Friday, December 21, 2007

New Year's Resolutions

I know most people don't do this until after Christmas, but today I started thinking about my New Year's resolutions. Well, I'm not really thinking about them in those terms, I suppose, because when I think of New Year's resolutions, I think of ridiculously idealistic goals that nobody ever intends to see through. No, I want to set some real goals. Things I can realistically accomplish and feel good about. Things that are actually relevant to my life and the stage I'm at right now. Specific, achievable goals. Anyway, here's what I've come up with so far:
  • Walk Max at least 3 times a week (but aim for every day). Obviously long periods of ice and rain would be reasonable exceptions. I'm setting this goal because both he and I need the exercise, and it's also a good bonding time for us.
  • Save $1000 by the end of the year. I'd like to save more, so I might change this later, but I think this is a fairly reasonable goal for now because it's about 85 bucks a month. I plan to accomplish this by cutting my spending in the following areas: food/Starbucks (I've already started this by becoming bff with our little coffee pot), extraneous spending (stop buying clothes because I've got enough to outfit a small village, start checking out books at the library instead of buying them), gas (if I'm not constantly running to Starbucks or the mall, I won't need to fill up as often).
  • Declutter. This project might take all year. Right now, my room is basically an unlivable space because clutter has taken over. I want to go through ALL of my clothes (including the ones packed away in the garage) and throw out/give away 50-75%. That's my goal. I've got an obscene amount of clothing, most of which I don't wear. Having less clothing will solve three problems for me: 1) I'll actually have room to put everything away; 2) I'll be forced to do laundry more often, so dirty laundry won't be allowed to pile up; and 3) This one might be a bit of a stretch, but I think it'll give me more confidence if I only have clothing that I love. As it is now, I get down to the last few articles of clean clothing, and they're not really things I like, and I end up feeling uncomfortable.
  • Eat a more balanced diet. Lately I've been subsisting on coffee, Cheerios, and frozen pizza. It ain't good.