Photo by Kiersten Williams
Welcome to 2025!! I LOVE New Year’s! I love the possibility of a fresh start. And, of course, I love setting new goals and intentions for the new year. Some of my friends, and occasionally my son, tease me about my obsession with New Years Resolutions. Guess what? Don’t care!! LOL.
So what’s the reasoning behind my obsession with setting New Years Resolutions? And I like to refer to them as Intentions by the way. There’s a couple of reasons:
- I’m the type of person that always wants to be bettering themselves. I’m not getting any younger, as my feet, knees, and now shoulder, keeps reminding me. I am a very goal-motivated person too. It’s not enough for me to say I want to get healthier or lose weight so I’m going to the gym every night. There will be some reason I don’t make it there. Now, if you make it a challenge of some type, I’m much more likely to make it happen. I did a challenge called 75 Medium about 18 months ago and it was sooo hard but I made it happen. 75 days of workouts, drank lots of water daily, tracked my food, etc. (My physical therapist made me promise to never do that again though, lol. Apparently it’s not healthy for you).
- Another huge reason is that I see people that are obviously not happy/content with their lives and it’s made them miserable and a little mean at times. And they, in turn, make other people miserable. Take a look at the state of social media right now. It’s filled with people being hateful to each other and stirring up trouble. I stay too busy to worry about causing trouble for others and I want to keep it that way.
- And lastly, there’s more I want to do in life. I’m in the second chapter of my life now that my kids are grown. There are things I still want to do so I’m going to make a plan and set myself up so that I can do them. Again…I’m not getting any younger so I need to be focused so I don’t end up regretful down the road. I want to write more, travel more, and be more intentional with my relationships with friends and family and I think the goals below will help me achieve this.
2025 Intentions
So what’s on the agenda for this year? Some of the same, some a little different. I’ve realized over the last few years that a lot of my intentions are similar. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, it just signifies these are items important to my life.
Healthy Living
-
More sleep! I am a terrible night owl. Well, actually I’m a great night owl I guess. It’s rare that I get to bed before midnight, even on week days. It’s not that I can’t sleep, it’s the fact that I’m always positive that I can fit in one more thing, whether it’s another episode of House Hunters or another chapter in my book, or a little more writing.
My goal for this in 2025 is to make sure I’m getting 7-8 hours of sleep every night. - Exercise-My workout routine was horrible last year, mostly due to injuries. Definitely hoping to get back on track this year. As I alluded to earlier, I’m probably going to need to set some type of challenge for myself with this year. The goal is a 30-minute workout, 3 times a week.
Financial
- Pay off debt-Not going to divulge too much here but I have a percentage goal I’m shooting for on reducing debt and it will be a bit ambitious considering I also have some much-delayed home projects I also want/need to complete this year.
- Pay off one debt item completely.
Writing
- Writing 5 days a week for at least 30 minutes. This can be work on my novel, blog, article submissions, etc.
- Complete NANOWRIMO this year. Not sure which month I’ll do this in but probably not November since that’s a crazy month for me at work.
- Take a writing retreat. I did this a few years ago when Michael was living in Indianapolis. I got a hotel room for the weekend and wrote. Not sure if I’ll get a hotel room this year or just lock myself in the spare room or what but definitely dedicating a weekend to just writing, most likely will schedule this for whichever month I do NANOWRIMO. Getting a hotel room will not help the paying off debt intention but my ADD (self-diagnosed, lol) won’t let me achieve this at home most likely.
You’ll notice I didn’t include a certain number of blog posts this year. Not giving up on the blog necessarily but I’ve had some writer’s block on what direction I want this blog to go. My writing is a super priority for me this year since it’s my passion and I feel like taking away the requirement of a certain number of posts will free up some time for my other writing. Who knows, maybe it will free up some mental space and I can re-dedicate myself to the blog next year.
Personal
- 52 books read. 10 of these will be non-fiction.
My goal last year was 48 and I ended up reading 66. Thought about making my goal 67 but, again, if I want to focus on my writing this year then some things have to give. - I want to complete at least one home improvement project and get quotes on a few others. I found a 2019 Resolutions list in an old notebook and it had 5 different home improvement items listed that I still need done. Sigh…
- Better work/life balance. This always seems to be a goal. Once my kids grew up, the time I devoted to their activities got shifted to a bit of working way too many hours. I want to get to the point where I’m working my scheduled hours and that’s it-no coming in on weekends to work or staying late.
- Less clutter/More Organization. This applies to my home and work. Both are a hot mess. Both boys have their own place now so I have no excuse for a messy house.
I’ve never been one that likes to sit at home but I would like to create a Zen haven that does encourage me to stay home more often. My decor taste has shifted over the years and I’m ready for less dark furniture. I’m thinking of going to a more coastal chic look, especially for my bedroom. Not splurging on new decor/furniture until I’ve decluttered though.
So there you have it. What do you think? Enough to keep me busy this year and out of trouble? Who else are resolution setters? And if you aren’t, tell me why.
