Resolutions

It seems that New Year Resolutions are falling out of vogue. Apparently, they are just another way for us to feel disappointed by ourselves. Resolutions are being replaced by promises and words of the year.

I love words of the year. In fact, I've chosen one for myself. And I love promises. I've made a couple to myself. I'll share those later. Because today is about resolutions.

I love resolutions. I may be the last person that does, but I really do. Making a list, checking items off, for the whole year. Love it. I don't always complete all of them. I'm perfectly okay with that. I don't need to. But I love having a couple overall goals for the year. I like to look back at what I've accomplished and create a plan for what I want to accomplish this year.

January 1 is an arbitrary date. There is should be nothing that magical about going from Wednesday to Thursday, or about changing to a brand new wall calendar. But there is.  There is something about a new year that feels like a huge, fresh, blank page with endless potential.

My 2014 resolutions:

1. Run 3 5Ks and a 10K: I ended up running one 5K and one 10K. The other two 5Ks? We'll say I ran them on the treadmill, at home, untimed.

2. Pass my oral boards: Done!

3. Finish the basement: We met with contractors and had plans drawn up and got quotes and everything. And then found out that we may be moving. So this project was put on hold because we didn't feel like taking on a huge construction job while trying to sell a house.
4. Start decreasing my screen time: This is still a struggle, but I think I'm getting better. If anything, I'm recognizing how much time I'm spending on my phone and doing a better job turning it off and walking away.
5. Start a bullet journal: I did this and loved it. But Hubster surprised me with an Erin Condren planner for Christmas, so I've moved way beyond a simple bullet journal.

 

Even though 2014 was overall a stressful, rather discouraging year, it's nice to look back at this list and feel like I accomplished something. Which is why I'm going to go right ahead with my resolutions for 2015.

 

My 2015 resolutions:

 

1. Run 365 miles in 365 days. I'm committing to averaging a mile a day. I know I won't run every day and some weeks I'll probably skimp on distance. But with a whole year to average things over, I think I can do this.

 

2. Find a job. I'm in the middle of my job search, with another interview lined up. This isn't really a negotiable part of the year, but it will still feel good to cross this one off.

 

3. Move. Survive the move. Along with this comes all the other parts: find and buy another house. Sell our current house. Settle the kids into new schools. I know this is going to be extremely painful, but I'm hoping to weather this with as much calmness as possible.

 

4. Road trip. After our trip over the summer, I fell in love with road tripping. This year, I want to do at least one more. Even if it's just an extended weekend.

 

5. Organize. I have 1000s of pictures that need to be in photo books. I have boxes of papers that need to go into my empty file cabinet. I have a garage and a basement filled with things I may or may not need any more. I have blogs that I want to read but no good way to stay on top of it. I have posts I want to write, but no clear schedule on how to do so. I'm going to get on top of at least a couple of these. I have my shiny new Erin Condren planner. I just signed up for Bloglovin. I'm in the process of uploading my photos to photo book website. I'm all over this resolution.

 

Here at the beginning of the year, I have my road map for this year. During the year, I'll look back on this list and refocus if needs be. At the end of the year, I'll cross of what I did, evaluate why other things did not get done, and not feel terrible one way or the other.