Greetings!
I hope the holiday season is treating you well and plenty of rest and relaxation has been on your to-do. I absolutely love Christmas (Thanksgiving and the time leading up to), but I am generally not a fan of this in-between time of year. All the Christmas cheer is suddenly squelched on December 26th, and I am made to feel odd for still wanting to listen to Wham’s “Last Christmas” just one more time (or maybe six, who’s counting).
What’s worse is the neighbors who take down their trees and put them out to pasture at the curb immediately. There’s all this build-up, everything is fuzzy and warm, and then it’s over just as fast.
Not cool.
In any event, I had the most wonderful December. I used my remaining vacation time and enjoyed a gloriously uninterrupted 13 straight days off of work. I used the time to focus on cleaning and organizing around the house, freelancing work I needed to get out of the way, and watching plenty of cheesy Christmas movies (I am a sucker for them). I didn’t live my life rushing around an alarm clock, and I was able to fully relax, enjoy time with family and friends, and most importantly, just be...that’s really how life should be.
And, in related yet unrelated news, I enjoyed this article and thought you might too – What Does Your “I Quit” Letter Look Like? I am also on holiday (doesn’t that sound more chic than vacation) until Jan 2nd, so happy sighs all around.
And now 2019 is upon us, so I bestow on thee a grand ole year in review post/reflection exercise.
How many times has the world ended for you? None? Cool. That is metaphorically speaking, of course – but, what would you do differently if you knew the world – or your life – was really about to end? What changes would you implement, and what would be at the top of your list of priorities?
What changes have there been in your life since this time last year? Think about the events that have taken place. What have you accomplished? What decisions have you made? And most importantly, how much you have grown as a person? Even though it may be stressful and sometimes painful, change means growth!
I obviously am knee deep in asking myself all these questions as I prep for the new year and set my intentions. I found a ton of articles recently that I think were all excellent for planning for your goals and resolutions for 2019 and beyond – enjoy:
The 10 Big Questions to Ask Yourself Before Mapping Out Your 2019 Goals
From above link – Power Questions to ask yourself:
- How can you use your strengths in greatest service to yourself, your family, your community, and the world?
- How can you get paid to do what you love?
- What 5 things are you most proud of? What 5 things will you be most proud of?
- If you had all of the time and money in the world, what would you do?
- What’s your ideal day look like? When do you get up? What do you do? With whom? For whom? Imagine it in vivid detail!
- Who are your heroes? Why? How are you like them?
- What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
- If you were guaranteed to succeed, what’s the #1 thing you would do? What else?
- What is it that you and only you can do for the world?
- How can you live in more integrity with your ideals? What’s the #1 thing you could start doing that would have the most positive impact in your life? What’s the #1 thing you could *stop* doing that would have the most positive impact in your life? Sweet. Now rock it!
I am actually still in-process on fully mapping out my own goals for 2019, though I have a rough draft. I just need to figure out how to engineer them into my daily life so I can actually make them happen – so that’s the part in-process. Here is what my plans are so far:
– Max out my 401k – I already raised my contribution amount
– Max out my Roth IRA
– Max out my HSA (I just switched to a HDHP so I can take advantage of this, wish me luck as I was nervous about the move but couldn’t turn down the chance to save more)
– Save 30% + of my income
– Save $6,000 + in my son’s college fund
– Quit drinking diet soda
– Take better care of myself overall – physically and mentally
– Get outdoors more
– Take on more freelance work + take on more clients
I also want to choose a word for 2019 – not there just yet. I’ll update this post once I choose.
*UPDATE* – I chose my word. My word is AUDACITY. I will have the audacity to think I will achieve all the goals on my list.
Funny enough on the freelance goal, I feel like I put the thought out to the universe and it seems to be ramping up in prep of 2019. I have been using a lot of my time off to work on side projects – which is a great thing! Here’s to continued momentum in the coming year.
As for the diet soda goal… this one is the giant monster on my list. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t already panicking, my brain trying to give me a list of excuses as to why I don’t need to do this. I literally can’t fathom what it must be like to be addicted to anything else.
So, as with all my goals, I am trying to prep as best as I can and set myself up for success. Doing so means I know I will be facing bad migraines as I withdraw from the caffeine, so I thought maybe there are some good tips out there I should be following. When I googled “how to stop drinking diet soda,” I got a slew of different results, but this was one of them.
I Gave Up Alcohol and Soda For 30 Days, and Here’s What I Learned
I want to be supportive of anyone trying to better themselves, but I thought – really? Two sodas that he didn’t even finish. If anyone were to track the what-must-be gallons of soda I must consume per week, it would disgust all of us. Rest assured, I will also be writing a post like this, because not only am I giving up soda, but I am having a mostly dry January in terms of spending and alcohol as well. So #GoodLuckKS
I want to post here more often, so I may use this to rant and rave about my caffeine withdrawals and other goal updates on a more frequent basis. Either way, here’s to the great caffeine kick of 2019!
Happy New Year!!!
Remember this when navigating 2019: “Words, once they are printed, have a life of their own.” – Carol Burnett.
p.s. In unrelated news – I found this site for awesome art prints in case you’re into that sort of thing: https://20×200.com/
Left In The Middle 