What's your New Year's Resolution for 2009?

I don’t do resolutions.

Hopefully, I can get this boy situation sorted out though. He’s complicating things left and right.

• Help my wife get a job.

If that happens:
• Change my job from full-time to contract (work less hours).

If that happens:
• Clean the living shit out of my house.

And no matter what: Stop wasting time and energy trying to fix things with my mother and tell her to take a long walk off a short pier.

I usually don’t make them, but this year I plan to:

Get a job
Help my husband get a different job
Save money
and the old favorite…lose some weight!

Not so much resolutions as expected milestones:
– Finish my course and get my ‘higher diploma’
– Buy a new car
– Travel to a new place (potential destinations: Iceland, Australia, Dubai, India, California)

I don’t usually do resolutions, but I need to be more spontaneous. As it is right now and has been for a while, I over-analyze everything and become paralyzed when I need to choose between things. It’s no way to live and I feel I’m holding myself back.

Trying to be more spontaneous sounds like a really good resolution for me, simply because I know it will help me for the rest of my life.

I just heard a really cool story on the radio about resolutions. Someone did a study and 47% of people keep their resolutions. Here are some tips they noted that will help you be more successful:
– Have realistic goals
– only set 1–2 goals then move on to more as you achieve them
– set specific goals. Lots of people want to lose weight and save money. Be specific! i.e: I want to lose 20 pounds in the next year and exercise 3 times a week for a half hour
or
I want to save $1000/month, or set budgets: $100/week on groceries, etc
– find a resolution buddy—you can have the same resolution or different, but having someone to check in with and keep you honest will help you achieve the goal.

Those of you who have said you want to lose weight, how much? By proclaiming it here you will already be on your way to actually achieving it. Remember to choose a healthy and realistic goal.

Here are some of mine:
– Buy a new bike
– set a proper work schedule for myself (I work from home and get easily distracted)
– visit at least 2 new countries

Start lifting weights
It is ½ way thru January, and I have already started.

I want to start making money off one of my hobbies. I’m pretty crafty, so I want to open an online store for myself, start selling at craft shows, and maybe get some things sold in a local store or displayed in a local business. I sew, make wheel pottery, and paint watercolors and oils. All these hobbies are expensive, and selling them would be an impetus to improve my skill.