Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Resolutions and Evolutions

Like lots of other people I am sharing some of my resolutions for the new year. I know there's sort of a lot, but I'm working on breaking the list down month by month to help me better achieve my goals and to keep me motivated throughout the whole year, not just the first month or two.

  • Read one book per month. That might sound like a small goal, but as a slow reader who has a bad habit of putting every book down 3/4 of the way through I'm hoping it will help me stay focused.
  • Open a savings account. Josh and I are acruing money, but we aren't putting it to work for us at all yet. I'll be opening a savings account this month so we can start earning some interest and working towards our financial goals.
  • Learn more about photography and new camera. I need to learn all that my new camera can do for me, and how I can improve my photography skills. I've got a very detailed guide for my personal camera that I intend to go over. Then I hope to utilize other information I've found via blogs to learn more about styling, the use of Photoshop, etc.
  • See a play. I haven't been to a play in many, many years. I would like to explore and enjoy a little more of the creative side of my town.
  • Have friends over once a month. Entertaining gives me joy. My friends give me joy. Combining them both gives me great joy, so I should do it a lot more often. And on the plus side, it encourages me to be tidier and keep the apartment cleaner for having company.
  • Work on learning French again. I started trying to learn a new language earlier this year, but I started to slack. Between my laptop and my new iPod shuffle I should be able to find more available time to listen to the podcast lessons again.
  • Try 4 new restaurants. There are so many great places to eat around us. We don't go out to eat all that often, and when we do we tend to go to a handful of the same favorite restaurants. Let's find some new favorites this year.
  • Keep up with Newsweek subscription. We've already established I'm a slow reader. A weekly magazine packed to the brim with content is often overwhelming to me, but I like being informed. Make it a goal to make it cover to cover every week.
  • Get physical. I don't want to try and create an exercise regiment, because I know I will never stick to it. Instead I'm thinking of starting out just trying to do something active once a week, and seeing where that takes me.
  • Visit the 3 major museums once this year. I haven't been to our big art museums in a very long time. And the last time I was it was just to take picture around their exterior. Let's dip our toes into our city's culture this year.
  • Take shoes to be repaired and clothes to the alteration shop. I have shoes I love that need new heels put on them. I have several clothing items that need to be hemmed. It's wasteful to buy clothes and not be able to wear them because I'm lazy.
  • Go to the zoo more often. I have a membership to the Fort Worth Zoo. I'm going to ask my in-laws to renew it for my birthday, and try to take better advantage of it. I went probably 4 times in the past year. Let's get that up to 6 or 8 times this year. And it makes for great physical activity too.
  • Create a list of life goals. I've been floating for a while, with only short term goals driving my path. I need to get a better of idea where I want to be headed in my life.
  • Vacuum once a week. I try to keep up with a lot of the housework, but this often gets pushed back one week, and then two, and then before I know it it's been far too long.
  • Eat healthier through the weekend. I've been eating pretty well through the week for quite some time. But all too often my weekend dining consists of fast food and junk food. need to try and keep the healthy habits up past Thursday or Friday afternoon.
  • Improve wardrobe. I feel that I need a a wardrobe that better represents who I am. And as soon as I figure that out I'll start dressing like it, ha.
  • Use money program weekly to keep track of finances. We're living below our means, so it's not been a big problem, but as we start to move into new phases of our life we won't always be able to rely on having plenty of money in the bank. I need to get used to keeping an eye on things now, so that it won't be a struggle later.
  • Don't buy any new books till you've read half of your to-read list. There are so many books I want to read, and I own half of them. It is starting to get overwhelming when I look around and see all the books I have to read yet. So no more adding to the list until I've knocked at least half of them off.
  • Do one thing related to each interest every week. This isn't going to be as big a task as it sounds. At least I don't intend for it to be. My interests are cooking, reading, photography, and French. So maybe I'll listen to a French lesson podcast, or maybe I'll just listen to my Edith Piaf cd while I try to pick out words here and there. I'll try to take pictures for the sake of taking pictures. I'll try to make a new recipe, or changes to an old favorite to try something different. Just keep doing things to keep things moving.

3 comments:

MrsEm said...

Great list! I have two awesome recommendations for your money goals in 2008.

1. Savings account: Open a high-yield account (I have one with ING). They're easy to use, free and have much better rates than bank savings account. Rob and I have a joint one we both add to.

2. Money management program: I love using a free service from Yodlee called OnCenter. You can open an account online and view all your finances with one simple login.

Whew! I bet you didn't know I was a huge personal finance geek :)

Katie said...

Looks like a great list to me! Good luck pal!

kelly said...

great list, i love reading what everyone aspires to do, it encourages me & gives me even more ideas that i need to be adding!