The clanking of crystal, explosions off in the distance.

Well, I'm a week late, but I'm finally here with a proper new years post! I'm home in Portland, settled back into work, and ready to really begin 2014. I love the new year - January 1st feels like I just pressed a big "reset" button. I like to sit down, think everything through, make lots of lists and goals, and reorganize my life. The calm doesn't last long, but it feels nice. This year, on new years day, Taylor and I went to a cafe in town to work on grad school apps and other work, so I used this as a chance to decide on my resolutions for 2014.

Last year was the first year I actually wrote down resolutions. I found that one thing that really helped was coming up with "catch phrases" for each goal. That way, it's easy to remind myself. This year I came up with four general resolutions for how I want to live this year. Each one has a small, specific goal attached to it to help me achieve the most important parts of each resolution. I thought I would share a little bit since I know it helps me to hear how others go about setting and achieving their goals and resolutions...

Just Do It: This was one of my resolutions last year as well...I did great at the beginning, but as my life/schedule went through a few big changes and transitions I kind of fell off the band wagon. I made this a resolution because I am a terrible procrastinator. My goal isn't to stop procrastinating altogether, but just to get little things that can be done easily out of the way. Take five minutes to respond emails when you get home, rather than thinking about how you don't want to do it and surfing the internet for an hour to avoid it...stuff like that. This one was inspired by the book The Happiness Project (if you want to read more about it).

Be Present: This goal is about limiting screen time. I spend way too much time on my computer and phone. Admittedly, a lot of the time I spend in front of a screen is necessary...Blogging can't be done offline, and neither can many of my other responsibilities. But it's easy to get sucked in. The (teeny tiny) specific goal I made to start working on this one is to not check my phone first thing in the morning.

Be Passionate: I want to be proactive about pursuing opportunities to do what I love, I want to make more time to work on developing my skills to do what I am passionate about. Sometimes I procrastinate so much, I find myself even procrastinating doing the things I am really passionate about. How silly is that?

Be Kind: To myself and others. Don't worry, I didn't make this a resolution because I realized I'm a mean person :) It's nice to remind yourself to be extra kind every once in a while, even if it already seems like a given. We can all get sucked up in complaining about what some one did or how someone acted...any negativity, even if it's not about yourself, is negativity that you're bringing into your life. Anyway, this one is mostly about being kind to myself (gosh, selfish much???). And by this I mean exercising, eating well, and sleeping more. First step is going to yoga this weekend. Maybe now that I wrote that on the internets for all to see I will actually follow through...!

Ok, well, those are my resolutions! Do you make new years resolutions? Or do you think they are stupid? I would love to hear from you!

(PS The title of this post comes from the song "The New Year" by Death Cab For Cutie)

1 comment:

  1. Great resolutions! Love the "Just do it" one. You're so right. I always think about not wanting to do something. It would be much easier to just do it and have it out of the way! Here's to a great 2014!

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