Resolutions!

Every January I make a few resolutions, and sometimes I actually follow through with them. For example, last year, after 20+ years of cracking my knuckles (I started at 9, true story) I quit cold turkey on January 1st. And it stuck! That's insane! Change IS possible!

Some years I keep my resolutions a secret (like birthday wishes, so I don't jinx them?), but this year I'm going to share in the hopes that it might light a tiny fire under my butt and help me try to be a slightly better version of myslef. So here goes it:

Go to bed earlier. I make this resolution every year, and fail miserably. I'm a night owl. I am my most productive and creative after the sun has set, and that inevitably leads to really late nights with a brain that will not shut off at a reasonable hour. Going to bed before 2:00 seems like a waste of perfectly good night hours. I'm lucky I work in an industry where we don't have to be in the office at 8:00am, so the mornings aren't at all as terrible as they could be, but they could be so much better! Plus, time is catching up to this baby face, an extra hour or two of sleep will do me wonders. I'm going to shoot for going to bed at 11:30, but will be happy if I can consistently hit the 12:30 mark.

Make Makai feel like a puppy. I need to be better about keeping Makai's old brain stimulated with puzzles, more playtime, and structured walks. His body is getting ancient and achy and that makes him grumpy. It's hard for him to get comfortable, sometimes it's even hard for him to get up once he's been laying down for a while, and that makes him frustrated and grumbly and it's sad. Can you imagine laying in a position at night and being ready to flip over but your body won't listen to you? I'd be pissed off too. However, on days when he's had a lot of stimulation and playtime, he's a MUCH happier dog and it seems like his body responds well too, so I need to make the time to do lots lots more of that.

Complain less. This is going to be really, really difficult for me. Over the last couple of years I've become a professional complainer. I'm aware of it, I hate it. What used to be my biggest pet peeve in others has taken hold of my mouth and will. Not. Shut. Up. To be fair, 2011 was filled with a lot of stress, and it really feels good to just vent it out and get things off my chest. But it has to stop. If I'm sick of hearing me moan and groan about the same things I can only imagine how my friends and family feel about the constant dumping. It's a gnarly habit, but I'm really going to try and kick it. Onward and upward!

Read one book a month. I love reading. I love getting lost in a book and getting completely consumed by new characters and their lives and adventures. But I'm a slooow reader. My mind wanders when I read and I have to re-read paragraphs – sometimes pages – pretty frequently. It just takes a lot of time, which I do not have an abundance of these days. BUT! I think if I commit to reading a little every night before bed, it would help me wind my brain down better for my aforementioned new early bed time. And, I have four – count em, FOUR – books that I have read the first three or more chapters of just waiting, nay, begging me to finish them. So the first four months of this plan should be an easy ramp up. I'm taking book suggestions!

Anything that takes less than five minutes to do: DO IT. I am the queen of, "Oh, I'll do that in a half hour." The half hour turns into a half day the half day into 2 days and then the dishes are in the sink for a week. Anything that takes fewer than five minutes to actually accomplish, I need to just do. Just do it, Ebberts!

Find a focus for The Sassy Pickle. Ugh. I have grand hopes and dreams for The Sassy Pickle in the future, but again, everything takes time. Each post takes me about an hour to get my thoughts in order, then there's photo editing which seems to take forever. For a while I tried to make one post every day (sometimes I'd do them all on the weekend and queue them up for auto-posting during the week), but I was writing about things I didn't care about in an effort to just post SOMETHING, which sucks. I don't want to talk about my personal life on here (although those are the blogs I find the most interesting), but I really love sharing the things I like or find interesting and of course sharing Shmoop Tales. So this year I want to hone in on what exactly my focus is, and run with it. Oh, and completely redesign my brand, but again, the time thing.

Well, I think that's enough to get me in some trouble. I figure if I cast a broad net, I'm bound to catch something. And whatever I crash and burn on I'll just roll over into next year's list. I'm comfortable with realistic expectations (which is why "work out more" is not on this list).

What are your resolutions??