I've never been great at setting goals. Growing up I thought, get a job, work hard and eventually retire. Turns out that's not enough, you have to work hard toward something with purpose and to achieve it you figure out how to get there. As I'm not a terribly forward thinker, not the best planner and generally live in the now, I've always had a hard time looking to the future and setting my sights on a goal. For the last couple of years, I've used the New Year to get in the habit of resolutions. After all that's what a resolution is really, a path to an aim: health, money, happiness, whatever you strive for. In the past I've made many mistakes, objectives that are too broad, too easy or unattainable.

Three years ago, I decided my resolution was to "walk more." I was (am) out of shape and thought it would be a good idea to get outside and move. I actually don't like walking, as a thing, I find it boring and purposeless. Now if you put a gluten-free donut at the end of the walk I'd happily trot through the forest but that kind of defeats the point of the walk. After waking up New Year's day, my sisters and I went out and about 3 miles in (they enjoy walking) I declared that I had achieved my resolution and was done. Although, I've never heard the end of it, I did learn that making a goal that's too general and undefined is not particularly helpful. I did continue to walk that year, sporadically, and it was more than the previous year, but unquantifiable.

Last year, my resolution was to eat at least one salad a week. Having heard the benefits of eating raw, green vegetables and leafy things, I though maybe I could learn to like them. Now you may think this is also too easy, however, I don't like salads and my diet concerning salad previous to this was that I had maybe three a year when forced. This guarantees 52 salads at a minimum for the year. And there were rules. It had to be a plant based salad, I couldn't eat chicken salad and call it done. No potato salad either. If I missed a week, I could eat two salads the next week. I couldn't save them up beforehand, no sitting down and eating 52 salads and being done for the year. It had to be an ongoing thing. What I learned from this one, is that I'm still not a salad person, but I'm more willing to consider it as an option, and that scheduling is important. I would've had an easier time if I made Salad Day on the same day every week. It would've established more of a habit and and I'd've made less mistakes. The good news is I did it, I even ate more than I had to because I enjoyed the challenge.

This year, I have several resolutions. I'm sharing them here for accountability, remembering and hopefully inspiration. Next January, I'll be able to look back and see how I've done and this post will still be out there, floating around for all to see, letting you know I had plans, so it won't be just me I'm accountable to. Here they are:

Lights out by 11:30 on days I don’t have weddings
Work every day on my business - 6 days a week
Blog at least 2 times a month
Walk/bike/exercise at least once a week
No junk food on Monday with an exception to switch to Tuesday on holidays

I've already failed several times on the first one, I'm a night owl but I'd like to reset my internal clock some. I'm not giving up though,  a step forward, is a step forward, no matter how small. I'd love to hear about your resolutions and how they're going!

Here's to an amazing 2018!!