Monday Musings: 2014 is here!

It’s 2014! (Again, I’m a wee bit behind the times as it’s been 2014 for about two weeks now…but still! Happy New Year!)

I love a fresh start as much as anyone, but I don’t generally like to make resolutions–half of the time I forget about them, or immediately break them, and then feel guilty for a long while.

That’s no fun.

(Can we still be friends now that you know how irresponsible I am?)

But still, I like to have general goals that are relevant in my life to work towards in a year, and most of them I will continue to work on year-to-year.

It’s about the journey, right? Or so I keep hearing?

Focus on easing my anxiety. I’ve struggled with an anxiety disorder for most of my life, which causes excessive worry and doubt about everything. Again, not fun. It’s something I think I will struggle with for a long time, as it’s so ingrained, but I’m really focusing on letting myself feel this, but still letting myself live my life the way I want to.

Do more yoga and meditating, for my mental health (see above!).

I’d like to at least mostly finish my Colorado Wish List, as I will likely be moving this summer. (stay tuned!)

Go scuba diving again.

Move abroad (again, stay tuned! and no, I’m not just following Taylor’s excellent tips, but changes will be a-comin!).

Continue building the relationships in my life, and try to be at peace with what they are, where they are, and let them unfold as they will.  Especially friendships, as I move around and change, these relationships are bound to be different, as well. (This is a good philosophy for life in general, and one of the hardest for me to follow!)

Build this blog. Even if no one looks at this besides my dearest family and friends, it always makes me smile and gives me a purpose.

Write as much as possible. Again, see above! I always am writing several books (which no one ever gets to read…at least not yet) but I tend to go through phases where I write every day, then weeks where I don’t write at all.

Read as much as possible. As you may know, I consider reading my first love, that has sparked every other interest in my life. While I’m always reading–I get this weird anxiety when I’m not in the middle of a book and don’t have a line-up of books waiting to be read (I’m just a ball of fun) I’d like to read a greater variety of genres.

Finish my degree, in June! So far, so good. 🙂

Focus more on healthy living–but I also want to not care as much if I’m not “perfect” in this regard. I follow many healthy living blogs, and I confess that these seem to reach a standard I just can’t quite make. I love junk food, I love candy, I love snuggling up with a good book for hours at a time. I don’t see these things changing–but I also love cooking and baking (both comfort foods and healthy foods) and I love taking walks, yoga, and getting in a good hard workout every now and then. Those will be my goals, instead of getting a bikini-ready body (whatever that is) or reaching a certain weight.

On that note, I want to make one new meal a week. I love cooking and I love to experiment and I rarely make the time to do so.

Learn to be financially responsible. This is something I really struggle with, especially when it comes to travel. I always manage to make a trip work–because it’s always my priority–but staying put for so long in Denver has also instilled in me a love of shopping for decor and clothes. Yikes. Gotta work on that!

Work on organization! I’ve learned that I tend to just be chaotic–and I tend to thrive in chaos. Still, it would be nice to be able to find what I actually want to wear in the morning, or that book I want to read, or those thank-you notes I KNOW I bought. This will include purging a great deal of my STUFF.

Fall out of the comparison trap. This one is hard, especially in the realms of social media. I’d also like to stop searching for reassurance from my friends–while this can be helpful, it usually only causes me to compare more. I’d like to have faith in myself, and my relationships, and my life and the world, on my own, without searching for external validation. I know this one will be a challenge!

No more shoulds. I heard once that the number one thing hospice patients say they regret (and this may not be superb research as I heard it on the radio, and not NPR), is that they cared what others thought and based their life on that. How silly is that, to make decisions that you think others want for you, or that society wants for you, or to decide to do what you think you SHOULD do? I want to do what is best for me, as that is truly what will make me (or anyone!) happy.

Sorry for getting crazy deep on you, but thanks for reading! And, writing this might even help me be a little more accountable to my goals.

I look forward to what 2014 brings, for me, for you, for this blog, and for the world!

XOXO