resolution for the new year {2014}: be moneywise

this is pretty straightforward--it's important when you get older and have more things to pay for and buy and more bills and more of a future to plan for to be pretty good with your money. i'm okay with my money, but i could definitely do better. 

i'm making a conscious effort to 1) not spend money on clothes and shoes (this is a process...) 2) save save save (one of my roommates is amazing and has something like four savings accounts--one for emergencies, one for travel, one regular one, and one for her wedding. yeah, she's a catch.) and 3) not eat out so much. it's a little thing that can end up eating a big chunk of my funds, and eating in more often will also help me with my first resolution, so win-win.

so there you have it--my main resolutions for the year. it's going to be a great one!

resolution for the new year {2014}: build my portfolio

i've had this writer dream forever. i've tweaked it over the years, and i've dabbled here and there, but i can't get it out of my head. but the problem is that i don't really have writing samples, per se. i have blog posts and journal entries, but nothing really concrete, aside from a couple personal essays i wrote in pat madden's essay class a few years back. i have these aspirations of writing something more serious, and then it never happens.

so, this year i want to dedicate time (hopefully each day, if only for a few minutes), to writing for real. i think blogging kind of counts, especially if the posts are of the more essayistic variety (and let's face it, i should be doing more of those anyway). but i want to start to put together a portfolio, since many of my dream jobs require something like that.

por ejemplo, a couple weeks ago, joanna goddard of cup of jo posted a job opportunity working as a writer and editor for her blog, which has a pretty huge national readership. in my opinion, i could totally do something like that--write interesting and meaningful posts and build a brand. but i don't have the experience i would need to even feel comfortable applying.

that's what i want to change this year--write more, on a more consistent basis, with the intent that i will actually do something with that writing. i even bought this book to help me :)

resolution for the new year {2014}: eat cleaner

every year, i make a resolution, whether public or private, that pertains to being healthier. i want to exercise more or eat out less or cook more often. this year my goal in this regard is to eat cleaner. all that other stuff is encompassed in eating cleaner, but it's a different approach than i've taken before. and for the first time probably ever, i've been feeling like i need more vegetables in my life. who'da thunk, right?

so i'm determined to cook more during the week, preferrably full and complete meals, with sides and everything. i'm in the market for some good, easy veggie recipes, so send any of those my way. i guess i'm not really thinking about clean eating in the fanatical, wholly organic way, because, let's face it, most diets are probably going to be cleaner than some of the habits i've gotten into. i don't think it would be super effective to completely cut out all processed foods at this point in my progression. maybe someday, but not now.

but i do want to eat better, and i think there are a few little things i can be doing to get there. help is appreciated :)

resolution for the new year {2014}: overview

i always try to use the first few weeks of a new year to plan out some ways i think i can improve my quality of life, which become my "new year's resolutions", but i think i'm a pretty self-reflective person in general. so, most of these goals are iterations of thoughts i've had for a long time and that i maybe haven't articulated in quite the same way, or ever.

as i was thinking about how i wanted to pattern my life this coming year, i thought about the roots of the word 'resolution'. 'resolve' means, for one thing, to be firm and determined. in music, a resolve is a progression from dissonance to consonance. both of these are key to new year's resolutions, in my mind. as with any goal, you have to be determined and disciplined in order to accomplish anything. this has always been a weakness of mine, one that i am constantly working on. but one of the purposes of resolutions is to create a happier life for yourself, to resolve some of the dissonance to make way for harmony. cheesy? probably. still true? yesiree bob.

my overarching goal for the year is to choose happy. sometimes it is very easy to choose unhappy, or even to just choose complacency. i want to be actively happy this year. i hope my formal resolutions and my loosely ideated resolutions help me with that. let the self-improvement begin (or continue, as the case may be :))