Tuesday 1 January 2013

New Year's Resolutions

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Terms like #NYE, #2013 and the like have been rife on twitter these last few days. Not surprising really with 2013 being round the corner, but reading some of the tweets has left me a bit saddened.

Most of them have been along the lines of:

"...I hope 2013 turns out better than 2012".

And it's the same every year.

Every one looks to the future in hope, lamenting the past/passed year.


This year, my resolutions are going to be slightly different...

My main resolution last year was to get fit. I'm happy to say I've achieved that, so one of my resolutions this year is: to stay fit. Yes, it might not seem like much, but then here's a mistake so many people make:

They start the year with all these good intentions and try to turn their life around in so many different ways. They decide they're going to give up smoking, eat healthy, get fit, fix the house up, and the list goes on.

The problem is you can't do everything at once. It's just too much - quit smoking first, then get fit, then start thinking about all the other stuff. If you do it one at a time, you're far more likely to succeed, and in the process actually achieve what you want during the year. Then next new year's eve perhaps look back and think - job well done and feel happy about it. After all, that's really what we ALL want out of life isn't it?

Happiness - to live life well.

And why should resolutions be limited to New Year? I know that traditionally people are looking forward at this time, and so they should, but after reaching a goal or other achievement, why not make another one straight away? Have a rolling list of things you want to do, and work through them.

So this year, this is what I want:
  • I want to improve the standard of living for myself and my family.
  • I want more of living life well.
  • I want to be happy.
And this is how I'm going to achieve it:

1. Improve our financial situation. Specifically by doing the following:

  • I have red ringed 4 debts that I want to see the back of in 2013. Three of these will be easy, which is why I've decided to go with four. If I hit 4 I will be very happy, if I only hit 3, it still counts as positive progress towards being debt free.
  • Not taking on any more debt. At all.
  • Making some extra money, either with this blog or some other venture. It would be good to become a little more financially independant (of my employer at least) and debt free sooner.

 2. Living life well - by doing more of the stuff I enjoy:

  • One of my biggest passions is cars, or at least driving them quickly. I intend to finally do a trackday with my brother
  • Make significant progress on restoring my classic car.
  • Taking up playing the guitar again.

3. Being Happy - a lot of the above should help, but I also intend to give something back by:

  • Raising at least £500 for charity by doing the 5,000m swimathon this coming year.
  • Find a local cause where I can help out by giving some of my time.
  • Change my miserable attitude for a happier one, and make my wife happier at the same time!!

Oh yes, and meet the Yakezie challenge :)

So go on then, what are your New Year's resolutions??

5 comments:

  1. Your goal to raise money for charity will be really rewarding.
    My life is fulfilled as it stands so I have a main goal of repaying a significant portion of my mortgage in order to pay it off in 5 years.

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    Replies
    1. TBH, the charity thing is nothing to do with any issues of conscience, partly it helps make me see that despite the debt burden I am under, I'm still very well off. Besides, it's always good to give, and even when you're under financial strain, there's always someone worse off than yourself, which is why I feel it's still important to give something, especially at this time of the year...

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  2. Being happy is the most important thing for me. I think one of my new resolutions for this year is to eat healthier and exercise more, maybe lose half a stone too, and then keep it off. And financially, earn and invest more money than last year. Looks like your pageview count has really gone up lately :0)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Liquid! I got the exercise/healthy eating sorted last year, and managed to lose half a stone funnily enough. This year is just trying to keep that off, so I wish you well on that one, oh and I'll be back checking up in 2014 ;)
      Yep, my pageview figure is good, although not sure how accurate blogger figures are versus analytics, which I have just switched on today.
      Happy 2013

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  3. I love these resolutions and your attitude towards meeting your goals---best of luck to you this year!

    ReplyDelete

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