A better me for 2014

Last updated on March 4th, 2024 at 08:12 pm

It’s a new year, everyone is rushing back to the gym and working on their new year’s resolutions. The ones we make in January and long forgotten by mid June. Or this is how it normally goes for me! So this year I will make my new year’s resolution list as the previous years before but with a different approach. My list may contain things I want to do or accomplish but the center behind each one this time is about “improving me”.

I like me, but I think I could do better. In the past years I have said I wish I was like that, or I wish I had certain knowledge or experiences of this and that. I am done saying it, and am now doing it. This motivation to be a better me, actually started a few months ago. My 30th birthday was fast approaching and when it hit, it really drove it in that I am a grown up now and need to take matters into my own hands because only I can make a better me.

Manage:

Time management needs to be a priority. There are too many things I must do, and want to do to sit around wasting any time. My children always come first and foremost, and I need to make special time for them to enjoy this time while they are young, as they grow too fast. I spend time with them now, of course, but I need to plan special activities and places to go together, and make memories. Not just our usual routines of music and swimming classes or playing at the park.

This one blows me away because I managed people for a living before I became a parent. Organizing others, improving their skills, guiding them forward were a daily task for me. Why have I not implemented these to myself? I need to manage myself now, instead of others.

Learn:

There is a whole separate list of things I want to learn. It’s frustrating really. I need about ten years, freeze time, get four or five more degrees and then unfreeze time to return to present day. If only…

I have been trying to learn Spanish my whole life, it seems. I am now being more proactive and using my new time management skills, above and insuring I am not just saying I am learning Spanish but working on it, at least a few minutes everyday.

I love photography. I have always been one with the camera out, snapping away. I have pretty much documented my whole life in pictures. My bedroom walls growing up were entirely covered in collages. It’s just too bad I am horrible at it and know nothing about taking photos. This year, I am becoming a better photographer, mark my words. (a new camera is a start, hint Mr. P.) 

Learn to love the outdoors again. I grew up in the country, swimming in the rivers, hiking mountains, snowboarding, biking, horseback riding etc. I loved to be outdoors. Who wouldn’t with the gorgeous sceneries that I was surrounded by in northern America and the amazing weather. Since I moved to England I have become a little hermit. I hate the wind and I hate the rain. But it’s never going to go away so I need to learn to embrace it more and get back outdoors!!!

Money:

Finance should always be relevant especially with two kids and being a shop-a-holic like me. I have been selling the kids clothes and other randoms around the house on eBay for extra money. At first, it wasn’t a big deal, boredom and de-cluttering really but as the kids got older I noticed their clothes were selling like wild fire. It’s nice, too, to turn around and use the money to buy them the next size up. It’s like money recycling. I have been really slacking the last end of 2013 selling on eBay, I want to get back into it and be resourceful. I can make money being a stay at home mommy.

Each month, I want to really start watching how I spend my money. Too many months of buy little unnecessary things, or grabbing the coffee rounds at Starbucks for everyone thinking they can get the next one, that never comes, because I keep offering. I am horrible about the small things when it comes to money. I never had a problem paying bills on time, or saving money when I lived on my own but for some reason it’s the tiny little things that I don’t pay much attention to that really add up. So my million trips to Starbucks where a coffee isn’t enough, I have to grab a water and a muffin too, days, are over.

Read:

I love to read. I will read any genre. I am one of those that get into a good book and will stay up all night reading it and ignoring everything else until it’s finished. I am making a list of books to read in 2014, hoping it will be at least a book a month. Let’s face it there’s only so many hours in the day to do all this, even with the best time management system in the world. I would love to read more than that but I think a book a month is a good start.

Love:

I am a loving person but there is always room for improvement. I need to give my family more love. Not just my immediate family but my Mother, Brothers, Sister, Aunts, Uncles, Grammas, and the rest of my extended family. Staying in touch with America is hard at such a distance, but with more effort it can be improved. Families are important and staying in touch just takes a little more love.

Love my husband more. (ahem, in the non-physical way) Too many nights he rushes in from hard day at work, I am running around cooking and feeding, and he has to jump in the mix of it all for bath time and bedtime stories, which he is brilliant at. I really did get lucky, he is the best Dad ever. But too many nights I try to accomplish all the above and leave him to fend for himself. Spousal time is just as important and in it I shall love him even more than I do now, if that’s even possible.

Calm:

I need to be a calmer person on the inside. If you knew me in person, you would see I may act calm on the outside, but usually I am running a hundred miles an hour in my head, trying to over pack our schedules everyday, and am completely overwhelmed by it all. I always take on too much, not knowing it’s too much until it’s too late. I need to stop stressing the small stuff, because in the end small stuff doesn’t matter. I have implemented a saying in our house each morning, “A happier, positive 2014!” We shouted it each morning before Mr. P. walks out the door. It’s only January 14, but it has gave an extra spring in our morning steps thus far.

Health:

This is so huge for me, and the one resolution that usually gets kicked out first or forgotten all together. I am the unhealthiest person you will ever meet. I feed my children organic, gourmet meals including all their food groups, and no junk whatsoever but I do not follow suit for myself. My kids love their vegetables, I do not. My kids are not allow to eat fast food, chocolate, cakes, ice cream etc. but I do all the time. It’s horrible I know and obviously I don’t do it in front of them so I guess that’s closet crap eating isn’t it? No more junk! I am done. It makes my skin feel bad, my body feel (and look) worse, it’s just not right. I am going to start following my children’s diets as they have the best diets in the world.

Exercise goes along with my health. I am a section exerciser. There are huge sections of the year where I hit the gym, go running outside, zumba, yoga, pilates, and workout dvds but there are other parts of the year where I won’t do anything at all. I need more balance, it’s better to do a little bit equally throughout the year than all at once and none at all.

Balance:

My overall resolution to become a better me is balance. I need a balanced life. Where my family and friends are present more, and my passions and hobbies are there to fill in the gaps, not the other way around. Putting down my iPhone, or turning off the TV, to share more precious moments that are right in front of me!

These are my new year’s resolutions!

Wish me luck!