Goals for 2013

I've never been a fan of New Year's Resolutions. I know, I know: what with my raging Type A tendencies, you'd think I'd be all over resolutions like white on rice. (Wait, this is a healthy living blog! That should be "like brown on rice"! We love our whole grains here, folks. But I digress.)

But I find that in many cases, people's resolutions for self-improvement are based on restriction, deprivation, and punishment. You know the drill: I'll stop drinking diet Coke, I'll stop eating sugar, I'll make myself lose weight, yadda yadda yadda.

With that in mind, instead of creating resolutions, I decided to create goals for the next year -- because, in my mind at least, goals are positive achievements. In all areas of life, I prefer to add good things in as a way of crowding out the bad stuff, and this works in a similar way: instead of focusing on all the things about myself that I want to change, I'm focusing on all the positive things I want to add into my life.

So, without further ado...my goals for 2013!

1) My best friend bought me a copy of The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, and I'm already in love with it. Because it involves really committing to the work recommended in the book, I'm making this my #1 goal for 2013: once we've moved in to our new place, I'm going to make the time and space in my life to fully commit to the 12 weeks of work involved in the program.

 

2) This one scares the crap out of me, but I want to attend at least one conversational Hebrew group meet-up. Languages are a "use it or lose it" skill, and I've definitely been losing my Hebrew. I know it's just lying dormant in some dark corner of my brain, so I want to wake it up -- despite my epic fear of looking like a linguistic buffoon since it's been almost 7 years since I left Jerusalem.

 

3) Start writing installments of the Women Who Inspire interview series, and start reaching out to people beyond my immediate group of friends who I'd like to interview.

4) Launch the Mimosas for Charity fundraiser series that I thought up this fall -- this one has yet to be unveiled, so stay tuned for more info!

5) Practice as many random acts of kindness whenever possible -- and it's almost always possible.

6) Run another 5K.

7) Write as much as I possibly can!