Tag: flexibility

Categories
Fabulous living

2025 New Year’s Resolutions

Hello Everyone and Happy New Year! 

I hope you have had an enjoyable holiday season. For many people, itā€™s back to work and reality, but others have a few more days to relax and unwind. I hope these past few days or weeks brought you rest, family and friend time, a good recharge, joy, love and memories. I know my heart is full after this holiday season.

I like to use the time between Christmas and New Year to reflect on the past year and look forward to whatā€™s to come. 

I did my annual planner prep this week!

I accomplished a lot in 2024, you can read all about it here.

Before I get to my New Yearā€™s Goals and Resolutions for 2025, I wanted to give you an update on my resolutions from last year. You can read about them here.

My motto of the year was to ā€œBe Open and Aware of Changeā€ while it was a challenge, I certainly embraced the change that was thrown my way. I grew a lot this year, I became more independent and confident in myself and my decisions. 

This year, while I leaned into my routines, I worked on being more flexible when it comes to schedules. Flexibility is something I have always struggled with and Iā€™m constantly working on and itā€™s something I want to continue to improve on in the new year.

My 2024 Resolutions for 2024 was to donate blood, do an 8K or 10K, Relearn Piano, Learn how to Braid Hair and Cook One Meal a Week. 

I accomplished all of these goals minus learning to braid hair, that was mostly because I have short hair and itā€™s not conducive to braiding right now. Once I grow it out, I plan to learn how to braid it. 

I donated blood for the first time this summer and I have continued to donate every time I am eligible. 

Donating Blood

I ran two 10Kā€™s this year and broke my personal record during my second one.

First of Two 10 K

I attempted to teach myself piano and practiced almost every day, but I donā€™t know if I will continue with this hobby in the new year.

Learning Piano

I have continued to make one meal a week and tried lots of new recipes and even mastered some too!

Cooking a new meal each week

I was pleased with how much I accomplished this past year whether it was trying new hobbies or continuing with old ones.

My mindset going into 2025 is to approach my days and schedules in a calmer manner. I found myself overbooking last year and want to leave more room for flexibility every day and focusing on doing one thing at a time and not always multitasking. Flexibility is something I want to be better at in the new year. Itā€™s something I say every year and each year I am getting better and better at it.

I want to continue with some of my habits that I started from last year including daily meditation, donating blood, making one meal a week , and paying attention to my budgets. 

When it comes to new goals or resolutions for 2025, I want to:

-Run a half marathon (something I have been working towards over the past few years)

-Read 70 Books (I read 68 this past year, so I think this is doable.)

-Learn How to Bake Bread (I know this was very popular during the pandemic, but now I am jumping on the bandwagon and want to learn as well.)

-Learn how to iron (I know how to iron, but I want to get better at it this year.)

-Get more involved in my community (whether this is through joining a fitness class or club, I want to meet new people in my hometown.) 

In addition to these new goals for the new year, I want to work on spending more time outdoors, especially when it comes to being with my dogs. I want to continue to spend time with friends, go on a family trip and visit a new state. 

I have a few other personal goals that I want to work towards in the new year. I love the feeling of a fresh start and new beginnings that each year brings and I canā€™t wait to see what 2025 has in store for me. Happy New Year! Welcome 2025!

Categories
Let's Look

Let’s Look: Worst Habits

Hey everyone! Happy Wednesday! I hope you have been having a great week. Last weekend I ran my first 5K and Iā€™ll be sharing more about what I learned about myself while training and how I prepared for it next week. Since itā€™s the second week of the month, I like to link up with ErikaĀ andĀ Shay. for Letā€™s Look. Hereā€™s some of the past things we looked at through the year.Ā 

In July, we talked about new favorite summer finds, in June,Ā we talked aboutĀ best travel tips, in May, we talked about ourĀ morning routines, in April, we talked aboutĀ pet peeves,Ā in March, we talked aboutĀ Amazon purchases,Ā in February it was aboutĀ our medicine cabinets.

Today, itā€™s all about worst habits which is similar to the biggest pet peeves prompt from April, but I decided to change it up and switch up my responses. When I first saw the prompt, I knew I could think of a list of bad habits or things that Iā€™m not good at, which shows me how hard we can be on ourselves. 

Rather than give you a list of bad qualities, I decided to choose three bad habits I have and how I want to work on them. 

Hereā€™s what I came up with:

Over planning– I am a Type A person through and through. I like lists, planners, a schedule and direction and I like it way in advance. But, as I have learned, life doesnā€™t work that way and you have to adapt and adjust, often or on the fly. Sometimes, I tend to over plan and then when things stray or change, I get thrown in a tail spin which is not good. I will also stress out about things that are out of my control. I will get anxious about something that is days, weeks or months away or may not even happen. I sometimes get so focused on it and get tunnel vision and then it may not even happen. Iā€™m also really working on not overbooking things in advance and instead being more open and flexible to plans and things falling into place. Itā€™s way easier said than done. Iā€™m also working (which I have been for years) on being more spontaneous to making plans with friends and family. It hasnā€™t been easy but Iā€™m doing my best.Ā 

A look at my overly organized planner and to do lists.

Neat freak– I am a neat freak, control freak, everything has a home freak through and through. I love to clean, I love to make sure dishes are put away at the end of the day and all the laundry is folded and hampers are empty. I have been known to clean and put away dishes and cups when people are still using them. However, living with five other people, I know the house isnā€™t always in perfect condition. I try my best to let the little things go and give myself grace, but that doesnā€™t always happen. I love the sense of satisfaction of clean space which I alway try to leave room at home and desk at work in good shape whenever I leave, so when I come back, everything is fresh and clean. Growing up in a large family you get used to chaos, disorder and messes and itā€™s all a part about being in a family and I wouldnā€™t change it.

Getting sucked into ā€œSales and Free Itemsā€– I enjoy shopping and I always love a good deal. However, I am guilty about buying things to get a sale or discount or to get something free when I donā€™t need it in the first place. For example, I will get emails like many other people about getting a free item/drink/side with a purchase and I will want to take advantage of the offer, because I would get something free too. However, do I need to buy something in the first place? Probably not. I fall victim to spending more sometimes to get a free item or free shipping when I probably didnā€™t need the item in the first place (Iā€™m looking at you Bath and Body Works and Chipotle!) I will say that McDonaldā€™s app and deals are ones that are consistent and worth the free items or discounts. However, most times, I realize I probably didnā€™t need to buy the item to get something free to begin with. I have gotten a lot better at simply deleting the email unless itā€™s something I absolutely need. However, I am guilty of spending when I donā€™t need to be spending haha!

An example of an email that I try to delete and not give into

I think as I have gotten older, I have seen these habits come out more, they arenā€™t necessarily bad, but when you take them to the extremes or become obsessed then you have to reign it in a bit. 

My biggest takeaways as I have grown up is that itā€™s all about moderation and not going to extremes of being a neat freak or over planned or stressing out about things out of your control, what it comes down to for me is about being more flexible and adaptable and less rigid. Iā€™m a work in progress and Iā€™m proud of that. Iā€™m sure if you ask my friends and family about what my worst habits are, they can can give you a full list of other things, but these are big areas I that hope to work on as I grow older.

Now, that I have opened up, tell me, what are some of your bad habits? They can be big or small! Let me know in the comments below!