05 January 2011

2011 Resolutions

I like to take my time making my resolutions. The end of the year is such a flurry of activity that there's not really time to think things through until the dust of the holidays begins to settle. But now I have had time to think and here's what I've come up with...

1. Save -- last year was not a great year financially. I had hoped to get on a budget and I still hope to do that, but mostly I want to save more money for the inevitable rainy days.

2. Smile and have fun -- it sounds silly maybe, but I've been thinking about how important it is to look for the positive rather than focus on the negative. And that life should be more fun than drudgery or negativity. It is easy to get bogged down in what you don't have or can't do or don't want to do, butI have a lot to smile about and enjoy and life is generally better when you're smiling, laughing and having fun. And now that I have my braces off, smiling is a lot more fun!

3. Stay on top of my email -- email is a huge part of both my work life and my personal life and in last year's storm of work I let it all get out of control. I lost track of emails for work, I didn't reply to friends in a timely way, I generally let my email turn into chaos both in my work and personal accounts. There's no need for that. I am going to read email as soon as I can and then deal with it as soon as I can. That means responding or filing or deleting as appropriate. This maybe my biggest challenge of the year, but I think it will be worth it if I can make some real progress.

4. Continue eating well -- after working really hard to lose almost 30 pounds last year this past month I really slipped back into my old, bad ways of eating and it is showing on the scale (and in my jeans). I worked too hard to go back so (like millions of others) I am back on the good eating wagon with every intention of staying there. I feel better and I look better when I'm eating better so there's really no reason not to.

5. Commit to my blog -- last year I was pitiful in the amount of postings. I need to up it's priority and think about setting aside specific times for it -- maybe even a schedule. I don't want to stop blogging, but I don't want to do it half-assed either. I think that even if I can only commit to once a week, that is better than blogging only when I remember as I did it last year. I'm working on this plan. (And not giving up yet Ms. Musings. Thank you for the encouragement!)

3 comments:

Emily Barton said...

Ooo, I really like #2, because I was just thinking to myself this morning that I am going to try to make 2011 the year of thinking and being positive. Don't know how successful I will be, but I'm going to try. Good luck with the email challenge. I can sympathize, and am too chicken to make it a new year's resolution.

tracie valentino said...

These are all great--mine are almost exactly the same (except for the saving, which I think we can all agree Mattio does enough for everyone). The other thing I am adding to my list is commenting on blogs more often--I have to stop lurking! :)

ZoesMom said...

Emily - we can be positive influences on each other. I'm hooeful about the email thing. We'll see...

Tracie - indeed Mattio takes care of more than his share of saving. Rob does not. That is good and bad. :-)