We all know how successful New Year’s resolutions tend to be. (Total colossal failures, in my case.) But there’s something about having a clean slate with which to create something amazing in the next 365 days, and I can never resist resolving to make my pretty darn good life even better.
This year, I’m breaking my resolution into five areas:
My spiritual life: Attend church regularly (I’ll consider three Sundays out of four a major success) and volunteer for at least one thing.
My social life: Start a regular girls’ night, which I’ve been talking about doing for eons. I’m thinking twice a month–one that’s purely social and one that’s productive (e.g., a craft night or book club).
My married life: Spend quality time together, with at least one non-TV date per week. In the past two years, Jon and I have had the opportunity to be together far more often than most couples are–we worked in the same building, so we commuted together and often ate lunch together as well. Now, as he is starting school and working in the city, we will go from seeing each other constantly to seeing each other less than most couples do. I want to make sure we don’t waste our time together in front of the TV, so I resolve to resurrect our alphabet dates (we’re on D) and try to get through Z by the end of the year.
My financial life: With Jon’s career change requiring three years of school and his permanent job ending, our finances will be leaner than usual. My resolution is to track our expenses, stick to a firm budget and double our savings this year.
My physical life: I resolve to be 50 pounds thinner by next New Year’s Eve–unless, of course, I’m pregnant. While we don’t know if kids are in the cards this year, we’d really like them to be. The aforementioned lean budget and my weight are the two obstacles we’re facing on our path to parenthood.
I wish you luck on any resolutions you may be making, and I’ll keep you posted–for better or worse–on mine. May 2011 bring you good health and much happiness!
I’m trying to talk J into doing a Dave Ramsey class for our finances. They say people pay off $5000 in debt in the first 90 days!
We did the Dave Ramsey FPU class! While I don’t agree with his politics, I think his class is amazing. We didn’t pay that much off in the first 90 days because we’re doing his plan a bit backward due to Jon’s job instability (savings first). But we did pay off all credit card debt, get life insurance, increase retirement savings and boost emergency savings. It is very motivating.