my resolutions

Personally, I've never believed in setting massive goals for myself and labeling it a New Year's Resolution. But what can I say, there's a first time for everything. I definitely know how to set goals that's for sure, it's just I've never had any long term ones that I've managed to stick to. It turns out that this year I have a lot of things I'd like accomplish in my life. So, what better way to set the record of goals straight by making them a resolution?

Thus, my list of goals for the year 2012 has come into play.

My first goal is to exercise in some form or fashion once a day and eat a healthier diet. Now this obviously means I want to lose weight right? Of course but that's not the only reason. I've never weighed as much as I do now and I've come to the realization that I'm not physically in shape - at all. I decided a while back I needed to change that so that's what I'm going to do! I'm on day 6 of my workout/diet plan and so far I've been going strong! Walking a mile everyday and eating only healthy foods with as little fat as possible turns out to be a wise thing to do whether you want to lose weight or not. The last time I went to the doctor I was told that I was over what I was supposed to weigh and that I should start exercising more. Hopefully after the initial shock of changing my diet and schedule wears off I'll start to feel the effect of having more energy and feeling more confident.

Secondly, I OBVIOUSLY have a goal to finish my book series and find an agent to represent me. By doing this I can finally pursue my dream of becoming a published author and putting my stories out there for everyone to discover. This goal is high on the list because this is something that will affect my career and in my eyes will define how successful I am as a writer. Every writer dreams of seeing their works published. At this point I don't even care about the celebrity acknowledgement or the amount of money I make off of it. I just want to know that my story was good enough.
(I can't say that having more money wouldn't be nice though.)

My third goal is to find a better day job. The one I have now is stressing me out beyond belief and making me physically miserable just being there. I don't have a hard job. For any of you that follow me on Twitter you know it's just a retail job for a major clothing company. It's the fact that I don't support anything the company represents and I hate associating myself with the brand. They don't treat their employees fairly and don't care about their individual needs as people. The policies and guidelines are unreasonable and the amount of dedication they expect from the amount of information and preparation they give you are no where near equal. The management expectations and skills are not professional in any way and their system of scheduling is not up to par. That in a nut shell is how I feel about the moose. Not to mention that I've been there for 3 years and only had one .50 raise. More than likely that will be the only one I ever get and I can't advance to a higher position because the next highest position requires a degree (even though some of the people they hire to be managers are no where near capable of doing that job despite their degree).

Fourthly, I have a goal to save more money. I like many people have trouble spending and living paycheck to paycheck. It's not a habit I need to get used to, especially if I plan on buying a house one day and dealing with a monthly mortgage. Bills pile up and stressing over having enough money is not fun. I know better than to quit my job because I hate it, since being a writer is not a very reliable thing to count on when it comes to a paycheck. This goal kind of falls in with the previous one since they go hand and hand. I need a better job so I can save more money.

Last but not least, I've decided to go back to school. I've yet to find out what I want to do with my life as a career but I do know that I want to be a writer. So I guess I could have called it a no brainer to be an English major. I've never enjoyed the idea of being forced to write what other people want me to but as long as I don't become a journalist and always think about it as a learning experience I think I'll be just fine. Not to mention having a degree in English will obviously help me look better when presenting my book.

Now because I have all these new goals it's going to be hard to find time to set aside and dedicate to working on my book, but I think I can do it. As long as I stay focused and remember how happy I'll be in the long run!

Wish me luck and Happy New Year!