With the coming of the New Year, in amongst the fireworks, alcohol and (if you are anything like me) massive sugar highs, there comes a sweet euphoric moment where everything feels shiny and new. Mountains can be scaled, rivers forded, and all our daily problems suddenly seem amazingly achievable.
It's like, I'm told, the feeling of jumping off a bridge. Around half way down all the life consuming problems that brought you to the edge of the bridge in the first place, all now seem insignificant and completely fixable....bar the fact that you had just jumped off a bridge.
The intense high of a year renewed, a fresh start, feels like it will last forever. But like all things, there are swings and roundabouts and before too long all those resolutions you promised yourself on January 1st, start to look more and more like mountains again.
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| Dammit Mountains! photo by: blmiers2 |
There is all kinds of advice out there, both helpful and incredibly not, on how to keep your resolutions, from 'accountability' (which I absolutely recommend), 'consistency' (which I have problems with), to even 'changing your environment' (which....I'm not entire sure what that means).
Personally I think the key to keeping your resolutions is to recognize them for what they really are. Goals. Not wants, or like-to-haves, but actual solid achievable goals. If you go into your new year with that frame of mind, and create obtainable resolutions, you can absolutely keep them.
"But Tash," I hear you say, "if resolutions are so easy to keep, what were your resolutions last year? Did you keep them?"
Ah my dear suspicious friend, I never said they are easy, instead that it is about creating specific goals, trying not to be too broad or wishy-washy (totally a word), and setting yourself clear, incremental steps to achieve them. And, to put my proverbial money where my mouth is, here are my 2014 resolutions, and their varying degrees of success:
Last Year's Resolutions -
Restart Spanish lessons on Duolingo - Success!
For those who don't know, Duolingo is a great free language learning website. It is amazing! So amazing Alex actually wrote a whole article devoted to it. I originally started Spanish lessons on Duolingo in 2013, but they fell by the wayside in favor of a tidal wave of trip planning.
Last year I aimed to restart my lessons in preparation for our long-ass hike through the Spanish mountains. It was a pretty broad goal and I didn't feel like I really achieved it until late October when I finally downloaded the app and started practicing (or playing, depending on how you see it) almost everyday. But the app rewards you if you hop on everyday, so that's extra incentive.
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| Woot! Hot streak! |
Get Working Visa for European Country - Success!
On arriving in Denmark just before Christmas Eve, we knew we had an uphill battle to get a working visa in Europe before our dwindling finances dwindled out. It was a hell of an ordeal, and I now have a deep-seated mistrust of embassies, but we did manage to nab our working visas for Ireland near the end of February.
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| photo by: peter-grevstad |
Save More Money - Not Really but Kinda
Remember way back there when I said to watch out for broad goals. This one's a doozy. Technically - any money we saved in 2014 is more money than we had before. Where I should have specified a specific dollar (or euro) amount, like I have in the past, instead by leaving it open we have technically achieved the goal - even if we failed spectacularly.
2014 was a terrible year for us financially, for many reasons. Whether it be the high and unavoidable fees of the Irish banking system, a stream of dodgy employers that ended up costing us thousands due to last minute re-locations, or needless miscommunications with credit cards.
Instead of the fluffy cushion I like to buffer our finances with, we will be scraping pretty damn close to the wire when we next set out - so I don't exactly count this as a win.
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| photo by: alles-schlumpf |
Write more articles in 2014 than 2013 - Success!
Together Alex and I wrote 26 articles in 2013 (which is coincidentally the same amount we wrote in 2012 too), of those 26 I wrote around 18. Knowing those figures (and putting them into a little chart because I am a massive geek!) as long as I wrote more than 18 articles, for a combined total of more than 26, then we win....as much as judo-kicking your goals in the teeth is winning.
Having specific figures made this goal so much easier to keep track of, and therefore to literally mark off our achievement as we went. Not only did I write 20 articles this year, we ended the year on a respectable 33 total. Woot! Happy Dance!
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| Ha! In your face 2013! |
Be consistent with publishing articles every month - Epic Fail
Yeah....there was a moment there I strongly considered deleting this one off the list and just pretending to be a super successful resolution keeper. But that wouldn't be honest and would hardly help you guys learn from my many many mistakes. (How to sum up our blog in one sentence or less).
Keeping a website of this kind going requires a lot of ongoing work. A lot of it I find quite fun and easy (albeit incredibly time consuming) to do. While writing is something that has always come quite naturally to me (whilst not necessarily good writing), knowing what you want to say, and writing, editing and finalising posts for a deadline tend to be two very different things.
While this is not a specific goal I have achieved last year, with some months suffering much more than others (sorry April, June and October!), I do think that I am getting better at it. That could just be ego talking, but I find the process getting easier and easier. Planning posts, taking notes, prepping photos is all becoming second nature and I find myself whizzing through things in hours that used to take me days.
Now if I could just remember to actually post them!
This Year's Resolutions
So that was last year...but what does this year hold? Well you may notice my goals are a lot more specific this year. I find the specific goals easier to track and therefore harder to justify that I am working towards them when I am not. They are also overwhelmingly achievable. There is not one thing on this list that is particularly hard to achieve, if I am willing to put in the effort.
Become a level 20 Spaniard on Duolingo
Walk the Camino Frances
Write 40 posts for the year (22 personally)
Cross 5 items off the Bucket List
Get Working Visa for France
So, let's see how we go. Next January I could be dancing a jig of sweet success, or hiding behind the couch curled up into a tiny ball of shame. Only time will tell.
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