I tend to take things slowly. I take my time, think about it, think about it some more and then make a well thought out decision.
This year, however, my goal is to go big or go home.
No more saying “no” if it sounds like it’s out of my comfort zone.
No more thinking that I’m not good enough to do something, that I’m not as good as someone else, or that I just need more time and “one day” I’ll get there.
One day is today. One day is this year.
Now typically I’m not a huge fan of New Years resolutions. I think they are just a way for people to put things off until the new year, so that they can start at another time. I think that tomorrow is today, and if there’s something you want to accomplish, you should start today and not keep putting it off.
With that being said, the New Year can be a great time to re-evaluate your life and make some new goals to start now, or to refocus on old goals.
Here are my goals (this is a working list) for 2012:
1. Practice Intuitive Eating. At this time last year, I was OBSESSED with calorie counting a losing weight. It was all I cared about and it took over my life and continued to do so even through half of 2011. I ate based on a number, not how I felt.
Although I’m still getting past the calorie counting, I have trouble with intuitive eating, which means eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full. I want to keep focusing on this goal through the next year and hope to feel that I have accomplished it completely by this time next year.
2. Run 2 Half Marathons. I ran a 10 mile race in November, but my goal was always to run a half marathon. Since it’s way too cold in Chicago for long-distance running in the winter (at least I think so…) I had to hold off on it until the spring. My plan is to run in the Chi-Town Half Marathon in April. I also want to run another half, but I’m leaving that up to whatever I feel like running. I thought it would be nice to save one as more of a fun half, rather than something I plan way ahead of time.
3. Follow my new diet. In October of this year, I found out that I am intolerant to gluten, soy, white sugar and pasteurized milk. It was a lot to take in, but I managed to cut out gluten, soy and pasteurized milk. One of my January Goals (you’ll see those tomorrow!) is to also cut out white sugar. I felt the need to add this on to my 2012 goals, because it’s definitely been tough to cut out all of these foods, especially when I’m home with family, so I thought it was important to completely commit myself to it. I’ve already felt a lot better, and I’m hoping that keeping these foods out of my diet will get me totally back on track!
4. Figure out the next step in my life! By this time next year, I will have only one semester left in law school and at that point a lot of people already have jobs lined up, or have been job searching for months. This means that to be at that point, I need to figure out what in the world I want to do when I graduate. I have a great job lined up this summer that will help me determine if working for the government and prosecuting those who violate environmental laws is something that I would want to do. Hopefully I’ll be able to explore other options as well. Who knows what the year will bring!
5. Run a marathon. I said go big or go home, right? Well for the past two years I have watched thousands of people run the Chicago Marathon and each year I have desperately wished to be one of them, but always told myself that I’m just not made for that kind of running. Well you know what? I am. We all are. We just have to set our minds to it.
Get ready 2012, here I come!
Do you have any goals for the new year?