Cheers to 26!
It’s official, last week I turned 26. Call it sheer procrastination or a secret smart plan, I decided to quit making New Year’s Resolutions on the 1st of the year and instead focusing on realigning and reworking my goals on my birthday (or near it). Committing to resolutions after the holidays was always hard for me to jump into, especially now that I find myself usually traveling from coast to coast during the holidays, and so I decided to make a change! Besides, goals around my birthday make sense to me since it’s really my full year. Or maybe that’s just the rationalization I’ve made in my head.. either way, that’s my story and I’m sticking with it :-p
So what’s in the plans for my 26th year? Well, hopefully a lot! I have a lot of ideas running through my head. Sometimes too many considering there are only so many hours in the day but I’ve always been one to dream big!
If you read my blog anniversary post you already read about some of my blogging goals, which are a definite big part of some things I’d like to accomplish this year. So, on top of my blogging ambitions, here’s a few more personal things I’m working on in my 26th year.
- Be more realistic with my to-do lists and weekly goals. I’m notorious for going big or going home. I want to do it all, and I want to get everything done all at once. What I’ve realized I end up doing though is setting myself up for failure. I make long to-do lists (I love lists) of things I want to accomplish each week and then end up beating myself up if I hardly make a dent in my list. Most of the time it’s not because I’m lazy, it’s just that I haven’t clearly thought out the tasks at hand before writing them. If I have 4 tasks all of which take several hours each, of course I’m probably not going to get them all done on a Tuesday after work. While I think it’s good to push yourself, I have finally realized I need to be more considerate with my lists so I don’t get so frustrated with myself.
- Work at keeping my apartment neat and clean. I’ll be honest, I’m terrible at this. I’m not sure if my subconscious is rebelling for how clean my parents are or if I just inherited the messy gene (if that were even a possibility) but I am terrible at keeping my apartment clean for more than a few days and trust me it doesn’t take long to mess up a 300+ sq ft apartment. This is totally going to sound like an oxymoron, but while my apartment may look messy sometimes, I am actually very organized. That is, I don’t just throw things in the closet to look clean on the surface.. If it’s in my closet it’s put in the proper place and folded nicely. So this year I’m working on keeping things a little cleaner on the outside as well. I’m going to try and have check-in points each Sunday to pick up all of my clothes (which is 95% of the problem) and whatever other things I’ve left out throughout the week.
- Follow my passions and know when they change. I’ve never been a quitter with anything in my life. Like, it’s really hard for me to let go of things.. Okay except for maybe going to the gym. I’m really good at quitting that.. For all other things though it’s been a struggle. I do my best to make things work or my best to practice and get better at those things for the sole purpose of not quitting, even if my heart isn’t in it anymore. And while not being a quitter is definitely for the most part a good trait to have I’ve found that I’ve stretched myself too thin on some things and then find myself feeling guilty if a project doesn’t go the way I’d hope or if life just eats into my time. This year, I want to work on being honest with myself when I want to go another direction. It’s okay for our passions or wants to change and I need to work on being okay with changing directions without beating myself up.
So there you have it.. they’re out on paper (in an Internet way of speaking)! I think there’s power in sharing and I hope to succeed on these couple of things!