No New Years Resolutions...Only Goals

Once the holidays are over, people begin shouting out their New Year’s resolutions. As if starting their new-found path cannot possibly begin on December 26th or November 14th or October 8th. Every single blogger, Youtuber, Instagramer or person with a Facebook account has been posting their proclamations at nauseum. I get the appeal. Truly. I’m all for starting good habits, bettering myself and learning a new skill. But, unlike the “New Year, New Me” attention whores who are distracting from my normal social feed of cute puppies and recipes containing too much cheese, I chose to practice my resolutions all year long. On November 5th, I decided to start a bit of writing first thing in the morning. On July 7th, I began training for half marathons again. And on June 6th, I launched my new blog website and published for the first time in 5 years.

So, in the spirit of all that is New Years, here are all the resolutions I did not make for 2019:

I will not be meal prepping, losing weight or getting up at 5 AM every day to exercise after I drink a putrid tasting cup of hot lemon water mixed with apple cider vinegar. I won't be going vegetarian, vegan, Meatless on Monday, Keto, Crossfit or asking Alexa to be my personal trainer. I will not be gluten free, dairy free, garlic free, wheat free, peanut free, sugar free, fat free or removing anything in the nightshade family from my diet. (Sorry, Gisele Bundchen). There will be no detoxing, purging, fasting or juicing of any kind. I will not be mediating, 5-minute journaling or putting anything in a bullet list. I don't need to take more time for myself, find a life purpose or be a propelling force. My procrastinate levels are fine and I take enough risks. Everyone in my life that needs to be forgiven has been and I always learn new things. I'm mindful enough and decluttering my home would leave only furniture as all my items “spark joy”. My social media habit is just that, a habit...which I will not kick because I love it.

Here are the resolutions…or as I like to call them….“goals” I have set for myself in the coming year.

1)      Unsubscribe from all email lists which make me crazy: I get over 100 crap emails a day. Everyone wants your email address for marketing purposes…heck, I even want to send you a newsletter. But, with 6 email addresses, it gets to be too much. I have a habit of looking through my emails in the morning and saying, “Oh, I might read that later”. Later turns into weeks and the email is squatting in my inbox.  If I don’t want to read it right away, I have committed to hitting “UNSUBSCRIBE” before I hit delete.

2)      Do a full split on each side of my body: I’ve never pushed this part of yoga and I want to explore further whether my body agrees this is a good idea or not.

3)      Stop following any social media/Youtube accounts I don’t like: I have (had) a very high school girl habit of following influencers I don’t like just so I could see their content and go “Ugh…that is so ridiculous or unauthentic or fake or “…whatever. What a waste of time and energy it was! So, I cleaned house at the end of December and I’m still doing it. I am better than that.

4)      Learn how to make a proper omelet: My omelets are fluffy, and I want a nice, thin crepe like consistency filled with cheese. Commence the Youtube tutorials.

5)      Make at least one new recipe per week from my enormous recipe clippings collection: I have piles upon piles upon PILES of recipes I have torn out of magazines. I have even organized them.  It’s time to start making them.

6)      See at least 5 live performances: I love the arts. Sarasota offers a bazillion small, local performances a year for very affordable prices. Chris even said he would go with me to a few.

7)      Up my social media content: Back when I started my old blog, I LOVED putting out content so much that I posted over five days a week. Now, I’m committing myself to 2 blog posts per week – Wednesday’s and Friday’s – loads of Instagram, seriously committing to my podcast “More Than a Mouthful” and maybe some YouTube videos….shhhh!!! Chris has promised he will support my constant habit of “hang on, I need to post this” for one year.

I’m sure this isn’t the end of my list. As the year progresses, I’ll find new ideas to explore. My advice, don’t wait when you find a new idea to challenge yourself. Get up and just do it.