On New Years Resolutions and Keeping it Simple.

photo courtesy of remainsimple.com

So... here we are 6 days into the new year and I haven't really given much thought to any 2014 resolutions. In the past, I've done a year with monthly resolutions and that worked out pretty well. For the most part, however, I don't really do that whole "I'm going to ship-shape my life starting at 12 pm tonight."

I know that I need changes in my life, and I guess now that I'm 30, I should start doing that whole grown up "making plans" thing. Ugh. But I read this article from The Art of Simple, and it spoke to me. Starting off the new year under a load of expectations and meticulous planning isn't really where I'm at these days. I like the idea of spending January deciding on what I really want to do and, even more-so, what I need to do. I'd like to spend this month reflecting and assessing, and then each following month working on something in a different part of my life that needs attention. I also want to emphasize relaxation and acceptance this coming year. I've dealt with anxiety a good part of my life, but I'm finally at a place where that seems to have subsided.

I spent a lot of my 20's trying to impress other people. I believe that's fairly normal for someone in that age bracket. I wanted to be who they wanted me to be and prove that I belonged and was smart and funny and whatever-else-I-worried-about. It's different now. I want this to be a time in my life dedicated to impressing myself- and learning why that's enough. I read a Michelle Obama interview where she said:

 "I found that other women, in similar situated balancing career family, trying to do it all and a lot of times we just slip pretty low on our own priority list because we're so busy caring for everyone else. And one of the things that I want to model for my girls is investing in themselves as much as they invest in others."

And I believe that to be so very true. For a multitude of reasons, be it caring for others or caring too much about what others think, we put ourselves at the bottom of our priority list. Which is crazy. So this month will be about reflection in order to discover how I can value myself more. If that means I stay home with a cup of tea and a notebook, that's okay. Sometimes it's okay to keep it simple.