Decisions, Decisions...

I gave myself two weeks to think about changes I needed to make this year. I'm not one to make resolutions every New Year. But, this year I have a couple of milestones in my life-- I'm getting married, and then exactly a month later, I turn 30. Many people set things they'd like to do before they turn 30. I used to have a list like that, but long agoI decided that you can't put a timeline on life. This year, I have chosen to focus on 5 F's: Family, Friends, Faith, Fitness and Finances.

Family- I'm going to resolve my issues with my family. You've read my complaints about my family on this blog before. This year, I'd like to drop the negativity and accept my family for who they are. I know they care about me, otherwise, they wouldn't try to be so involved in our wedding. My first action item-- this impromptu trip I'm taking this week. I need to remind myself how much I love being around them.

Friends- J and I are both bad about not actively keeping in touch with friends... even those that live in the same town! We talk about it a lot, but we never seem to do anything about it. We've gotten into the get up, go to work, come home, go to bed routine, and our friends aren't hearing from us nearly as much as they should.

Faith- I was not raised with religion. In middle school, I started going to church with friends and continued to go through college. I went to different denominational churches in order to see what each type believed. When I moved to Steamboat, I never picked up where I left off.

Fitness- I am looking at this one as focusing on overall health. I need to keep up both my healthy eating and mindset. If I don't do this, I will slide back into the ways that helped me gain 20 lbs in 3 years. Everything I worked for the past six months will have been waste-- a short-term answer to a much bigger problem. Both of my parents have health problems, so if I don't address my hereditary issues now, they will be a lot harder to address further down the road.

Finances- This is a big one. I am a numbers girl. I've been in finance for over 10 years. For some reason, I can create budgets all day long, yet I tend to ignore them. J thinks it might have something to do with the fact that I didn't grow up with many things, and once I began to make my own money... if I liked it, I had to have it. In order to retrain my brain, I need to make a commitment to myself to change the way I look at my money. I plan to go through the items I have that are not being used and trash, donate or resell those items that are in excess. I have closets stuffed to the brims, so be on the lookout for eBay listings!

I am confident that the changes I make in these aspects of my life can be carried over into future years easily and aren't unreachable goals, as they're more like lifestyle changes that will make me a better person.

Now, I did have that goal to run a marathon before I turned 30. I've run the half marathon here every year, but the full has always kind of freaked me out. Plus, I probably should have started training, um... two weeks ago, a month ago?? So, do you think I should go for it? It would help the fitness aspect on my list.

Have you set resolutions this year? Do you tend to keep them or stick to them?