Every few years I actually make new year’s resolutions and then I more or less stick to them. A couple of years ago I bought a lovely, big notebook to keep track of them all (I made a TON of resolutions, or rather wanted to do a lot of things, that year) and actually enjoyed checking the items off the list. It included fun things like “Go to the beach – 2x” and more resolution type things like “save $100 each month”. In the latter case I then made 12 check boxes to tick off when I completed a goal.
I pulled it off the shelf the other day and amusingly enough I had it subtitled “Sandra’s semi-neurotic quantification of New Year’s resolutions – a year-long project” Kind of a fitting name but hey. It was a really awesome project with lots of inspirational quotes and graphics from magazines:
Last month I finished reading Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project and she had come up with a similar fun chart to track her goals. I thought about how much fun I had making my New Year’s Resolutions Book and checking off accomplishments. OK it also sucked to have a constant nagging reminder that I STILL hadn’t run a 5k and a few other things but overall it reminded me to be conscious about taking time to do things that I wanted to do for myself to live an active, healthy, and fulfilling life.
This year my resolutions were the exact opposite of this rather specific goal setting (hello MBA) and I believe they were to travel more for fun and to make home-made Christmas gifts. Pinterest sure helped with the latter and I’ll have to dedicate a post to that after the holidays when my friends unwrapped theirs. I also traveled a lot more for fun or made work trips more fun so I call this year a 100% success year in terms of (granted, very easy) resolutions. Pat on the should, Me! (I’m sooo vain… I bet I think this song is about me…)
For next year I have a lot of ideas for several areas of my life so if the world doesn’t come to an end when the Mayan calendar becomes outdated I might just whip out my purple note-book again and fill it some more. I think it’d be fun.
What are your resolutions / plans for 2013?
Every year the day after Thanksgiving I have to travel to New York for a tradeshow. I really despise the schedule for that show but have started to look at it as “how lucky am I to travel to one of the coolest cities in the world when all the holiday decorations are up?!” It seems to work a little bit to get a positive attitude but still…. What always makes having that holiday weekend crushed to a one day weekend better is meeting up with old friends. This year the fabulous Maren showed me some of her favorite places around Washington Square and I chatted for hours with my college friends Katie and her 
Amidst all that my Christmas tree came out and it now even has its very own Christmas Pickle. This is supposedly a German tradition – except nobody in Germany hangs pickles in their trees. Oh America. Thank you for thinking labeling something German will make it a best seller. Alas, I do love my Christmas Pickle sooo!
The satellite photo immediately reminded me of a green aventurine donut that I had in my stash. I paired it with aventurine chips, dark green saguaro jasper, semi-baroque pearls and seed beads. Everyone knows Saguaro Cacti so what better gem to use in a dessert inspired piece of jewelry?! Anyway, my BFF who got it for her birthday seemed to like it. 🙂
