I hope everyone has a spectacular year.
xoxo
Tag Archives: new year’s
new year’s eve: resolution recap and next year’s commitment
So, what a year. 2012 has been one of the most fun years of my life. I guess it’s pretty great to be 25. I laughed a lot, exercised, and got lots of sun. It’s amazing how these three things can be a recipe for happiness.
2012 has also been one of the most challenging years of my life, mostly because of how difficult I found my “dream job” to be. In my personal life, Ryan and I are still growing into independent and driven individuals, which can create challenges. But with that, we are also becoming more supportive, loving, and understanding.
Since I’ve started his blog, I’ve taken an annual look back on my life each New Year. And it’s been pretty rewarding. Sometimes I get so caught up in the day to day, that it’s hard to feel like I’ve ever accomplished anything. I’m so driven, once I complete a goal, I can only think of the 20 others on my list. I hardly have a second of satisfaction and find it hard to appreciate the things I’ve done. Ryan is really great at reminding me these things when I feel like a complete failure. And I’m working on taking more frequent pauses to appreciate myself and my accomplishments throughout the year. Here are my 2012 resolutions, you can see how I did below.
This year I:
- Ran my first 10k and then a half marathon
- Rode horses ♥
- Made $500 off of my first professional freelance gig (I built someone a legit website!)
- Beefed up my web development, photography and photoshop skills
- Lost weight (approx. 10-15 lbs)
- Spent too much money
- Bought my own domain and began hosting my own blog (thanks for reading, everyone!)
- Made a pizza cat
- Biked the St. Marks trail (a few times)
Next Year I will:
- Make a quilt
- Do a pull up
- Write more
- Continue taking at least a photo a month with ryan
- Open up a Roth IRA
- Re-design my blog, it’s still using a default template (obviously)
- Learn how to embroider
- Open an etsy shop (or some equivalent)
- Run another half marathon
So what about you? How was your 2012? What are your goals for 2013?
it’s not too late: last minute new year’s resolutions
We’re only two weeks into the new year. Maybe you’re sick of hearing about resolutions. Maybe they’re passé and maybe everyone has given up. But here are some last minute resolutions that are easy to incorporate into your life. Plus, they’re completely achievable.
Plan a menu for the week and stick to it. Plan it on Sunday, then do all of your shopping and cooking. You’ll never be thinking, what am I going to eat today?
Keep a current resume and carry a business card at all times. You never know who will ask you for one.
Open a retirement account. I know most of my friends don’t have retirement accounts and it scares me. Start saving folks!
Only buy clothes that fit. Stop spending money on something that doesn’t look perfect on you.
Mend your clothes. If you have a nice pair of jeans that are a bit too long and you never wear them because of that reason, drop the $20 to get them altered. Else, they’re just collecting dust in your closet. Or mend them yourself!
Make sure your financial accounts are working hard for you. If not, switch. I recently switched to an Ally interest checking account and savings accounts. They have the best interest rate (hello, interest checking!). Every savings account I have has lowered its interest rate this year. Also, make sure you’re not being charged outrageous interest by your credit card company. Call and see if they’ll lower it. If not, think about switching.
Take someone special out to dinner. This is an easy one. It’s always nice to make someone’s day.
Upgrade your pet’s life. Set a resolution for your cat or dog. Make them happier. I just resolved to spend more time playing with my cats. They think it’s a good resolution.
new year, new opportunities
Last night my friends and I discussed our 2011 and 2012 New Year’s Resolutions. I took a peak back to my 2011 New Year’s Resolutions to see how I did at reaching them.
On this day, last year I discussed how fearful I was of everything. I set a few resolutions that I thought would challenge me and put me outside of my comfort zone. Here’s the recap:
2011 Resolution Recap
- Take the GRE: Done. Rocked it.
-Complete a 5k: Done. Also, rocked it.
-Apply for jobs that I want: This was the hardest. I applied for jobs weekly and had a couple of interviews that didn’t go anywhere. I faced 12 months of rejection. It wasn’t until the last few days in December that I was finally offered an awesome job. The interview was grueling and I felt mostly under qualified for the position, but despite that, I was offered a project management position. This was significant for a lot of reasons. I’ve wanted to get out of the Communications field that I currently worked in. It’s hard to find work and it’s saturated with qualified grads. And I love doing project management. This is a position in a growing market and my future career prospects (and paycheck) just skyrocketed.
-Cut down on plastic: This was another tough one. Except from using reusable bags, I think this one was a bust. It made me realize is that plastic is everywhere. I can’t buy anything without having some form of plastic attached to it: straws, clothing tags, all food packaging. This resolution caused a lot of awareness and stress. I’m not sure how to move forward from here. If you have any ideas for using less plastic, I’d love to hear them. Consume less is the only thing that comes to mind, which isn’t so bad.
-Meditate often: Well, I tried, but not very hard. I just couldn’t find the time. I guess that’s not very Zen. I did go to a Buddhist temple and work on finding a meditation group. I never went back though. See fear above.
-Make money doing something freelance: Yes. It wasn’t quite what I expected. But I got a paycheck. No, it wasn’t sex work.
-Learn to crochet: No. But I did take a knitting class and am working semi-diligently on a scarf I’ve never done before. I also have really enhanced my cross-stitching skills. Crocheting will be on the horizon.
- Learn to do without: Certainly I’ve made a lot of progress toward this. I got rid of a lot of stuff this year. Cutting consumption is difficult when we live in a society that glorifies consumerism. I know things won’t make me happy and stuff is just future trash. I hope to cut even more this year.
2012 Resolution Time
-Blog more: I spent a lot of my free time this year studying for the GRE and applying for jobs. I’m hoping that I can spend more time blogging and be more honest in my blog.
-Run a 10k: The 10k is set for April. I have to double my longest distance in four months.
-Cook through a cookbook: I’m not sure which one yet. If the book is too thick, I might just make it a resolution to cook 50 items out of a cookbook or some variation of that.
-Meditate Often and be Zen about things. Also, worry less and don’t fear change or the future.
I set fewer goals for 2012 because I’ll be spending most of my efforts on that last one. Pretty much, any given second, I’m worrying about something, fearing the future, or having anxiety anticipating some type of change. It’s no way to live, and I’d like to be free of these things.
Happy 2012 folks. What are your resolutions?
what are you doing new year’s eve?
Happy New Year’s friends.
the weekender: new year’s eve dress edition
It’s already New Year’s Eve. Everything about it is so overwhelming.
2010 Recaps:
Graduating and officially starting my life
Being fortunate enough to find a job I love right out of college
Going to Portland with my best friend
Serving as editor of The Yeti and publishing its first issue in years
Starting a running club – one of the hardest things I’ve ever done
Being with my boyfriend, who makes me happy every day of my life
Starting this blog, which was terrifying
I’ll work on my 2011 goals in another post.
Until then here are some gorgeous dresses to drool over. I wish I was wearing these tonight (all @ Modcloth).
Here are some cheaper, skimpier dresses from F21. They had a lot more New Year’s Glitz.
Have a Happy New Year everyone!
