Monday, January 4, 2010

New Beginnings

"...For if they never should have bitter they could not know the sweet."

It's a new year. Funny, I don't feel all that different. It's like having a birthday, you are technically one year older but yet you look and feel the same as you did the day before. But because of some mark on some calendar adopted by some Pope back in 1582, we get a chance to designate a particular day more special than other days. It's a day where we get to mentally wipe the slate clean and start fresh. We get to say, "last year I had some bad habits" or "last year some bad things happened" but "this year will be different." We start off the new year thinking this is going to be the best one yet, the one where you get everything in your life just exactly the way you want it to be. We have grand ideas of these great goals, but within two weeks 30% of us have already given up and only 50% of us make it three months. Which is exactly why only 40% of us even bother to set new years resolutions at all.

Those aren't great odds. But I'm going to do it anyway. The year 2009 was pretty much one of the worst years of my adult life. It was tough mentally, physically, emotionally. I am determined to take 2009 and learn from it and make the subsequent years all that much better. I took the bitter so that I can appreciate the sweet all that much more.

So in order to make 2010 better and make 2010 where I want to be mentally, physically, and emotionally, here are my goals that I'd like to share:
  • I want to get organized. I want to have every closet, drawer, and nook and cranny organized. I want everything to have a home and a purpose or it is gone. I don't want to have to rely on a housekeeper to keep my life in order.
  • I want to be healthy. I want to eat healthy and exercise at least five times a week. If that leads me to my wish of losing a gazillion pounds, that would be even better. But ultimately I want to make sure I am healthy so I am around for my family for a long time and I want to be happy and secure with what I look like.
  • I want to become a better photographer. I want to learn to use my camera better and take better pictures. I want to one day take the darn thing off of auto.
  • I want to document the life of my children and myself for posterity. This is simple, I resolve to blog more. There are a lot of reasons I didn't blog much last year. I'm taking all of those away so that I have no reason not to blog at least five times a week.
  • I want to have a work life balance. This has always been a struggle. I still haven't figured out my action plan for this one. I just know that I need to make sure I put more time and attention to my children and husband and less on my work. If I don't, I'll fail at my other goals.

It's a tall list, but I think it's reasonable. I just need to set aside a little time each day. We'll see how far I get. Hopefully I'll be one of the minority success statistics rather than the majority that give up after three months.

So, how about you? What resolutions or goals have you set for yourself? How do you plan to make this year better than the ones before?

13 comments:

Lindsay said...

Woo hoo! Bridget's back!

Steph said...

Welcome back and Happy New Year! You are right, setting aside time each day to work on these things slowly is the way to do it, I fall off the track so often with this though.

My goals are to stay organized. I can get organized, but can't stay that way for long. Second would be to drop the baby weight after the baby is due in May in time for my sister in law's wedding in September. Tall order on that one, but hopefully the motivation of having to wear a bridesmaid dress will do it for me!

Anonymous said...

Yay! It's so good to see you around again, Bridget. :)

I'm not a huge fan of resolutions, but the end of 2009 has not been very kind to me in the health department, so my iron-clad resolution is to figure out what the balls is wrong with me and GET BETTER. I'm also finishing up a sweater a started knitting for my husband last December, and I've resolved to finish it while it is still cold enough for him to wear this winter. Other than that, the rest of my resolutions are capricious - read more, work more with textiles, and teach myself how to crochet. Piece of cake.

Anonymous said...

Regarding the sweater: last December as in 2008. Hrmph.

London said...

Glad to see you back!

Like Steph, one of my goals is to loose the baby weight after this one is born in May. I'd also like to stay on top of Batman's preschool and spend more quality time with him!

Karen said...

Getting organized is a big goal for me in 2010. I always go to other people's houses and everything has a place. Everything has a place here too....all over the place!! Good to see you back.

LauraC said...

Welcome back to that same old place you where you started at. HA HA!

I am pretty ready to put 2009 behind me too. And funnily enough, you and I have some similar goals! I am doing Project 365 on my other blog and going crazy with the lack of auto.

Jon and I also sat down to have our year end budget conversation and walked away with a new resolve to have our life be a lot more organized. On Friday night is our Case pow-wow where we talk about when he is going to travel, a menu plan, and what we HAVE to get accomplished that week. Once we're done with the things we have to get done then we can watch tv and dick around on the internet to our hearts content.

Also consider joining our 500 miles in 2010 challenge!!!

Amanda @ notsoextraordinary said...

so glad to see you back to blogging! good luck on your goals!

Michelle said...

Wow those are huge goals! They're definitely more ambitious than mine are... andI think mine are pretty ambitious -- all of them involve removing stressors from my life! Fingers crossed for you!

Joanna said...

I've decided that this coming decade is going to be the Greatest Decade. If we call it that enough, maybe it will come true.

I'd like to wish you a happy New Year, and I can't wait until the Fall get together to hear how everything goes.

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

Mel said...

Amen to one day taking the camera off auto. I hope I get there too! And I'm glad you are resolving to blog more, because I like to read your blog.

Kara said...

I look forward to your blogging resolution. I have missed seeing your updates.