New Years Resolutions

I can hardly believe that it is 2016. That still sounds like the future to me! If you know me well, you know that I love lists. So, it should come as no surprise that I love New Years goals and resolutions.

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I wanted to pop by today and review the resolutions that we made last year and tell you about our goals for next year.

Slow down and enjoy the wedding – It was really hard to slow down – but I am so thankful that we hired a coordinator. Without her, we never could have enjoyed the wedding as much as we did.

Take a small trip somewhere we’ve never been before in the fall – We went to Maine and had an amazing time. I love little trips and hope to plan more this year!

Start saving for a down payment – After the wedding, we started diverting all savings to a “down payment fund”. I honestly don’t think that we will hit our 20% goal (real estate here is just honestly much more expensive than I anticipated and 20% would be over a year’s pre-tax salary for me!) but we do have an amount at this point that I feel very comfortable with.

Redesign the blog – We got a new logo and added interactive travel maps as well as a recipe box. I just want to better organize our DIY archive and I’ll be thrilled!

Keep checking things off the 101 – We checked a lot of things off of our 101 in 2015. It ends this June, and I don’t think that we will finish it all, but I am excited to try!

I will say that we were rather vague with our goals last year. That made them rather achievable and un-overwhelming, but I found myself aiming for more measurable goals for the new year. Neither way is wrong, it’s just how I’m feeling at the moment!

Read more – I love reading and do it daily. I have also recently gotten really into audiobooks for my commute. My goal is to read 52 new (to me) books in 2016. Follow me on GoodReads to follow along.

Mix up my work outs – I love Jillian Michaels but have been feeling like I’m in a bit of a rut lately. I want to maintain my 3 workouts a week, but try to mix them up a bit more.

Try new foods – I would love to try one new food at the grocery store each week, keep experimenting with new recipes, and get beyond my comfort zone when ordering at restaurants.

Buy a house – How measurable is this?! We love our condo but are very ready for more space and a yard. But we keep delaying it for one reason or the other… this is the year that we make the plunge!

Get more involved – I have loved being involved with Habitat for Humanity via the Junior League for the past two years, and am excited to continue to work with them through April. However, I have recently really felt drawn to charities involving animals and I would like to begin actively and regularly working with one this year.

Sean also has a few resolutions that he wanted to share as well. Here’s what he wrote…

When I read “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin this year, I was underwhelmed by most of the things she did, but they inspired me to take a new look at a lot of the things I already do and how I can make little changes in my life to make myself happier. Those little changes are the basis for most of my “resolutions” for this year.

Be more patient with CiCi – I love our dog more than anything, but often times I find myself not giving her the attention that she wants and deserves. We desert her all day long when we go to work and when we get home she is SO excited. I always give her a nice rub, but she should get more. A lot of times when I’m sitting on the couch working on something, she’ll grab a toy and come put it on my lap wanting to play and sometimes I feel annoyed that she is interrupting me, but I try to remember the saying that while your dog is only a part of your life, you are their whole life. With that, I want to take more time to play with her and let her sniff on walks rather than rushing her along.

Do daily stretching – I always stretch before and after my workouts, but I want to add daily stretching to my routine. One day this fall I was taking the day off and I went on the porch on the cool morning and started stretching for no reason and it felt so good! I want to start doing this every day.

Be more positive – I’m not a “negative” person by any means, but I want to spend 2016 generally being more friendly, upbeat and positive! There really is no reason not to enjoy your life and love every minute of it. We are lucky and have so many great things going for us in our lives that it makes sense for us to be positive about it!

Wake up naturally – I’ve read a lot about sleep and waking up earlier in the morning to spend time for yourself when everything is quiet. This is a great way to get some light reading or work done. However, I always find it hard to set the alarm for an hour earlier. So, my idea is that if I wake up naturally (to go to the bathroom or whatever) and it is within an hour of my alarm going off, I’m going to get up. I really do always feel better when I wake up naturally versus the DING DING DING of an alarm.

Fix my posture – I try to remind myself to sit up straight when I’m at work because I tend to slouch. I want to make a conscious effort this year to fix my posture for good.

Add a weekend workout – I’m really good at working out everyday Monday-Thursday. However, I don’t work out on the weekend very often. We will typically go on longer walks with CiCi at the park a couple times on the weekend, but when Monday rolls around, I always feel like I’ve lost some of what I gained the previous week from working out since it’s been three days. Even if it’s just a run on Saturday, I want to do something else on the weekend.

We would love to hear your resolutions for 2016! Share them below.

Here’s our resolutions for 2018!