Happy New Year! 2015 Goals

I hope you had a wonderful New Year’s Eve and HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here are my goals for 2015:

{Move Out of My Comfort Zone More Often} – At my very first full-time job, my sales trainer drew me a picture on one of my first days. It was a drawing of my comfort zone, and he told me that every day I should work on making that comfort zone bigger by working outside of it. This means doing something every day that scares me. I want to do more networking, reach out to more companies for the blog and get out of my apartment more to do things I wouldn’t normally do. I tell you what – sometimes it is a struggle being an introvert turned extrovert. Anytime I’m in a situation with a lot of people, it is so fun and I feel amazing, but sometimes it is still so hard to push myself to say yes to going and doing these things!

{Say No When Necessary} – This past year came with a lot of stress and anxiety, and it just isn’t worth it. Last year, I started saying no to events, friends and family more when it was necessary for my sanity – because sometimes I don’t want to drive for five or more hours by myself on the weekends and sometimes I need a night at home to myself to drink a glass of wine and paint my nails. And everyone does sometimes, and we are all different, so I might need this more than others. Anyway, as much as I always want to go go go to do more and succeed as well as make other people happy, I always come back to being a healthy, happy person is the person my friends and family want to be around. Saying NO has to be a part of my life.

{Work Hard – Blog Hard – Stick to an Editorial Schedule} – My passion for blogging is back in full force. I had about a year that it was really rough, where it felt like more of a chore than actually being fun. I don’t think I ever thought about completely quitting, but at the time I needed to take a bit of a break. It was hard to get back into it too because I wasn’t being as active in the community, and a lot has changed. I also want to focus even more on some of the other subjects aside from fashion I’m passionate about – traveling, fitness and more. I already talk about these subjects, I just want to do more of it. I also want to do more YouTube blogging posts this year. That was a goal last year that I did not fulfill. I think it is fun and I love watching other bloggers’ videos, so I want to make more of an effort there.

{Save, Invest and Be at Peace Financially} – Now that I feel back on track with my finances, I want to put a lot of effort into building up my savings this year, as well as look into more investing options. I learned a lot this past year about my IRA and 401K accounts, the differences and what I needed to do to be on track for the rest of my life. That’s a pretty good feeling, but there is always so much more I could learn. Lots of things to be saving for too – maybe a house? And those other possible future life events!

{Health over Wants} – I’m not a very patient person and when I want something – I usually want it right now. This goes for food too – and I think I would feel and be a lot happier if I learned to say no to some of these cravings more often. Being healthy and cooking healthy takes a lot of effort (mentally) and time to cook and prep versus going out to eat or throwing a pizza in the oven. But as I get older, I truly can feel the affects of eating a good, well-balanced meal rather than shoving down four slices of cheese pizza or a plate of nachos. Pizza and nachos are my worst “food enemies,” and my problem has always been that I love healthy food too, I just hate to take the time to prepare it. I need to change this mindset… it is WORTH it, so worth it to cook and prep lunches to stay on track.

{Stay Focused} – This is a very common thing with social media now, but sometimes I get distracted with staying on social media too long, too often and then I get caught up in the comparison game. It is so silly, and the more I focus on myself and reaching my goals, the happier I am going to feel. This is something I think we could all work on, well most of us. I feel like I have gotten the negative people that were bringing me down out of my life so now the staying focused shouldn’t be an issue.

{More Adventures} – Traveling is so important to me, whether it is just an hour drive to a new city or exploring a new country overseas (I have a long long long travel list to visit more places abroad), and while I had the opportunity to do some traveling this past year, I want to do more to focus on taking more trips, even on the weekends. I want to see Duluth, Minnesota, visit my friends in Iowa more, take a trip to Kansas to see one of my best friends I haven’t seen in years and more! I think taking advantage of the weekends is definitely where many of my adventures will come from this year! So far, I will be going to Miami with my family in March, visiting my little sister in Kansas City during her internship this summer and definitely going somewhere for my boyfriend’s 30th birthday! This goal is one worth working towards!

Clearly there is a lot I want to accomplish this year and I always set my goals high, because even if I don’t quite reach them, at least I was reaching for something. Happy New Year – and cheers to a new beginning! Cheers to 2015!