It’s New Years Day 2012 and I am sitting here after a totally and unashamedly slothful day, thinking about everything I experienced in the past year and what the new one may bring.
My husband and I closed out 2011 at an awesome New Year’s Eve party. Now it is time to start working on the year to come. This got me thinking about New Year’s resolutions. I don’t often make resolutions…certainly not ones I am unlikely to keep, but as I near my 50th birthday I see lots of room for improvement in my life.
My 40′s started out strong, but I picked up a few bad habits over the last decade and let some good ones go by the wayside. (Wow. A decade has passed since I turned 40. God, I am getting old.)
So, here is my list for 2012. It is short, only 5 things, just the basics. A wee bit ambitious, challenging, balanced by realism. If you are still working on your list, maybe you can find some inspiration here.
- Spend more time with my husband, Sam. Quality time. Making memories. Not necessarily trip-of-a-lifetime stuff. I want to put more thought and effort into what we do together. Plan good things. Not just to let life happen. We allowed the past few years to slip by too easily, with little to show for them.
- Read more books. Not business or self improvement ones. I often find time for those now. I want to read mostly nonfiction with a historical or world perspective. Classics, too. Maybe even a few solely for the entertainment value.
- Learn something new every day. (I might take a few days off every now and then, so don’t get all legalistic on me.) My goal is to have an attitude of consistent and active learning. I intend to pursue a specific job-related certification, but I want to extend my learning beyond that and into my everyday life.
- Be creative — get back to my jeweler’s bench. I started silversmithing and lampwork beading several years ago, and was building my skills and the beginning of a side business (“the retirement plan”). With all my work-related travel in recent years, I have been totally neglecting my new skills. I need to get my bench in order, reassess the space and the direction I want to take my work, and start melting silver and shattering glass again.
And of course, what New Years resolution list would be complete without this one…
- Work on my health. Exercise more, eat better, make (and keep) regular doctor’s appointments. I read somewhere about a goal to lose 50 lbs. before tuning 50. That is ambitious. Too ambitious? Hmmm.
Happy New Year to you and your loved ones. Good stuff will happen in 2012. Probably a lot of bad stuff, too. I hope you can position yourself to make the most of the good and successfully ride out the bad.
Wanda
