Resolutions are for pussies...

When the new year rolls around, you hear lots of talk about New Year’s Resolutions.  A lot of “I’m going to change”, or “I’m going to do better”.  People swear the minute that clock strikes 12, they’re going to drastically alter their personalities and lives and remove or change whatever part of their body or personality or life they think is holding them back.  I call bullshit.

I hate resolutions.  I’m just as guilty as the next guy or gal about making resolutions, and the same thing happens to me that happens to all of them.  I fail.  They fail.  Resolutions were made to be broken (and all this time you thought it was rules).  Because it happens more often than not, people have begun to expect failure when a resolution is made at the start of the new year.  It’s sad (like bummer-sad, not boo-hoo-sad), and I refuse to play the resolution game for another year.

This year, instead of resolutions, I have set goals for myself.  Calling them “goals” makes them sound more real (and who doesn’t like to score, nudge nudge wink wink), and eliminates the stigma that comes with “resolutions”.  A resolution is a thought-process; a goal is an end result.  So here are my goals for 2012.  I’ve made 12 of them, symbolically one for each month of the new year, and because 12 happens to be my favorite number (although I’ll be working on them at the same time, of course).

1.  Become a better role-model for my children.  This means taking better care of myself, and better watching what I say and do, and not just when the kids are around.  If I’m a better person, I can raise them to be better people.  And positive role models are crucial for young children.

2.  Get back in shape.  I don’t want to say “lose weight”, because that isn’t my end goal.  I want to be able to play at the park with my kids for hours without feeling completely exhausted afterwards.  I want to be able to wear the clothes I owned when my husband and I met.  I want to feel attractive again, and maybe even be considered a MILF (racey, I know, but who wouldn’t) by some random dude.  Marriage doesn’t equate to complacency, so I’m going to get off my ass this year and get back in shape.  I’ll post starting stats in a weight-loss blog later.

3.  Stick to a budget.  We have one, and I update it frequently, but we’re not great at sticking to it.  Debt is dumb, and our debt is a rock around our necks these days.  I don’t like it.  I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired, as the saying goes (Dave Ramsey, anyone?).  This year, we’re going to stick to the budget, start using cash instead of a debit card, learn to shop wisely (coupons, coupons and more coupons) and pay down our debt snowball.  We won’t eliminate our debt this year, but by adhering to a realistic budget, we might at least make a dent in it.

4.  Finish a novel.  I have at least three separate novels in progress at the moment, and I’d like to aim to finish at least one of them.  I’m not saying they’re great, or even publish-worthy.  But I’ve written them, and they deserve to be finished.

5.  Have another baby.  This one is pretty self-explanatory.

6.  Spend more quality time with my kids.  This means less television (already making progress here, since we got rid of our DVR – I know, ouch!), more reading, less computer, more outside, less “me”, more “them”.  They’re only little once, and I want to enjoy it.

7.  Actually make progress on my scrapbooking.  I’m behind, and it sucks.  It’s time to dedicate real time to getting caught up.  My memory sucks, so my scrapbooks are the only thing that help me remember great times that have come and gone.  Plus, my “to be scrapbooked” pile is getting stupidly large.

8.  Make a real effort to take E to church.   V is still just too little.  He doesn’t enjoy it, and I can’t enjoy it when I have to spend the whole service in the cry room in the back.  I might as well be watching it on television.  We’ll have to take turns between the hubby and me, each taking her on alternating weeks, but we can make it work.

9.  This one I’m stealing from the friend who inspired me to start blogging again, but modifying slightly.  I want to read 26 new books this year.  That’s one every two weeks.  I can probably read slightly more than that, but sometimes life gets away from me, and goals that set you up to fail are crap.  So 26 is the magic number.

10.  Organize my side of the garage.  I have craft stuff like you would not believe.  It’s gone haywire, though, and I can’t even sit at my craft table to work.  So I’m going to spend actual time getting it cleaned up and reorganized.

11.  Make and keep a schedule.  I function better with a schedule (I can be very linear sometimes, which I prefer to being called "anal"), and my life seems to go more smoothly with a schedule.  Plus, without one, I’ll never fit in time for all the goals listed above.

12.  Live the life God gave me.  Things don’t always work out the way we think they should, or the way we want them to.  I’m going to stop envying the lives of others, and learn to truly enjoy the life I was given.  I have a lot of great things in my life, and it’s high time I stopped and really looked at them.


So there you have them.  My 12 goals for 2012.  I'll be sure to post updates on Shake-it-off Sundays to let you know how various parts of the goal list are progressing.  Feel free to hold me accountable, dear reader. Lord knows I need all the help I can get.