Make New Year’s Resolutions Worth a Sh*t

Make New Year’s Resolutions Worth a Sh*t started out as a completely different blog title. Something prettier like New Year, Fresh Start in 2017. Then in a holiday binge of my new favorite podcast Creative Empire, a lightbulb went off. Somewhere between Amber Housley and Lara Casey, two boss moms I greatly admire, I realized I need to stop trying to fit into the box.

I’m gonna build a new box. Actually, let’s make it without corners.

I don’t feel as if I’ve ever been inauthentic in my posts or social media. However, I do always feel like I’m editing myself. Careful not to be too revealing, clean up my language and make sure every book and petal is in it’s place.

Can I have permission to NOT tie a bow on every blog and project? Maybe skip the bow and give it to ya straight forward? I want to show more of the grit and messiness of real life.

Running a business that idealizes perfection is EXHAUSTING.

Here’s my first resolution of the year – stop trying to fit the mold or make sure everyone is “impressed” by my dog and pony show.

I just want to be ME. I love Jesus, but I curse a little (okay, a lot, I’m working on it). By trade, I am a Professional Organizer but there’s dog hair on my floor and dishes in my sink. My toddler is also a tornado of destruction. I am honored and privileged to be using my gifts and talents on a daily basis to make other people’s lives easier. You could say I’m living my “dream job”. Which is 51% freaking awesome and 49% really demanding butt-busting work.

Here’s my challenge, as much to myself as it is to you. Choose goals this year that actually FIT your current lifestyle and MEAN something to who you are as a person.

In 2016, I wrote that I wanted to run a second half marathon. I ran my first right before I got married and my last timed race was a 10K when I was pregnant. However, I had two major obstacles in my way all year long – cost (fees/gear/travel can easily burn a few hundred) and time to train (cause, you know, life). It wasn’t that I wasn’t running somewhat regularly but 10 miles takes a whole lot more time than 3 miles. A week ago, while working through my Powersheets, I added “run a half marathon” again. But something didn’t sit right. What had changed about the barriers in 2016 that would be different in 2017? The answer is NOTHING. It still costs money and oh, by the way, I’m still raising a kid and running a business while trying to get dinner on the table!

Did I just want another medal to hang on my wall or a dope race shirt to prance around in?

Well, because I’m human, the truth is yes. My medals make me feel like Michael Phelps and the race shirt makes me feel like a goal crushing badass when working out at the gym.

But the other side of that truth was the guilt and defeat I felt by NOT achieving that goal with each passing month.

It was time for a goal renovation. What was at the core of wanting to run another half marathon? Well, when I’m training, workouts are a priority. It’s like a deadline for my physical fitness. When I’m exercising regularly, I am less stressed and feel more confident. So really what my resolution should be is make working out a priority and challenge myself once a week. Add an extra mile to my long run, take a new class or up my deadlift weight by 10 pounds.

Four times a week is my new exercise goal and each month I want to add a full mile to my long run. Today 4 miles is my long run which means by the end of the year I’ll be doing my own personal half marathon. If that culminates to doing a new race in December, great.

But I think the real reward is going to be how good I feel wearing shorts this summer. Bring on the mini skirts!

Another recurring resolution that needed an overhaul was wanting to read the entire bible.

That made it’s first appearance in 2015. Did I do it? Nope. Do I want to? Sure! In theory I would LOVE to say I have read the Bible cover to cover. I read every Real Simple magazine cover to cover, so what gives?

Have you tried to read the Old Testament? Any seminary graduate readers, please forgive me. But there just aren’t enough sleeping emojis to portray how boring so many of those chapters are.

Then I thought in 2016, well, what if I just read the New Testament? Um, here’s the real deal. I barely finished Matthew. That’s the FIRST BOOK of 27 in the New Testament. Yeah, this wasn’t working either.

I had to find a way to make new year’s resolutions worth a shit so I could check them off my list each month.

Again, WHY did I want to read the New Testament? Just to say I did? So Jesus might give me a fist bump at the pearly gates??

When I really truly thought about this goal, I realized what I’m really craving is more time with God. Quiet, undisturbed moments of prayer and reflection. So that’s my resolution – 10 minutes a day with Jesus. Any way that it fits – praying in my car, singing praise music with my daughter or lo and behold I crack open that amazing book and read it before bed. I am joining a twice monthly moms bible study which I am also so excited about dedicated structured time.

Make resolutions that reflect the core of you – challenging but realistic to your every day life.  Make new year’s resolutions worth a shit.

I’ve always loved choosing a word of the year. Last year it was ‘pursue’. I wanted to pursue God, authentic relationships and His plan for my life. I held true to the word but I feel as though the order was flipped. My work was a main focus. While I truly believe that I am pursuing the plan for my life, I am missing one key component. My pursuance of God.

I desire gratefulness and fulfillment that I only find from one source.

My word of the year for 2017 is ‘bold’. But not the kind of loud, boldness like what you expect famous actors to have. A quiet boldness. The kind that makes waves, soft ripples on the beach at night. Bold in a way that includes being proud without being prideful. I want to be bolder, to face difficulties with more courage.

Let’s make new year’s resolutions worth a shit so we can make it happen, and not feel stressed that we aren’t because they aren’t realistic.

So what’s it going to be friends?

Will you be bold with me?

Let’s do this!