Thumos.Life Birthday Resolutions
- Jared Broussard
- Sep 7
- 5 min read
Bringing back my efforts to live my goals and values out loud in order to practice what I preach.
For the dozens of you that read these posts, you might recall that I had made efforts in the past to not only set goals/resolutions each month, but also check in at the end of the month to see what went well, and (more often than I care to admit) what obstacles got in the way.
Well I recently celebrated my birthday, and that motivated me to bring them back into the fold, with the goal this time to have a small number of domains of my life to focus on, as well as a specific goal I want to work on that month.
So here we go!
Life Domain One: Growing in my role as a Husband
As my most recent gratitude post may have shown people, I'm a huge fan of my wife. She is easily one of the best things to have ever happened in my life. Almost all of the best things in my life can find some connection back to her.
Monthly Goal for this Domain: Take more initiative to help reduce the mental load on my wife, to help her feel more supported at home. The main way I intend to do this is by planning ahead for each week to make sure I am maintaining awareness & intention with my actions/behaviors throughout the week.
Why it Matters: My wife is an absolute marvel of a human being. I do not know how she does it sometimes, but she always seems to be 115% on top of her responsibilities across like 15 domains of her life. If my efforts can help her either have to only be 95% on top of everything and/or only crushing 12 domains of her life, it would feel like such an accomplishment for myself.
Life Domain Two: Growing in my role as a Father
My daughter is the only person who is just as important to me as my wife. My daughter has a beautiful spirit, and fills each of my days with so much happiness, joy, & love. She has made me find so many new ways to make me laugh each day.
Monthly Goal for this Domain: Go on at least one wild adventure with my daughter each week. Doesn't have to be something that costs a lot, just has to be something fun & outside of the regular routine.
Why it Matters: Bring. The. Magic. I love spending time with my daughter. One of my favorite things as a father is getting to see her experience & learn about the world through her eyes. I cannot wait to see what she has in store for me.
Life Domain Three: More Active with Thumos.Life
I'm sure this is a huge shocker, but I love getting to work in my private practice. I do not take it for granted that I am fortunate enough to have a job that I have been deeply passionate about for the past ten plus years. That being said, there’s more to this gig than just conducting individual therapy sessions. My neurodivergent brain & soul cook up new ideas to try faster than I can keep up with typically. So this domain will focus on making concerted & intentional efforts to bring some of these ideas into fruition.
Monthly Goal for this Domain: Write at least 5 blog posts (including this one), and put a dent in organizing my rats nest of therapy files on my computer.
Why it Matters: I love getting the chance to write about the aspects of my work that I enjoy and I’m passionate about. I’ve been lucky enough to get to write an assortment of times across my career, but more often than not I had to also have my ideas/topics approved by a higher authority. Authorities that did not always see the benefit in writing about things like Nerd Culture, just as an example. Now, for better or worst there’s no filter, which means the key decision makers include me, myself, and I.
As for organizing my rats nest of digital files, that value is more for me to have a better organizing system for all of the files & resources I have accumulated over my long career. That way they are readily available when they could be helpful for a client or something similar.
Life Domain Four: Improved Health/More Physically Active
Fairly self explanatory, right? I want to take a more intentional and thought out approach to my overall health. Making sure I take better care of myself to be better equipped to be present in all of the other avenues of my life.
Monthly Goal for this Domain: Complete at least thirty minutes of moderate intensity exercise/activity at least three times a week.
Why it Matters: I’ve said this before with some of my clients as a personal example, but if I’m being 100% transparent, improving my physical health/fitness as a goal on its own is not as intrinsically meaningful/motivating as it honestly probably should be (my apologies to all of my medical providers). What is motivating however, is the thought that being healthier/stronger/more physically active means I will be around longer to be engaged with the things that matter to me (being actively present/engaged with my wife/daughter, for example)
Life Domain Five: Growing & Improving Mentally
Similar to my physical health goals, keeping my brain & creativity developing is another focus that I strive to improve upon, so I can keep my thoughts, creativity, and generous sprinkling of hare-brained schemes ongoing as long as possible.
Monthly Goal for this Domain: Read on a regular basis, with the goal of completing my current book and putting a solid dent in another.
Why it Matters: The legend Levar Burton worked hard for the majority of my childhood to get me to fall in love with reading. And Sweet Christmas did that man (and a handful of others) create an undying love for reading in my heart & soul. Fiction or Non-fiction, does not matter. Just as long as it is a book I can sink my teeth into and either find entertainment, knowledge/insights, or if I'm really lucky, both!
Life Domain Six: More Involved in Social Activities
For as long as I can recall, I have been a fairly introverted/socially anxious individual. Because of this, I have often struggled to make the necessary efforts to develop & maintain a social life outside of my family & work. When I worked at various hospitals and treatment programs, this was less of an issue since I had a solid amount of social interactions when I went to work. Ever since I transitioned to private practice full time where I primarily see clients virtually, there are unfortunately days where I interact with few people outside of my family and clients (much to my wife's chagrin sometimes).
Monthly Goal for this Domain: Sign up for an online Dungeons & Dragons campaign.
Why it Matters: I'm sure you are all aware by now, but I love Nerd shit with all my being. Despite that, I have not played Dungeons & Dragons in my life until late last month where I signed up for an online one-shot campaign to help me learn how to play. I fell in love with the process almost immediately, and knew I was going to need to do it once again.
And there you have it folks! My apologies for taking a full calendar week to get this written, but I will do my best to check in at the end of the month with how everything went! Check back in later compadres!
Comments