Happy New Year and stuff. It’s the one day of the year where everyone gets a fresh start. It’s Day 1 of doing something for yourself that’s productive like losing weight or putting more effort into your business, or maybe it’s a promise you make to your family to spend more time together, or maybe it’s to treat others with kindness and respect. Making a New Year’s resolutions or as I like to call them goals are a tradition that everyone around the world can get on board with, regardless of age, place of residence, race, religion, etc.
Accomplished Goals for 2015
Last year I set a few goals for myself. I accomplished most, not all, but most of them:
- Become more proficient in the kitchen and expand my repertoire beyond grilled chicken and basic pasta. I started a section called “Recipes Even I can Make.” My first recipe was my Nana’s Chicken Noodle Soup. This is now more special than ever, since my grandmother passed away in 2015 at age 97. In April I signed up for an 8 week-long techniques course at Nothing To It Culinary School. I planned to write about each meal but by the time I got home, I was in a food coma from all the amazing meals we cooked.
Photo by: Momsvilleusa.com - Expand my network of blogger friends and mentors. I’ve attended the Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas with my brother for the last few years. I’m interested in Affiliate Marketing, but it also gives me a chance to hang out with my brother for a few days in Vegas without kids. Last year was a bonus year, I met an amazing group of women bloggers and business owners. I learned if you don’t put yourself “out there,” you could be missing out on tremendous opportunities. Read about 5 Ways to Grow Your Network.
Grow Your Network - Give our 11-year-old daughter more freedom to enable her to learn to make good choices, stand up for herself, and have confidence to know that she is smart, witty and beautiful. There is so much girl drama now and it’s only the beginning. To help her gain a sense of independence, we are allowing more sleepovers. It’s a dilemma we faced and will continue to evaluate on a case by case basis. Do you allow sleepovers?
The Sleepover Dilemma - Conquer my anxieties head on so that I can finally kiss them goodbye. I have a fear of small planes and I had to face that fear head on. At the end of May, my grandmother got sick and never recovered. I needed to get to Palm Springs fast, and coming from Reno, there is just no easy way to get there. I bought a same day ticket that put me on two small planes – from Reno to San Francisco and San Francisco to Palm Springs. It turned out the person sitting next to me was even more agitated by small planes. So basically you had the crazy person (me) trying to calm down the crazy person (siting next to me). Read more about this Random Act of Kindess at 35,000 feet.
Snakes on a Plane - Be nice and more compassionate toward others. It’s taken me almost four decades to reach this goal. It’s a work in progress. I’m a competitive person by nature and when I speak my mind it often comes out more abrasive than I’m aware of, as my husband likes to remind me. As I’ve gotten older i.e become a parent, I’ve become less judgy, I’m learning to pick my battles, and I have more empathy for others. I can even add modern-day baby whisperer to my repertoire.
Baby whisperer
Goals for 2016
So what are my goals (not resolutions) for 2016:
- Build upon my 2015 successes (cooking, networking, anxiety and parenting).
- Live a healthier lifestyle and exercise more (because who doesn’t make that a goal?).
- Let go of what’s isn’t (yep that’s kinda loaded). Focus on my happiness and that of my family.
- Foster the relationships that are real and dump the ones that are poisonous.
- Build my blog and make a few dollars with Affiliate Marketing.
What’s your New Year’s goal?
