I hate New Year’s resolutions. I have always felt like they were useless. To me, it has always seemed like people set these lofty, unobtainable goals that last a mere month before going to pot. There’s one tiny, little day between this year and next year…how can one little day enable you to make major life changes??

This year though, I’m falling into the trap. I’m setting resolutions…or let’s call them goals rather. To make it even worse, most of them are the typical stuff that almost pains me to discuss.

In 2014 I want to do the following:

–exercise more. I want to do some sort of physical activity at least 2-3 times per week. My main goal here isn’t to lose a ton of weight (although I wouldn’t mind shedding 5 pounds or so). Instead, I just want to have a healthy lifestyle and add a few years on to my life.

–obtain an organized house. I’ve spent the last year and a half trying to make this house into a functional home for Matthew and I. Merging two full households is way more difficult than I thought it would be! We’re learning more about what we need from this space, and I’m determined to make it happen.

–blog at least twice a week. This has been my goal for a bit. I’ve done much better lately, but I still let this space fall to the wayside when I get busy. However, it’s important to me both personally and professionally, and it’s about time that I make it a priority. I deserve the freedom to let myself have time to write, and I need to remind myself of that.

–try yoga. I’ve always had a slight aversion to yoga, and I’m not even sure why. However, I’m seeing how beneficial it can be, so I want to give it a whirl. — I’d appreciate any tips!!

–finish decorating. I’ve been promising a home tour for over a year now and it hasn’t happened. Why? Because I never feel finished. I’ve changed our bedroom completely 4-5 times and it still has no clear direction. I mentioned wanting to finish it here and it’s still not done! The only room that I like and I’d consider finished is the living room. Sad, but true. It’s time to make some magic happen!

–start and maintain a Project Life album. Blogland is full of amazing PL albums. People have been doing these for several years, and I want to give it a whirl. I’ve had the supplies for several months now, but taking that leap is a little daunting. Ones of my goals this year is to make it happen.

–create books for our last two years. I came across some Smash books at TJ Maxx and almost jumped for joy. (I love paper products and these albums fascinate me.) I have a travel journal going already, but I want to quickly and easily compile the important stuff from 2012 and 2013.

–update our travel journal. I need to add details from our trips to Memphis, Virgina, and Nashville. To be honest, I sort of forgot that I had started this album. Oops! It’s time to get back at it.

–dedicate more time to things I enjoy. I talked before about not giving myself time to enjoy life. I’ve done much better about this lately, but I still need to do even better. I deserve time off. I deserve time for myself. I deserve a creative outlet.

–say more nice things. It makes my day when a stranger says I look pretty today or compliments my outfit. We all love a little positive reinforcement, and I want to be one of those people who are always lifting someone else up. My new (unofficial) goal is to say at least one nice thing to someone every day. Most of the time we’ll think, “That’s a cute shirt,” or, “I love her hair,” but we seldom tell that person. This year, I’m going to focus on saying those things out loud. It’s time to really make a difference.

–wake up earlier. I’m not a morning person. Waking up is something that I hate possibly more than anything else. However, I always feel 100% better when my day gets started earlier than usual. I’m not hoping to be up before dawn, but I’d like to try to rise just a little earlier to have some extra quiet time in the mornings. — If any of these goals are a bust, it’ll be this one. Ha!

As you can see, several of these goals are the typical stuff…exercise and get organized. I don’t like setting New Year’s goals in the first place, much less the same ones that every other person is doing. However, 2013 was a rocky year. For the last few months, I’ve been thinking that there are several things that I’d like to do differently. Days turn into weeks, weeks into months and months into years. Before we know it, this ole life will be over. If I (and you) don’t start making changes, we’ll die and have missed out on the life we always wanted. Seriously, you only get one shot. Since I’ve known I wanted to be more diligent about creating the life I want, I’ve been thinking about what that means for a while now. As the New Year approached, it gave me a hard deadline to roll out these new goals for myself.

I hope that February and March will bring with it progress on these initiatives. I hope that we are all able to carve 2014 in to the year we want it to be. A friend posted this the other day: “Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. I hope you write a great one.” While I still think it’s trivial to think of a new year as a “fresh start,” we can all use 2014 to work towards a better life. Remember, if you don’t like something about yourself, change it. You only get one shot…make it a good one!

Are you setting goals this year? Let’s talk about them in the comments!