New Year’s Resolutions- Positive Goal Setting, or Setting Yourself up for Failure?



New Year- New You? Or Same-Just-Slightly-Improved-You? (Personally, I’ve always liked “You” the way you are)

People will tell you resolutions are silly- why start something January 1st, that you can start at any given moment, on any given day?

Let me tell you why…

Because now and then we all need a little shove in the right direction.  New Year’s resolutions are not about setting yourself up for failure. They’re just a proclamation of our goals, dreams, and those miscellaneous things which we want/need to be held accountable for. We tried losing, growing, achieving on our own, and somewhere along the line we faltered, or we simply got lazy and gave up. So we declare these “resolutions” to our friends/family/co-workers in hopes that if we slip up, someone (please, someone!) will call us out on our shit. For example, I never add “losing weight” to my resolutions, because the truth is I don’t want to be held accountable. I want to eat carbs on weekends, drink heavily on week nights, and devour a churro every once in a while without having to feel bad about it. I know how to lose weight, but I’m not ready to commit to doing it just yet. Someday.

However, there are plenty of things that I’m ready to be held accountable for. Read them, relate to them if you can, and please don’t hesitate to call me out on my shit if you see me slipping.

1)  Discard household items that don’t bring me happiness. You know all of the crap you bought on sale simply because it was cheap, and not because it added value to your space, or your life. Yeah, I want all of that gone. I want to purchase more thoughtfully and fill my home with items that speak (nicely) to me. I vow to push aside my matchy-matchy tendencies and focus on filling my home with bold, colorful, happy-yummy things!

2) Be more assertive. This is a big one for me. If I order a drink at Starbucks and they make it incorrectly I’ll spend the next 30 minutes angrily sipping on said drink, kicking myself the entire time for not speaking up (dare I insult the Barista!). Well hold on to your aprons reader-friends because I’m about to ask for what I want. Meals, business, Starbuck’s drinks- you name it, I’m asking for it. (I’m already struggling with this one, it sounds so bitchy!)

3) Ask for help. Simple, but surprisingly SO hard when you’ve spent your entire life pretending you can do it all.

4) Set pricing and boundaries for my growing design business. Truth be told, I would design people’s homes/offices for free all day long if I could, because I truly believe my calling in life is to “make things pretty”. But alas, I have kids to feed, feet to adorn in pretty shoes, and a time-scarcity issue that must be acknowledged. I need to put a value on the services that I provide. Because, I’m worth it.

5) Let’s just start with 4 and take it from there…my skins already starting to itch.

**Last little word of New Year’s advice: Don’t be afraid to take baby steps on the way to doing big thangs!**

– “Create Luck”