New Beginnings

My first kiss of 2013 and the famous Keller firework show put on by my dad and brother

I've never been one who is huge on New Year's resolutions. The new year is symbolic of new beginnings. I get that. It's cute and all, but I feel like you can start your own new beginning on any day of any given year.

My other issue with New Year's resolutions is that people rarely keep them. I applaud you if you are a person who does stick to your resolutions. I think that is absolutely awesome. I just think people get in this wrong mindset. Like, "I'm going to lose x amount of weight and have a totally ripped bod even though I haven't worked out in five years." We all know what happens. The gym is a living nightmare packed with people for the first two weeks of January, and then it slims down to the regulars again. Sad, but true. Why not set realistic goals? Why not break the big goal of the year down into little parts? For example, decide you'll go to the gym three days a week for the month of January. Then maybe bump it up to four. Sign up for a race and train for it.

It's kind of like marriage. You don't just marry a person and think, "Okay, now we are going to live happily ever after." That's right, Snow White and Cinderella were full of crap. I know, I'm disappointed too. But you have to work at marriage, just like you have to work at anything that reaps something good. Life isn't perfect. Life is messy. The thing with messes is that they are a lot easier to clean up when the mess is little, before it turns into a giant mess.

That's why I decided for my 2013 resolutions, I'm going to really break things down. I want to break things down to the month and even to the week.

So I bought myself a notepad, and every Sunday I want to try writing down five simple goals to accomplish that week. For this week I wrote down: 1) Make the bed every morning 2) Try a new recipe 3) Make art 4) Pleasure read for half an hour every day 5) Make out with Brian. Brian wrote the last one because I was having a hard time thinking of a fifth one. These weekly goals will usually be very simple things, but I feel like it will be a good way to make a habit of accomplishing things. I am excited to see if it works.

Another goal I've made for 2013 is to read a (fun) book every month. I know that probably isn't that hard for a lot of people. Many people read several books in just one month. But sometimes I get so consumed with other things that I forget to pleasure read. And when I do have time to pleasure read, I feel guilty about it. I think about all the other things I should be doing instead of sitting and reading. I want to get over these feelings of guilt because I believe reading is a very rewarding and important thing. If you know me, you know I am a book worm. I love books, I just want to learn to make time for them again. It seems like ever since I started college, my pleasure reading kicks have come in spurts. I want it to be a naturally occurring thing again. In high school, pleasure reading was like brushing my teeth. Every night I did it before going to bed. I would love to do that again. I hope by having a certain book set for every month that I can make this goal happen.

My big goals for the entire year are to be to church on time, to do scripture study with Brian (we've been pretty awful at this in the past), and to do things that scare me. I know that last one is really broad, but it's meant to be broad. I think it would be ideal to try something that scares me every day. I am not saying I'm going to turn into some dare devil. I'm talking about smaller things. For example, I made myself sign up for a billiards class. I love shooting pool but I've never been that great and I never even knew all the rules. For this reason, I've wanted to take a billiards class for years but have always chickened out. I didn't want to try something that I knew I could possibly be the very worst at in the whole class. However, I decided to sign up for the class and get over my fear of not being good at something. And guess what? I'm pretty sure on the first day I was the worst in the class. But after a few classes, I'm already starting to shoot really well. The instructor taught me how to hold the cue correctly (ha) and he taught me how to start making some difficult shots with a few simple tips. It feels fantastic to know that I am already getting good at something that I've secretly wanted to be good at for years.

So here is to 2013! Here's to breaking down goals to the basics, to reading more, and to trying things that scare me!