in 2014, i resolve to...

a little peek at what i'm calling my 2014 Organizational Suite

Go to Church.

This is something that is important to both Justin & myself. I want to find a Church that we enjoy, feel comfortable at, & walk away from feeling inspired to live our best lives.

Do Yoga & Pilates each week.

If you've never felt that easier-to-breathe feeling that happens after doing a yoga or pilates class/DVD, you need to try it. Not only are these practices good for your body, I truly believe they are also good for your soul. For pilates, I love Blogilates. I'm still in the market for a good yoga program, but I'm going to research that tomorrow I think.

Ease into a Paleo lifestyle.

I've been reading up on the health benefits of this type of diet & lifestyle, & I'm eager to try it. For the majority of 2013, I wrestled with acne-prone skin. In actuality, I don't think my skin has been completely clear in over a year & a half, & I don't know why. Granted, I should probably get myself to the dermatologist, which I fully intend to do, but I think cutting dairy out of my diet would do nothing but help. Where have I turned to for Paleo inspiration? Here & here. I'm not going to pretend this isn't also about weight loss. In short, I'm tired of fighting with my body. I'm in a much better place than I've been in years past, but I'm ready to make a permanent, positive change to my lifestyle.

Run.

It is a big goal of mine to run a half marathon in 2014. I've already scoped out the training plan I'd like to follow, & I think I'm going to start it next week. Due to some big changes coming up, I don't know exactly when or where I'll be running this half marathon, but I'm just going to start training for it & go with the flow. There are changes coming to my blog that will reflect my running journey, so be on the lookout for that in the next few days or so.

Consistently take care of myself.

This sounds weird, I know. But sometimes I really slack on taking care of myself. I can't tell you how much I've improved on my before-bed routine. Switching to showering at night was a huge help, & I greatly look forward to crawling into bed clean each night. But there are weeks where I don't fix my hair, & it can be found hanging out as a curly mess on my head. This isn't conducive to my feeling especially wonderful, & it has been known to launch me into some particularly prickly ruts. I won't go much further into this, but I will say that I often shortchange myself when it comes to this category, & I plan to make a big change regarding this in the coming year.

Allow myself to evolve.

I can't tell you how much I over think whether or not I should allow myself to change. I have all of these weird notions in my head about who exactly I'm trying to be at any given moment, & to tell you the truth, I feel like that's really unhealthy. This year, I resolve to let go of those pre-conceived notions & simply allow myself to evolve into my best self. Sounds easy enough, right?

Immerse myself in music & make playlists.

Now, this one I'm really excited about. I go through phases with music: sometimes I'm ravenously hanging by its thread, waiting for something to come out that's going to change my life, be my theme song, make me cry; other times, I'm all, meh... whatev. This year, I want to be the former. I've written before about how music can take me away to another place & time, & in 2014, I want that. I want to, in the future, hear this year's songs & be immediately transported back to the year I turned twenty-eight.

Develop my hobbies: knitting, crocheting, metal-stamping, stationery-printing, & monogramming.

I keep putting these things off. In fact, at the beginning of pretty much every year since I learned to knit (thanks, Diane!) in 2011, I've always wanted to make Christmas gifts for people. And I have done that a couple of times, but I want to make this more of a thing in the coming years, & there's no time to start like the present.

Maintain my composition notebook diaries & planners.

As you can see from the photo above, I plan to use a lot of different types of planners/diaries this year - 5, to be exact. I'm planning to write a post about my Organizational Suite for this year, so be on the lookout for that. I'm really excited about this system, & I really hope it sticks!

Send correspondence.

I love handwritten letters, & I want to give that joy to others. This will also help with one of my other resolutions, which I'll discuss later in this list.

Work on the Treasure Catalogue with my Mom.

Right now, this project is still in the discussion phase, since I didn't get to work on it during our trip to Shreveport like I had planned. I'm really excited about this, though!

Read.

I've set a Goodreads goal of 24 books this year, & I'm excited to reach that goal. Ever since my reading hiatus, my passion for books has been thrown into sharp relief. I now plan to always make time for reading, no matter how full my schedule gets.

Cook.

If I'm going to try to ease into a Paleo lifestyle, this is going to be necessary. To tell you the truth, though I don't cook often, when I do, it brings me great joy.

Go out with Justin.

Living so far from family & friends gives us constant permission to eat takeout on the couch in front of the TV. This year, I want us to focus more on celebrating our relationship & taking the time to go out on dates. I think this will be fun for both of us, & I know we'll be seeing a lot of movies!

Collect gift inspiration throughout the year.

I'm already ahead of the game on this resolution, & I'm excited to keep it up. Gift-giving should bring about feelings of joy, not stress. I'm opting for joy in each gift I give this year, & putting a stop to procrastination is the key.

Finish Christmas shopping the second week of December.

Going hand-in-hand with the list item right above, I plan to have all the shopping done by this time. The ultimate goal here is to collect gifts throughout the year, possibly even wrapping them ahead of time [and labeling them so I remember what they are, of course!].

Plan ahead.

I could go on & on about this one & why it's important to me this year, but I'm just going to let it be self-explanatory.

Nurture my relationships - especially family.

This one may be far down on the list, but its importance is colossal to me in this new year. As I discussed in the "Go out with Justin" portion of this list, living far away from friends & family allows this sort of pass, which I easily fall into, but do not like the results of. It's so easy for me to fold in on myself, relish being at a distance & uninvolved... but ultimately, this is not the way I want to be, or the kind of friend I wish to be. Being introverted at my core, socializing & keeping up sometimes drains me, even though I wish to be different. My social skills - namely, being more outgoing & friendly - is way up there on my goals for this year.

Work on - in a BIG way - handling stress & anxiety.

I've grown in leaps & bounds in this category where air travel is concerned. And I owe a great deal of that ease to the discovery of Brave Flyer. And though I've begun overcoming this particular hurdle, it seems to have given way to some pretty extreme & unpredictable highway anxiety. Though I've unlocked a major key to what triggers my anxiety - caffeine - there are still times when I can't prevent it or make it go away. I'm going to work on that this year, & hopefully, by this time next year, I'll be able to write about how I'm more at ease.

What do you resolve to do in this brand new year that lies before us? 

Please do share - I'd love to hear your goals!