Wednesday, December 30, 2015

New Year, New Resolutions

2015 is coming to an end. It has been a big year!!

I was able to travel to a lot of really cool places:
Park City, UT for the Sundance Film Festival
Logan, UT to meet my new niece June
New York, NY for the 99U Conference
Washington, DC for Memorial Day weekend
Logan, UT for my grandparents 50th anniversary
San Francisco, CA for work... twice
Portland, OR > Seattle, WA > Vancouver, BC for fun!
Logan, UT for Christmas

I was also able to make a few milestones in my life:
Finally upgraded to a queen size bed
Bought my first home in April
Actually started making money on Etsy selling pillows
Printed my first run of Tiny Travels Books
Became motorcycle certified and bought a scooter in July
Became a cat mom in October
Quit my job at Groupon and started at Vis-a-vis in November
Entered my late twenties in December

While this past year has been great I can definitely see a lot of room for improvement. I know everyone makes new years resolutions and most of us stop following them about two weeks into January. For me, I love this time of year because as an adult, it's really the only time that signifies a fresh start. When you're in college, you get a new semester every few months. In high school, you have summer break. I try to make resolutions every year, and for the most part, I stick to them. This year I've created a list of 5 resolutions:

1- Pay off my credit cards
I am sure I am not the only one who lived off credit cards during college. For the past few years I have been using them when an emergency happened or to live off while I trying to pull money together for a down payment. Not the best way to use the cards, I know. But this year I have made a plan to pay them off by October. (hopefully sooner!!) This plan includes making 4x the minimum payment every month. It also includes budgeting my everyday purchases, spending less money on dining and going out, and paying myself (savings and credit payments) before I buy things I don't need.

2- No More Sweets
I did this last year. Loren and I made it to about March! We started allowing ourselves to eat one sweet on Sunday. Then it turned into eating sweets only on the weekends. Then it turned into every day. So instead of allowing myself a cheat day, it's just not going to happen. I will allow myself ONE small treat on special occasions (Valentines Day, Birthdays, etc.) but I do not want to eat them anymore. I seriously think I have become addicted— which is totally a real thing. So it stops this year.

3- Train for a Half Marathon
2 years ago I finished a marathon but unfortunately it was the reason I tore my meniscus. I had to drastically decrease my workouts and eventually just fell off the workout wagon. But now that I've been doing my physical therapy and slowly getting my milage up, I am going to be training for a half marathon at the end of May. The reason I am training for something is because it gives me motivation to actually go to the gym. When training, you have to do something everyday. I loved running the Chicago Marathon in 2014 but due to my injury (new cats and job...) I decided to take it easy this year and focus on running a good half instead of a full marathon.

4- Create Less Waste
I have been watching a few videos of people who live zero-waste lifestyles. These people create about a mason jar worth of trash ever year!! If you're interested to see how they do this, here's a video to check out: http://www.cnn.com/videos/living/2015/03/16/orig-living-zero-waste.cnn. Now, that's a little extreme me for me but I think there are a few things that everyone can do every day to decrease their waste. For example, bring reusable bags grocery shopping. Bring reusable produce bags. Buy in bulk. Recycle and compost instead of throwing it all away. I think it's a good idea to think about where your trash goes when you are done with it. There's no such thing as just throwing something away. You're only throwing it in a box that gets moved somewhere else.

5- Vote
This year is a big election and there are some really interesting people in the running for president. I know there is a lot of talk about your vote not counting. Well, in my opinion, if you don't vote, you're not allowed to complain. You can't complain that someone won that you didn't like. If you voted for someone who didn't win, then complain all you want. But unless you vote, I don't want to listen to you. Speaking of ignorance, research candidates!!! Don't say you won't vote for someone based off of things you've seen on Facebook or heard in the media. Especially don't vote for someone just because they are aligned with a certain political party. Vote for someone because you have read the views of each candidate and their ideas align the most with yours. There is a little quiz to get an idea of who aligns with your beliefs the most. I was surprised with my result. Now, you shouldn't just take a quiz and vote for whoever it says you should vote for, but it is a way to learn more about the candidates. Here's a link to the quiz: https://www.isidewith.com/political-quiz

I would be interested in what resolutions you have! Add them to the comments!

Happy New Year!!