Goals for the New Year 2014

This year I opted for 5 goals that I'll follow up with every quarter. I'll go ahead and get started with what those goals are.

1) I've been telling a lot of people about this goal and that is to not purchase any clothes for the entire year. The past year I've bought so much clothes that I don't even wear. The whole point of this goal is to learn which clothing items I use the most and what it is about them that I love whether it be the fabric, the fit, or the style. A lot of the time I try to buy things that are colorful and things that are outside of my comfort zone but those items seem to spend the most time collecting dust in the closet. What I hope that this clothing detox will also do is help me figure out which items I have to do away with because despite not being able to buy any clothes, I'm still unable to fit those items into my daily wardrobe. Lastly, I hope that because I won't be purchasing any new clothes, I'll be able to find some new uses for some of the items that I already own. Too much of the time I purchase something that I thought I really liked, only it gets replaced by a newer item I purchase and gets forgotten. With this goal I'll try to follow up as much as I can but I'm confident I'll be able to do it! (Let's see how confident I am 3-4 months out lol.)


2) I currently have 2 large student loans. Both were due to grad school but one is a subsidized loan (6.5% interest) and the other is the unsubsidized Grad Plus Loan (7.65% interest).

My goal for the year is to pay off half of my Grad Plus Loan. Based on the amount that I currently owe, that'll be approximately $38,200. It's a pretty hefty goal but go big or go home right? lol. That's also not including the massive amounts of interest that will accrue overtime. Based on the $38,200 amount, divided over 12 months, would be $3,183 per month. I'm not as confident with this goal but once we hit the first quarter, I may reevaluate where it's going.


3) Since we don't have kids or any real obligations, I'd like to do a bit more traveling this year. Last year I went from having 3 weeks paid vacation to zero because I went from being part of the Guild to not. I'll be restarting with 2 weeks this year (hopefully). Last year we also had a few weddings to go to which were 4 months out of the year so vacation time was really limited. We haven't received any wedding invites this year yet and I have some trips planned but I'm still waiting for approval on my vacation time so we'll have to see how it goes.


4) Health wise I'm opting to actually eat lunch on the daily. Usually when I work I always get McDonalds. I've been changing it up and getting Pick Up Stix which has really made me much more productive. I've been bringing my planner with me to lunch and it has really helped to organize my week. I usually put down what I want to do each day of the week and it's obviously been helping with this blog and getting other work related items done. I actually use a meal planning calendar to plan out my week like this one that I found at TJ Maxx.

5) Looking at some of my older pictures I've noticed a tad more flabbiness in my arms and thighs. Once the craziness of the start of the year ends which I'm going to peg as after Valentine's Day which is when I'm betting that most people would've given up on their New Years Resolutions of going to the gym, I want to restart my 24-hr membership. I've been using a Fit Bit recently to track my activity and I do get quite of a bit of activity in daily (at least 10,000 steps) but I need to tone up some more. Besides restarting my 24-hr membership, I also wanted to do one of those Ballet Barre classes. I'll definitely update you guys on when I actually start lol.


So those are my five goals for the year. Some of them more difficult than others but 2014 is a new year and I'm confident that there will be so many opportunities to succeed! I hope everyone had a great weekend! Let's start off this week with the right attitude and positive thinking!