2015 New Years Resolutions

For the last month I’ve been thinking quite seriously about what my resolutions for the New Year will be. Each year I seem to forget and let the new year pass me by without actually making some solid goals for what I would like to accomplish in the coming calendar year. But, as another way the daily blogging challenge I have been participating in has shown me the benefit of blogging on my life, I am choosing to use this blog as a tool for growth and helping my goals play a more real part in my life by putting them up here. I expect this to help me be more mindful of what the goals I have set for the year are, and will also help me to feel more accountable to these resolutions and *hopefully* bring them to fruition quicker and in a more concrete way than thinking on January 1st “Hmm, I should get more done this year.” Because I don’t want to let time slip away from me, and to give me more of a stewing period for how I will focus on and accomplish my goals, I am posting these right here and now.

There are so many different areas I see in my life that I want to grow. Things I want to see and do, learn and experience. Because I know that placing too many tasks on any in-progress to-do list can make it too overwhelming too really get down to business on anything in particular, I have chosen my top 5 goals – areas that I see most important for self-improvement and self-enjoyment – that will be my main focus for the year.

A really neat idea that I liked, which I gleaned from this post on the Common Cents Mom blog, is to choose three words that you would like to be mindful about throughout the coming year. Words that would serve as a sort of mantra for how you will try to live your life, or what you’d like to focus on. For me, I think my main intent would include words like: Nourish, Create and Organize

So here you have them, My New Years Resolutions for the quickly approaching 2015.

Get organized. To achieve this, I will use the following steps and strategies:

• 10 minutes a day – A great easy tip I came across somewhere in my pregnancy that promised to help simplify my life was to spend 10 minutes a day organizing something in my home. I think if I commit to finding 10 minutes every day to organize something – anything – this could really help me get it together. I can find 10 minutes, right? Maybe?

• 40-hanger closet – I came across this great blog in a time when I just felt on the edge overwhelmed by how much clothes were overtaking my life. This post on downsizing her wardrobe to a 40-hanger closet really caught my attention. I love a lot of the ideas and suggestions within this post. I believe simplifying my wardrobe could help save me a lot of time and stress on laundry, folding/hanging, and even just getting dressed.
  When I first found the post, I carried through with a good purge of my closet and things, but at the time just couldn’t bring myself to downsize to only 40 hangers (it takes a bit of time by myself to go through things, try them on, assess, and pack up or put away again). My plan for the new year is to go through with a modified downsizing and reorganization of my closet with the 40-hanger idea as my basis. I’ll keep you updated about how I plan to modify this project, how everything is going, and how it may or may not change my day-to-day life.

• Get rid of stuff – All of the purging and downsizing will undoubtedly leave me with an even bigger collection of things I’ve already decided must go, but haven’t actually left my life yet. I seem to be a bit of a hoarder, and now that we have our own workshop storage for things we never/rarely use, the things that are no longer needed and loved find their way out there and lament over the fact that they’ll never be cherished again. Well, I plan to change this. Everything must go, and I have a lot of it. So I have a grand plan to set everything out properly in the graveyard of the purged workshop, call our community to come by and take every item for a donation (spare what you can/think it’s worth), and return the space to it’s original intention – a shop for working on projects in. I’d like to get back at least a little bit to put towards further organizing of our home, and whatever doesn’t go in a timely manner will be donated to local thrift stores.

Nourish.

• Make more of an effort to provide healthy family meals and snacks, and post at least one each week.

• Get outside with little Z for at least 10 minutes every day, and post at least one picture of where we spent our time each week.

• Provide Z with a variety of creative and interesting age-appropriate experiences. Post at least one experience each week.

Create.

• Learn at least 12 new songs on the guitar and ukulele. That’s only one every month. Here’s the part that’s going to really push my boundaries, though. I will attempt to post a video of the song I learned every month. I am crazy uncomfortable in front of a camera, and also in front of everyone (except children) playing and singing with either of these fine, stringed instruments. Playing in front with the ukulele seems less intimidating for some reason (is it the happy and playful sound that makes it seem less serious?), so you may be seeing more uke than guit-box.

• Write a children’s book. It would be great if I can do the whole thing, complete and self-published by the end of the year, but I will also accept a complete script or narration if that doesn’t quite pan out.

• Design and sew. I have been playing around with an idea for a children’s (and adults?) line of clothing for a while. I have a lot of design ideas in my head, a ton of material I’ve been collecting and saving for this reason over the last couple years, and I even have a name I’d like to give to my little business (if I can actually get some things made and up on the Etsy store I started quite a while ago). This Christmas I received some great books that will undoubtedly help me with the inspiration, motivation, and technical skills I’ll need to make my dream a reality. Watch out for future posts on how and what I make.

Happy (early) New Year, everyone! Let’s make the most of a new calendar year, and the opportunity to realize fresh starts in all manner of ways. What goals do you have for the New Year? Share them by commenting below, and if you thought I have some good ideas for what you and others could work on this year, please share this post using the little clickly buttons right beneath this. Cheers!