New Year's Resolutions.
So I had mentioned in my previous entry that I wanted to make some New Year's Resolutions for this year. I usually don't make any because I've always kind of seen them as pointless.
I think the reason I always saw them as pointless is that I never thought I'd be able to really achieve them. I figured, "Why bother?"
This year I feel like I can actually achieve what I want to, and that if I set reasonable goals and actually follow through, then I can do whatever I set myself to do.
So, without further ado, here are the seven things I resolve to do in the New Year:
1. Get Healthier! : Okay, I realize this is pretty vague and uninteresting. But I feel like there's more of an overarching theme here than a specific goal. I don't really want to lose a number of pounds, or be able to lift a set number of weight. I just want to be healthier overall.
What does that entail, you ask? Well, eating better, for one. Last year was terrible in terms of my diet. I think I ate more takeout and junk in that year alone than I had in all of my previous years.
More specifically, I want to make damn sure I eat enough fruits and vegetables, and less starchy empty calories. I want my food to have nutritional value. I also want to eat a lot less sugar and salt. I don't have a big sweet tooth, but I have a serious craving for salty foods a lot. And usually the saltiest, tastiest foods are full of fat and have little to no nutritional value.
I also would like to be more active. I feel like I have the potential to be a reasonably fit person, but I've never tested my limits before. In high school, I was one of the last to walk over the line for the mile "run". I usually took the lazy gym class where we played ping pong, and did square dancing. (Okay, to be fair, everyone had to do square dancing, but it's still not a very active activity.)
I will schedule days in which to wake up early and either walk/jog in my neighborhood, or I will netflix a workout routine that I feel I am capable of completing. When I feel like I've surpassed what I've set out to do for that week, I will up the ante. Try a more complicated routine. Jog a little farther/faster. And work my way up from there.
I will also stop sitting on my ass in front of the computer all day and go out sometimes. I rarely walk around even in my own house anymore. My computer is in the kitchen, the longest walk I need to make is to the bathroom or bedroom to go to sleep! Obviously, I do not lead a very active lifestyle, so getting out and about will not only improve my health, but it will also help me to become more social! But that's a different resolution to come...
In summation; less garbage, more nourishing foods. More activity in general, but also scheduled activity as well.
2. Get a Job! : Mostly for my own benefit. I want more money to play with, and it will ease our stress if we have a few extra dollars leeway a month. There are also things that I want to purchase for my own happiness in life that I can't unless I either ask for it from Dan, or I purchase it myself. I would prefer to be able to make my own purchases when I need or want to. Dan buys things for himself all the time with his own money, and I'd like to be able to do the same. Also, I don't currently feel like much of an independent adult, and getting a job will at least give me a semblance of that feeling.
3. Write More! : Again, mostly for my own benefit. I feel more at ease, and more peaceful when I write an entry. To take a page out of Timmy's book, I essentially just want some annotations about how I'm doing emotionally and mentally. Basically I want to keep tabs on myself. Sometimes I'll look back on my journal and my diary and think, "What was I doing between this time and this time?" And more often than not I can't remember. It's nice to just have even a vague idea of where I am at a specific time in my life, and where I'm heading.
4. Take More Pictures! : Not only do I want to be able to know mentally where I was in life, but I'd also like to keep track of how I looked at times in my life, and how other things looked as well. Images are fantastic for helping bring about memories you may have forgotten temporarily. I would like more photographic evidence that I've lived my life, and this was how I looked, and these were the various people that played a part in my life. I also would like to keep tabs on how I age. For personal vanity reasons.
5. Be More Social! : Not in any big way. Obviously getting out of the house more and finding a job are big steps in that direction, but I want to be more actively social. I've seen more of my best friend in 2010 than I had seen her in the years between high school and then, and I loved it. We had fun, we talked a lot, we bonded even more. And while I absolutely loved it all, I feel like I don't get to experience that anywhere near enough. So I would like to make more friends. Not bestestest friends or even best friends. Just people that I could call up and say hi, or people I could randomly decide to have lunch with. And obviously I'm not looking to turn into some social butterfly that has a million friends. I'm honestly looking for quality over quantity. But there's nothing wrong with having a few acquaintances as well.
6. Be Less Negative! : This is kind of a big thing for me. I'm more negative than positive when it comes to life in general. I tend to be somewhat pessimistic about things and I would really like to be able to see the brighter side more often. It will be hard to change my thought patterns, and to stop seeing the bad in everything, but just because you see the bad doesn't mean you can't focus more on the good instead. Most of my negative outlook stems from a childhood and part of an adulthood of difficulty and mental manipulation, so I don't expect it to change overnight. But it is definitely something I can put a conscious effort into changing.
7. Enjoy Life! : Cliché, I know. But I feel like it applies. It ties into being less negative, but I thought it deserved it's own category. Humanity as a whole takes so much for granted. Especially in first world nations. And I would really like to just stop once in a while and really enjoy and marvel at some of the things we've been able to accomplish for ourselves and others. We live in a time when we can talk to someone on the other side of the world with the push of a button or the click of a mouse! And yet we still have people who are starving that have no where to sleep. To paraphrase a quote I've heard many times over; "The world is awesome and nobody is happy." I, for one, could use that dose of reality sometimes. That momentary jolt from the humdrum, that allows me to just sit back and say, "Wow. My life is pretty fucking sweet."
So there ya go. My list of resolutions. It may be incomplete, and at times vague, but this is where I begin.
I think I'll check in with this list in another month. And then six months. And then a year. To see how far I've progressed and what I can continue to work on. Maybe I'll add things, or take things away. Who knows?
It's a New Year, and it's as good a time as any to get my life going.
I think the reason I always saw them as pointless is that I never thought I'd be able to really achieve them. I figured, "Why bother?"
This year I feel like I can actually achieve what I want to, and that if I set reasonable goals and actually follow through, then I can do whatever I set myself to do.
So, without further ado, here are the seven things I resolve to do in the New Year:
1. Get Healthier! : Okay, I realize this is pretty vague and uninteresting. But I feel like there's more of an overarching theme here than a specific goal. I don't really want to lose a number of pounds, or be able to lift a set number of weight. I just want to be healthier overall.
What does that entail, you ask? Well, eating better, for one. Last year was terrible in terms of my diet. I think I ate more takeout and junk in that year alone than I had in all of my previous years.
More specifically, I want to make damn sure I eat enough fruits and vegetables, and less starchy empty calories. I want my food to have nutritional value. I also want to eat a lot less sugar and salt. I don't have a big sweet tooth, but I have a serious craving for salty foods a lot. And usually the saltiest, tastiest foods are full of fat and have little to no nutritional value.
I also would like to be more active. I feel like I have the potential to be a reasonably fit person, but I've never tested my limits before. In high school, I was one of the last to walk over the line for the mile "run". I usually took the lazy gym class where we played ping pong, and did square dancing. (Okay, to be fair, everyone had to do square dancing, but it's still not a very active activity.)
I will schedule days in which to wake up early and either walk/jog in my neighborhood, or I will netflix a workout routine that I feel I am capable of completing. When I feel like I've surpassed what I've set out to do for that week, I will up the ante. Try a more complicated routine. Jog a little farther/faster. And work my way up from there.
I will also stop sitting on my ass in front of the computer all day and go out sometimes. I rarely walk around even in my own house anymore. My computer is in the kitchen, the longest walk I need to make is to the bathroom or bedroom to go to sleep! Obviously, I do not lead a very active lifestyle, so getting out and about will not only improve my health, but it will also help me to become more social! But that's a different resolution to come...
In summation; less garbage, more nourishing foods. More activity in general, but also scheduled activity as well.
2. Get a Job! : Mostly for my own benefit. I want more money to play with, and it will ease our stress if we have a few extra dollars leeway a month. There are also things that I want to purchase for my own happiness in life that I can't unless I either ask for it from Dan, or I purchase it myself. I would prefer to be able to make my own purchases when I need or want to. Dan buys things for himself all the time with his own money, and I'd like to be able to do the same. Also, I don't currently feel like much of an independent adult, and getting a job will at least give me a semblance of that feeling.
3. Write More! : Again, mostly for my own benefit. I feel more at ease, and more peaceful when I write an entry. To take a page out of Timmy's book, I essentially just want some annotations about how I'm doing emotionally and mentally. Basically I want to keep tabs on myself. Sometimes I'll look back on my journal and my diary and think, "What was I doing between this time and this time?" And more often than not I can't remember. It's nice to just have even a vague idea of where I am at a specific time in my life, and where I'm heading.
4. Take More Pictures! : Not only do I want to be able to know mentally where I was in life, but I'd also like to keep track of how I looked at times in my life, and how other things looked as well. Images are fantastic for helping bring about memories you may have forgotten temporarily. I would like more photographic evidence that I've lived my life, and this was how I looked, and these were the various people that played a part in my life. I also would like to keep tabs on how I age. For personal vanity reasons.
5. Be More Social! : Not in any big way. Obviously getting out of the house more and finding a job are big steps in that direction, but I want to be more actively social. I've seen more of my best friend in 2010 than I had seen her in the years between high school and then, and I loved it. We had fun, we talked a lot, we bonded even more. And while I absolutely loved it all, I feel like I don't get to experience that anywhere near enough. So I would like to make more friends. Not bestestest friends or even best friends. Just people that I could call up and say hi, or people I could randomly decide to have lunch with. And obviously I'm not looking to turn into some social butterfly that has a million friends. I'm honestly looking for quality over quantity. But there's nothing wrong with having a few acquaintances as well.
6. Be Less Negative! : This is kind of a big thing for me. I'm more negative than positive when it comes to life in general. I tend to be somewhat pessimistic about things and I would really like to be able to see the brighter side more often. It will be hard to change my thought patterns, and to stop seeing the bad in everything, but just because you see the bad doesn't mean you can't focus more on the good instead. Most of my negative outlook stems from a childhood and part of an adulthood of difficulty and mental manipulation, so I don't expect it to change overnight. But it is definitely something I can put a conscious effort into changing.
7. Enjoy Life! : Cliché, I know. But I feel like it applies. It ties into being less negative, but I thought it deserved it's own category. Humanity as a whole takes so much for granted. Especially in first world nations. And I would really like to just stop once in a while and really enjoy and marvel at some of the things we've been able to accomplish for ourselves and others. We live in a time when we can talk to someone on the other side of the world with the push of a button or the click of a mouse! And yet we still have people who are starving that have no where to sleep. To paraphrase a quote I've heard many times over; "The world is awesome and nobody is happy." I, for one, could use that dose of reality sometimes. That momentary jolt from the humdrum, that allows me to just sit back and say, "Wow. My life is pretty fucking sweet."
So there ya go. My list of resolutions. It may be incomplete, and at times vague, but this is where I begin.
I think I'll check in with this list in another month. And then six months. And then a year. To see how far I've progressed and what I can continue to work on. Maybe I'll add things, or take things away. Who knows?
It's a New Year, and it's as good a time as any to get my life going.