Friend Makin' Monday - New Year's Resolutions

Amber at {aefilkins} is asking today – What are your New Year’s resolutions?

I don’t really care for the idea of New Year’s resolutions, although I do still tend to make some. Most of the time we set these unattainable, lofty goals … only setting ourselves up for failure. It is an all or nothing approach. If we mess up, we give up.

I don’t disagree with setting goals. How else would you have something to strive for? I just believe that I am human and I mess up. But I can always pick myself up, brush myself off, and try again … and again … and again. After all, the next time I try might just be the time I make it.

I’m reminded of this quote:
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” ~ Thomas Edison


Having said all that, here are my goals for 2010. In no particular order.

1. Wake up every day, God willing.

2. Breathe.

3. Smile more. Even when I don’t feel like it.

4. Drink more water. (I already drink a lot of water because that is pretty much the only thing I drink, but I can always drink more).

5. Stay out of debt! We’re there and it feels so great! We just need to not fall off the wagon. :)

6. Lose 30 pounds. This was also last year’s resolution and I didn’t make it. This year I intend to focus and meet this goal. One baby step at a time.

7. Exercise 3-5 days per week. I had been doing pretty well with this one in 2009 until the past few weeks. I developed shin splints and have been taking a break to heal. But Wednesday I plan to go back and try aerobics again. If that still hurts, then I will swim until I heal completely.

8. Complete Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University class. It starts January 3 at my church. We’ve been doing Dave Ramsey’s plan for several years but never officially took FPU. Now I have the opportunity, so I’m going for it. Doug will work on it with me at home since he works shifts and won’t be able to attend the classes except for maybe once a month. As I stated above, we don’t have any debt to pay off (except for the house, but that is step #6), but we do need to work on our emergency fund (step #3).

9. Save up and buy a laptop.

10. Take a course through our local community college that I’ve wanted to take for a while. Again, I need to save up the money to pay for it first.

11. Read through the Bible in a year. I succeeded in doing this in 2009 though CBN and I plan to do it again in 2010. (Hey, that rhymes! Do it again … in 2010. :) )

12. Spend more time playing with my kids. They are getting older and are able to do many things by themselves. But I need to spend more time in their world. Because before I know it, they will be grown.

13. Have more date nights with Doug. He works shifts so this is tricky. There are really only two Fridays/Saturdays a month that we could go out (maybe – unless he works overtime). But we’ll figure something out.


Okay, so that’s a lot of goals for 2010!

What are your goals? Link up over at {aefilkins} and play along.

Happy 2010!

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