Live Engaged & Love Out Loud

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I don’t really make {or keep} “resolutions”, but I love the fresh new start each year brings, and I do give myself goals and think about what I hope to improve upon in each year. I have done a lot of thinking about what I really want for this year… and  what I decided was that I want to Live Engaged & Love Out Loud.

You know the trip to the grocery store where you go in to buy 3 things, walk out $100 later….have NO IDEA what you bought, and then realize you forgot the original 3 items?? Yes…this has happened to me on just about every grocery (or Target trip over the last few years). I usually blame my kids, but even if I am not shopping with kids in tow, it’s too easy to check email, take work calls, and be thinking of my to-do list instead of focusing on the task at hand. One of the things that started this new years motto for me was the fact that I wanted to do better with budgeting this year. My hubby asks…” how do we spend so much at the grocery store and Target?” and I answer, “Gosh, I have no clue!”. Truth is,  I run in the store and buy lots of fruits and veggies so we can eat healthy, then don’t plan dinner and at 5:30pm I am trying to quickly throw something together and before you know it…those fruits and veggies go bad and get tossed. Money in the trash. I want to live engaged this year. I want to be engaged with the task at hand and not the things going on around me like a bee hive. This will take planning and time, but I think it will save money and our quality of life in the end.

Using my grocery example, I have started creating dinner menus for the week, along with the grocery list. Before we go to the store, we look through our toiletries to see what we are low on so we can get those items as well. This way I hope to eliminate all of the trips to the store just to pick up one or two things. And when I do go to the store, I plan to be engaged with what I am doing. I will go through my list, and buy what is on it…and leave what is not. My kids will learn that we have a plan and a budget and if we don’t have it on our list, we don’t buy it. This little bit of planning actually helps other areas too…for example, I know what I will be making for dinner, so I can prepare in advance instead of running around at 5:30 with hungry kids hanging from my legs. It helps with the budget since I can see what we actually are buying and how often.

Of course I want to be engaged with much more than just my groceries…I want to be engaged in life. I have talked a lot about being “present” with my family and my kids, but this year I hope to push past being “present” and to be actively engaged in the moment. I tend to always be thinking of “what’s next”…checking the to-do list…and planning for the future. Even when I sit down to watch a movie with my husband and “relax”, I fill those few moments of previews (and maybe slow parts…) with checking email, social media, or my list of things to do the next day. Being engaged with the task at hand would allow me to fill those same few moments with a conversation with my hubby or even just still and quiet.

The other goal for the year is a phrase I heard and it has stuck with me for months now… “Love Out Loud”. What a wonderful idea, right? There are a million negative Nellys in the world who like to focus on what they don’t have and how unfair life is…they want to tell you that you should be angry or unhappy…that you should “dislike” certain people, places, or things. The negativity around us can be very, very loud. Imagine if everyone loved out loud instead? What if we not only were nice, but we acted with love, spoke with loving and uplifting words, and carried a sense of gratitude. What if we all looked for good in people and celebrated it. I can’t promise that I won’t have a bad day, where I am annoyed, grumpy, or sick…but I can make every effort to be quiet on those days and then make the choice to Love Out Loud every chance I get!

These are my goals and I am so excited already about what 2013 has in store! In just the past week I have seen some exciting things happening for friends, and gotten exciting emails about fun things to come…both in my work and with my family!

What are your goals for 2013? I would love to hear them!

0 thoughts on “Live Engaged & Love Out Loud”

  1. I love your posts Kori! And LOVE the idea of ‘loving out loud’! Looking forward to watching all of the greatness 2013 has in store for you. Happy New Year {a little late}!

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