My New Year's Revolution

I haven't posted in a few weeks while I was home and in Indiana for the holidays. It was good to see so many people I've been missing but I'm definitely glad to be back to "real life" in Raleigh.

So, here's a secret that I haven't shared on here yet. Around the same time that I started this blog, I had a vision of a rather ambitious project that would encompass just about every aspect of my life. In fact, this ambitious project I'm undertaking kind of is my entire life...

If you read my first post (possibly the only worthwhile post on this blog thus far), you know that I moved cross-country after graduating college expecting to become an entirely new and exciting person and fell into quite the funk when that didn't happen.

Well, I found the solution and I call it:

Lucky #2013

or...

My New Year's Revolution

or just...

A Year of Intentional Living

Ok, so I can't decide what to call it. But I definitely know what it is and I am PUMPED!

I have a list of over 20 habits, attitudes, goals and changes I want to make part of my life this year. Every habit change I have chosen will benefit my physical health, overall happiness and/or productivity/financial situation.

And I don't just believe that my goals will make me happier or healthier, I know that they will! I have been researching the habits of truly happy, healthy and financially stable people for over a month and I am going to systematically incorporate those habits into my life.

Basically, I'm going to impersonate a happy, healthy and well-off person in the hopes that this will, in turn, make me quite happy, healthy and earning/saving some decent dough.

My goals range from the completely expected (ex: quit smoking, exercise more, manage money better) to the less-common but, I believe, equally important and effective (ex: be able to leave the house more quickly and with less worrying/grabbing things, avoid over-thinking and social comparisons, take my dog for a walk everyday).

I have read several books and articles not only to determine which habits to change but also how to change habits effectively and I will share these resources as I go along as well as which habits I'm focusing on at the time and how the changes are affecting me. But, the gist is that I will focus on 1-4 habits per month and change one at a time until, this time next year, I am practically a new person!

Whether this seems logical/practical or idealistic/insane to most people, I am not yet sure. In my mind, it is very logical and- though it may seem overly ambitious at first- it is meant to be tackled slowly and very systematically. Plus, I don't have many other pressing matters in my life at the moment. Besides rent and student loans, I have virtually no financial obligations, I am single and childless, young and healthy and full to the brim with a desire for change and self-improvement!

This is how I see it:

Rather than spending years moving new places, meeting new people and waiting to someday, somehow transform into the person I always dreamed I'd be, I'm going to stay where I am, become that person and have her as a traveling companion, wherever I go, for the rest of my life.

Doesn't sound too bad, right?