New Year's Resolutions for 2015

Among the posts that never got written last month, I still plan to double-back later in the next few weeks and write one on an article. For now, I wanted to share my New Year's Resolutions. To kick things off, there is one that I'm acting to keep right now: journal once a week, and blog at least once a month! So, expect next December to be more fruitful.

Two are a little personal, so I'll just share them generally. In 2014, I resumed a bad habit that I had broken prior to moving, and I aim to leave it behind again. Insofar as the other resolutions help me reduce my stress, this will be more attainable, and I plan to incentivize it, too. The other is to improve a close familial relationship that I've let sour.

A fourth resolution is to "Improve Confidence", which is pretty broad. Too often, I've found the problem with extant advice on confidence is precisely that it is a phrase thrown around too generally, which leads to treating it like something you can just "hype up" or turn on by sheer will. So, I put some sub-goals to help guide me:

• Let go of hate.
  (I'm happy to say I've felt this happening, not that I harbored a lot of it.)
• Forgive Self ...and God.
• "Find a way to navigate" ...by which I think I meant social settings instrumental in achieving my goals; and, 
• See (my) worth, and stuff to offer. 

In two works I read by Brené Brown, she stresses the importance of a healthy appreciation of your own worth to creativity, extending empathy to yourself, and taking risks and being vulnerable without catastrophic results. In that vein, it's not meant as a mere self-esteem boost, but as instrumental to helping me as I go forward into the new year. A friend recommended a book to glean more from life's experiences, and I've already ordered it.

Five of the remaining Six:

• Regenerate capacity to connect (with others)
• Be a better friend
• Give thanks, (and) be joyful for - and good to - "Bob".
  (This one is easy - one of the best parts of 2014!)
• Return to Gardening. ...Stay tuned this Spring!
• Start exercising again at least twice every full week.
  (Ideally, every other day, but this is set so I can work up to it, and so when I get that rhythm going, a brief miss doesn't wreck the resolution.)

Lastly, I resolve to find a new job...and direction. I only see the last part of that resolution as within my control. While I can influence the likelihood of finding employment, through my experience last year I became quite resigned that this is, at least to a significant extent, out of my hands. I can take actions to improve my odds, and shall, but as I'm not in a profession I can pursue by self-employment (at least until I have a pedigree with which to consult), I will need someone to extend an offer. I hope this happens early in the year.