No Resoultions Please

Okay, so to be a little honest I've been battling with the whole "New Years Resolution" stuff. Oh sure it's great, except I am one of the people who NEVER seem to make it to January 2ND with a resolution. Therefore, I usually just skip them completely. Resolutions just don't work for me. So call me crazy, but I can set goals. I'm much better at those. Sure, in the long run they are the same thing, but not to me. I view a resolution as something you want to change and a goal as something you want to achieve.

So here are a few of my New Years goals:

1- Find a job. Hopefully one with full time (or close to it) hours, decent pay, and benefits. My expectations have been shot down over the past 6 months, so needless to say I'm going to be pretty open minded on this one.

2- Pay a large chunk of my student loan off. I hate debt. A lot. I was pretty lucky in not having a ton of money to pay back from college, but even what I have seems like way to much. My first payment came due in December and believe it or not, I'm already ahead on my payments. I don't plan on paying it off this year, or even next year, but I would like to pay as much as I can afford. Maybe when I get a new job and a steady income I can set a date I would like to have it completely paid off by.

3- Pay off my car. Another one on debt! At age 16 my parents gave me a set amount for a car. Anything above and beyond that amount, I have to repay them. This one should be easy to accomplish, even working on my current meager salary. Lucky for me, I don't have too far to go.

4- Visit Kali in Charleston. I had to have at least one fun one. Hopefully I wont have to wait too long on this one. I would have gone already, except our trip planned in the fall just didn't come together like we hoped it would.

5- Blog at least once a week. I've gotten slack, haven't I? Well, I would like to change that one if I can. There really isn't any reason for me not blogging besides my writer's block and lack of inspiration. Time is hardly ever an issue anymore.

6- Find an activity I enjoy. By activity I mean some sort of physical activity. I'm thinking yoga will be fun. I've always been an athlete and over the past 6 months, I've done NOTHING! Okay so I ran like once. The only way I can describe it is that my body is yearning for some sort of active fun. Trust me, you just feel better and even more rested when you are involved in some form of fitness. Plus it's just plain good for you.

7- Play with Bella every day. Okay so this one I do already, but it wouldn't hurt to put it on the list. We need to keep the girl active and healthy too. Not to mention I enjoy it just as much as she does.

8- Learn to manage my finances. I'm actually doing really well on this one. Of course the lack of finances makes that one easy. You can't spend money you don't have. (Unless you have credit cards, which I don't.) I've already decided the first day of the month is bill paying day. So whatever is left over after the bills is lived on and saved. I guess it would be better put as learning what to cut out and when to say no. I took a look and have cut out unnecessary spending, like taking dinner instead of eating out at work. The other one I might have a problem on is not buying stuff I don't need. Clothes and shoes are my weakness. If I like, I have money, and it's a good deal- I buy. I really need to cut that one down some too.

9- Read more books. I have such a love of the written word. I'm nearly addicted to it, but for some reason I've drifted away from it. I want to get back into reading more. It's good exercise for your mind. I was thrilled to pick up 3 new books yesterday for some super cheap prices. I started one last night, but I can't wait to dive into the others too.

Okay so that is about all I have come up with so far. Well not really, I have a few others in my head that are strictly between me and God. I have a feeling He is going to be working on me a lot in the near future. Which will be good. I welcome the change. Maybe it will make my goals more attainable or set more in motion. I don't know. I guess that is the beauty of a new year. A fresh start.



"You know the great thing, though, is that change can be so constant you don't even feel the difference until there is one. It can be so slow that you don't even notice that your life is better or worse, until it is. Or it can just blow you away; make you something different in an instant." - Life as a House