Every year I make two sets of resolutions, those that I want to accomplish for my age (Year 27) and those that I want to accomplish for the year. While my birthday goals are more closely related to growth as an individual and self improvement, my yearly goals are more broad and focus on my overall life and positioning for long term change. I may be an overachiever, I know.
For 2013, I’m concentrating on creating some concrete life changes that will enable me to help reach other goals I have set in the future.
Time: Towards the end of 2012, I started clocking how much time I spent on FaceBook, watching TV, or doing some sort of activity that essentially wasted precious moments. I was devastated when I saw the results. When people asked how my book was coming along, I replied with I just didn’t have the time. Lies. Truth is, I was not using my time wisely (note: the hours spent watching marathons of Finding Bigfoot do not count, as that is obviously a worthwhile endeavor). My resolution for 2013 is to use my time wisely. After reading study after study about how the most successful people rise early, I resolve to wake up earlier and schedule things that are important to me like an appointment, to ensure I set aside time to work on the things I care about.
Social: While paying attention to time wasted on FaceBook, I also realized how anti-social I was for a social media butterfly. Having a background in Sociology and constantly preaching that Social Networks are actually making us less social, I am going take my own advice and practice what I preach. This means trying to be social without using Social Media (blogging is excluded). Don’t get me wrong, I have met some really incredible people via FaceBook and Twitter, but I have met fewer in person. The other day I talked to a lady in Target about the advantages of using dried oregano in recipes over fresh and although it felt odd (stranger danger in the produce aisle), it also was nice to interact with those in my community in person. This resolution is slightly out of my comfort zone as I don’t usually enjoy meeting strangers, as I like to assume that most people are weird. I find more comfort being around animals than I do people. But I’m going to try…
Life: I’m letting the cat out of the bag- on September 3rd, 2013, I will walk over this bridge..
And down this aisle…
And say “I Do” in front of the most magical backdrop I could imagine (the Magic Kingdom) to the most incredible man I could ask for (referring to Brian, sorry Taylor Lautner- you missed the boat on this one) in front of the most intimate of friends and family we have.
It has been a journey for us to get to this step, and I cannot wait to enter this new chapter of our lives together.
Money: I know what you are thinking, Disney Wedding = $,$$$,$$$…and you are right, they are not inexpensive. That being said, nor is any other wedding. While it is true that we will be investing in our celebration, I still resolve to better budget (oh my goodness I said it) and be wiser about how I spend my money. After looking at where my money was spent in 2012, I came to the conclusion that I should buy stock in Target, Chipotle and Starbucks. Although I am not setting up place cards announcing, “Your centerpiece of flowers was in lieu of 246 Grande Salted Caramel Mochas,” I will need to scale back on my unnecessary spending habits in order to have everything I want without going into debt. This will be a good habit though to set myself up for the rest of my life, as unnecessary spending and not saving is unfortunately all too common. I would like to have a travel account, a house account, a retirement account, etc. Time to start making the changes now, and that means making a budget, tracking it and actually sticking to it!
2013 is going to be a whirlwind year full of change and I could not be more excited for it!
Cheers!
