New Year’s GOALS

I’m not very good at New Year’s resolutions.

I always begin with great intentions… like never eating fast food again, losing a ton of weight and getting an extra million followers for my blog. But within a week or two, I’m right back to normal – PLUS I’m feeling defeated and depressed that I started the year out as a failure.

I haven’t really even bothered making resolutions the last few years, instead just vaguely intending to do better. I’m not really sure what “better” I’ve been aiming for though, because it’s just the sensation that life is slipping away too quickly and I need to make some kind of changes.

For 2014 though, I’ve decided to give myself some goals. Not resolutions. Actual goals that I want to complete within the next 12 months. And to keep myself on track, I’m only going to have 6 goals on my list.

New Year’s Goal #1: Use my camera more and my iPhone less.
Last year, I created a book for Jack’s birthday that showed his growth from month to month. It’s a really cool thing to have on our shelf, and we both love paging through to see how big Jack has grown. I started grouping my photos for this past year’s book (to be done in February when he turns 2) and I realized that the majority of my pictures are from my iPhone. I HAVE a nice camera and I love using it! So, for the upcoming year I’m going to make it a point to pull out my REAL camera when capturing memories.

New Year’s Goal #2: Make a workout habit.
Notice that I’m not saying, “Lose 40 pounds” or “Go to the gym 7 days each week.” I really want to have a goal that is attainable and frankly putting myself on a crash diet simply doesn’t work for me. My goal for this year is to create a workout program that works for ME and my life. So that instead of looking back on this goal in a month thinking I’m a failure, I’m hopefully in the midst of keeping up with my new healthy habit, whatever that may be.

New Year’s Goal #3: Eat out less and home more.
Travis and I ate out A LOT when we first got together (almost 8 years ago) and we continued to eat out very, very often once Jack joined us. In the last month or so, I’ve been trying out more recipes and purposely cooking enough for multiple nights. It’s really helped on those nights where you’re coming home late from work and just want to throw something in your mouth (aka McDonalds). My goal for this next year is to keep up the good work – more new recipes, more ‘simple’ meals, and maybe even do some group cooking with my friend so that we always have something yummy in the freezer.

New Year’s Goal #4: Take Jack somewhere new each month.
Life is busy. Both Travis and I work full-time and weekends frequently become the only time I have for catching up on the laundry, grocery shopping, house cleaning, and more. With my new schedule of working from home two days each week, I’m hoping to get some of those chores finished in the morning before my workday even begins (since I have to be up by 6:30 to get Jack out the door anyway). With freed up weekends, I’d love to bring some more fun into our lives by exploring a little more. Whether it’s visiting the zoo, the aquarium, the Smithsonian museums, a new park or even a neighborhood pool, I want to make sure to take Jack someplace new every single month!

New Year’s Goal #5: Be more like the ant.
You know the old fable about the ant and the grasshopper? The ant works and works on collecting food, while the grasshopper tries to convince him to stop working and have fun. Once winter comes, the grasshopper is starving while the ant has plenty of food from when he was making his little stockpile like those people on Extreme Couponing.  The lesson of the story is that it’s fine to have fun today, but you have to prepare for the future. Travis and I have very similar views on money and saving, with neither of us really being that frivolous with our purchases. However, we can certainly do better. My money goals for the coming year are: grow our savings account, start a college savings plan for Jack, and pay off our last vehicle loan. Yes, that is actually three goals, but I think that they are all reachable with some small adjustments.

New Year’s Goal #6: Be the best blogger I can be.
I love my blog. I LOVE having this outlet for my thoughts, DIY projects and random things that make me laugh. I will be reaching my three year blog-anniversary in the spring, which is kind of incredible. Sometimes though, I take myself way too seriously and this blog brings out a bad side of me. I get super jealous when I see other bloggers doing way better than I am. I get really competitive and whiney and depressed and jealous. Just really, really jealous. And it sucks. This blog is not about making me feel like crap, it’s about celebrating the silliness of life. So for the next year (and beyond), I will STOP hating on myself and my blog. I will stop focusing on page-views and all the random crap that is thrown at me in Google Analytics. I will instead focus on all the amazing parts of blogging… like friends I have made, readers who comment so awesomely that I WISH we were friends in real life, and so much more.

There you go, my SIX goals for the New Year! I have to admit, I do feel pretty energized and excited when I look at them all typed up like this. Like, maybe I might actually accomplish them this year… which would be pretty darn cool!

How about you? Do you make resolutions or goals each year? What is one resolution that keeps appearing over and over and over again?

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