I’ve never been much of one for New Year Resolutions/Goals. Perhaps because I am always working on improving my health, and unless I resolve to lose weight or compete in a highly athletic event, who really cares about my goals anyway? Or maybe it’s because I tend to view my New Year as my birthday; the coming of a new age, another chapter written in my story, not the story of the entire world. Whatever the reason may be, I can’t remember the last time I set them, or cared to even give them a second thought – until this year that is.
The end of 2013 was unexpected to say the least. I parted ways with a job, maybe even a career, which was my constant. Even though I hadn’t been happy in the role for some time, I didn’t think I would be leaving quite so soon. No matter how much a person may say that they are not their job, if you have been in a role for a significant length of time, you are that job in one way or another. It doesn’t matter if you love or hate it, anything that consumes 45+ hours of your week gives you some sense of an identity.
So there I sat, 27 years old, a recently graduated 4.0 masters’ student, and clueless about where 2014 was going to take me – or better yet, where I was going to take it. But I did know one thing, I had been unhappy with a big part of my life for the past 2+ years, and now I had a blank slate to change it.
As I sat down to write out New Year goals, the word ‘resolutions’ makes me feel like I have been doing something naughty, one word came to mind – Happiness. Whatever my goals were going to be, all I wanted were for them to bring the people around me, as well as myself, unconditional happiness. That may seem unrealistic to some, but to me it is like unconditional love. If you have unconditional love for someone or something, no matter what or how big the bumps in the road may be, the love is bigger. I want the happiness in my life to be bigger than any bump or roadblock that may come my way. Therefore, I decided that I need more than just goals for 2014. I need to compartmentalize my goals and I need big picture goals. For now I have gotten them compartmentalized into Personal, Health, and Career goals; and as I evolve, I want my goals to evolve with me. Stay tuned for 5 and 10 year goals as I see what 2014 and I have in store for one another.
a.wise approach ~ never be too stubborn to step outside if your norm, you never know where it may take you.
Ashley
2014 1 Year Goals
Personal
-Save 5% of my income
-Successfully homebrew Kombucha
-Post in blog 3X/week
-Grow in my relationship with Christ
Health
-Be able to do a (yes, as in 1) pull-up
-Maintain a happy physique
-Achieve a ½ marathon PR
-Complete 5 minutes/day of mindful meditation
Career
-Read 1 career growth book/month
-Teach 1 woman’s health seminar
-Become a contributing author
-Become FDN certified
a.wise approach 
My new favorite blog 🙂 I also want to be able to complete at least one pull up, PR in a 1/2 marathon, and grow in my relationship with Christ. I’m excited to see where you take this blog, especially since basically anything you do is destined for greatness. Love you. xoxoxo
Thanks Melis! We WILL conqueror our goals this year and crush our PR’s!!
1. I KNOW you will PR! You are not coming back from any injuries this year. That ought to help! Plus, I just know you will.
2. I may have to join you in daily mindfulness meditation. I suggest not doing it before bed though. Hello, sleppytime! Do you sit in silence? Have a meditation playing?
3. The other day I learned from my fav instructor at the gym that women have more lower body strength (in comparision to upper body strength, not to men) and men naturally have more upper body strength. That’s why we hate push ups, pull ups, etc.. Feel free to use that as why you cannot do a pull up. (Also correct me if that information is straight up false).
1. Thanks!! I am already starting to think about what I should be doing to PR! (My thoughts are going towards hill sprints and LOTS of lifting…still too cold outside for me to think about long runs).
2.You should! I am only about a week in and still at 5 minutes per day but loving it more everyday. I sit in silence have have a mantra or two that I use to get myself refocused when my mind wanders. I actually have been thinking of seeking out a mediation mentor but don’t know of any in MN. I will need to look more into that.
3. The instructor is correct in the sense (or at least my understanding) is that women tend to have less muscle fibers in our upper body. It’s all about child birth for woman, hence more muscle/fat/etc in the lower region 🙂
Thanks for reading!!
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