NYE: Goals for 2012

SO... it's a new year.

As is the tradition with new years, there is a rush to figure out what's wrong with yourself and resolve to fix it. New year, new start, etc.

Which I get.

But there's also the running joke of how those new resolutions NEVER work out. Which makes one wonder if there's even a point...

A few years ago, an online friend (I forget which one, but obviously the person is pretty awesome) pointed out that they were going to try setting "goals" rather than "resolutions", as "goals" carried less emotional heft with it for them. It's a good point, and I've been doing it since 2009. Granted, my goals are fairly general, so they don't necessarily meet an endpoint, but at the same time I usually see progress on them so I feel like I done good.

But now I'm at a point where I actually kind of don't know what I want to work on. To be honest, there always feels like there's so MUCH I need to work on. But is that my own self-sabotage at work, or do I really need to improve?

Regardless, here's what I'm planning to work on for the next year:

• Debt: The Hubs is a private man, so I'm not going to go into detail here, but we've held ourselves back by not paying down our debt because we can afford to live "comfortably" on our income, but we can't move forward into a house or children until we get this debt monkey off our back. We have an appointment to talk to a credit counselor next week, and we're also looking at ways to cut back on our luxuries to where we are comfortable but not extravagant. One way is cutting down on our cell phones; our contract expires in March, so we're going to either switch to a pay-as-you-go or bare-bones service, because the main thing we use our cell phones for is playing and data. So our iPhones will change to personal entertainment instruments for which we'll use our newly-set-up WiFi to enjoy, and our phones will be for just calling as we need to. We're also going to make a concerted effort to stop relying on take-out meals; our big help for that is TAMC - or Twice A Month Cooking. Technically, it's OAMC (ONCE a month cooking), but I'm new to it so I'm going to take baby-steps and try to do it twice a month until I get the hang of it (that, and our freezer is really small). Basically, we want to eat what's from home as often as possible, and the usual prohibitor is that we don't feel like cooking. Easiest way to solve that problem? MAKE IT AHEAD OF TIME. So if I have 10 pre-made meals in our freezer ready to go, what's my excuse for not cooking if all I have to do is pop it in the oven? EXACTLY. There'll be another post on that as I figure it out. 
• Style: Remember that 30 for 30 challenge I did? Yeah, I really liked it. I used to be quite a stylish little thing back in high school, so it was fun to get back in touch with that side of myself (and have people confirm that, yes, I know how to dress cute). I'll never be a trend-setter, but I would like to "up the ante" a little. So my goal now is to "be better than The Gap". That "The Gap" line is from "Crazy, Stupid, Love"; Ryan Gosling says it to Steve Carrell's character as a way of telling him to get out of his comfy clothes and get into some stylin' ones as a way of boosting his self-esteem. He's right on, man! I want to dress better, not just for other people to admire, but to feel good about myself. When I wear a cute outfit, I feel the change in myself - my booty shakes more, I smile more, and I feel unstoppable. Others can tell when I'm feeling good, too. The only hurdle I need to get past is that to wear a cute outfit means I need a special occasion - and while that is the case for some situations (like I'm not about to wear a ball gown to go grocery shopping), that doesn't mean I can't wear a cute dress and tights to do my errands just because I'm unemployed, y'know? The better I feel, the more I can do. SOMETHING'S gotta shake me out of this funk. 
• Health: I say this every year, but this is something I really want to work on. I had a modicum of success earlier this year, for about 3 months; then something happened and I ran back to my old (bad) habits. I feel better when I'm eating better, though, and as I'm getting older I really feel the repercussions of my bad eating... and to be honest, I'm getting freakin' tired of feeling icky! Yet I keep running back to it, or resisting the urge to do it. Laziness, fear of change, I don't know what the cause is, but I need to figure it out and get a freakin' grip. I've been reading YourNutritionista for good advice, and I need to figure out what's holding me back from making the change to healthy eating. I want to get healthy to improve my overall health, as well as get rid of bad habits so I don't pass them onto any future progeny and make them unhealthy like we are now.
• Closure: I need to close the book on some things that continue to bug me. How I'm going to do that, I'm not sure... I'll keep you posted. One is a big one: Do I want to bother continue searching for a teaching job? That's a whole other entry. But it's the first and foremost one I need to confront. 

That's the main 4 I want to work on. Don't quite know how to measure my success with them, but I will try to figure out a marker so I can actually keep better track this year (and will post it, so others can keep me accountable). Other than that, if you're reading this, I hope you have a lovely New Year's Eve, and that you go into it feeling positive about what's to come.

Especially if that 2012= END OF DAYS nonsense is true. Don't want to go out on a down note, right?