.  I did read through the book, which kind of reads like a blog-meets-pep-talk in a way.  I don't usually like the touchy-feely mumbo jumbo, but I did glean some wisdom while reading.

For me, the bread and butter of this was the workbook exercise.  I spent a lot of time brainstorming.  Since I may want to do this over and over again, I downloaded the book PDF (sometimes available for free!) and printed out the worksheet pages.

I decided to share this on my blog as it's along the lines of New Year's resolutions posts I've done in the past, AND because I felt like it was a really great exercise.  I'm not plugging this author in any way, nor is those sponsored... I just felt like overall it was something that I enjoyed putting some thought behind, and that it might help someone reading this blog to embrace this kind of thing!

For 2018, the core desired feelings on which I landed are:

• intentional
• I want to live my life and make choices with intention, not out of obligation or just letting things happen to me.  I want to do things I want to do!
• I want to be present as I raise my baby.  I don't want to let things just rush by.
• nourished
• I wanted a word related to my health, so words like strong and energetic came up.  But ultimately I landed on nourished, because it can have so many meanings around health and happiness overall.   I want my body and my soul to both feel nourished.

• joyful
• I want to embrace happiness and seek joy.  I think sometimes I do a lot of what other people want me to do, and I don't seek out the things that bring me personal fulfillment.
• I also want to embrace the joy of parenthood, keeping an eye on my personal well-being to manage any baby blues or stress that come my way.

Did you make any resolutions or mantras for 2018?

How's it going?