Real Life Resolutions vol. 3

Enough is enough! January 2018 is more than 3/4 of the way through and I have yet to post my goals for the year.

Those of you who have been following along for a while will recognize many of these goals from last year's post. But please also notice the ones that have become habits at this point, clearing the way for some new ones!

Weekly - Continue meal planning and setting up my 5-minute journal every week.

• Work on a blog post - The total number of 2BB posts last year was in the single digits. I can/want to do better!
• Go to the gym - NEW! Wrapped up in this goal are smaller ones, like learning how to use the weight machines and balancing out the left (weaker) and right (dominant) sides of my body.

Monthly - Continue updating the wall calendar and monitoring the budget every month.

• Try a new restaurant - There was no problem meeting this goal last year, but it's too fun not to include again!
• Host a meal at our house - We hosted more meals in 2017 that we ever had before, but we can still do more to up our hosting game.
• Do a project around the house - Nearly 18 months in this apartment, and the walls are still pretty bare. We also just picked up a small rug for the bedroom, and since neither of us can stop commenting about what an improvement it is over the cold, bare floor, this goal has a lot of potential to boost happiness throughout the year.
• Volunteer - The observant reader will notice that this has moved from weekly to monthly to be more realistic.
• Visit a museum - DC has a ton, and most of them are free! In fact, I could probably just visit the National Gallery of Art twelve times and still not see everything.

2018

• Read more than 27 books - Since 27 was the total for 2017.
• Train for and complete a half marathon - Mostly this means stay healthy and avoid injuries through race day (and then maybe never running again; we'll see how it goes).
• Apply for and pass the AICP Exam - How does one find the motivation to write essays, study and take a professional exam during her free time outside of work? First things first, setting my own deadlines for each of the steps in the application process well in advance of the June deadline.
• Visit Japan! - Keizo and I are thinking big and starting to lay the groundwork for an epic Pacific Rim adventure. Please send good vibes our way to help us pull it off!

There are so many other things I want to do this year (make kombucha! buy a new bike! go camping! see concerts! repeat our favorite things from last year!) but making this list has helped me set up a good foundation and refocus my energies on the bigger goals I struggled to accomplish last year. I didn't choose a word for 2017, but this year's word is LOVE - showing more love for myself and those around me, and doing more things that I love with the people that I love, to create a life that I love.

Here's to 2018!