First off, HELLO! Secondly, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Third, this is a really long post. REALLY. LONG. And fourth,the world is not going to end this year. But if it does, at least it ends exactly one week after my birthday.
I am cautioning you now. If your brain is yelling “ABORT, ABORT!” it’s probably best to follow its advice. This isn’t a “short and sweet”, “nicely bulleted list” with “images to break up the post and keep a reader’s attention span.” This is just me, writing.
Yesterday was the last day of 2011, and boy it was one hell of a Year. This was our first year celebrating down in Florida. We watched the Red Bull No Limits event (which is way cooler than the ball dropping, in my opinion). And it was warm. This was a very “Florida” New Years if I’ve ever seen one, so it was a little strange being around palm trees and 70 degree weather.
2011 was a year of many accomplishments that were sometimes frustrating but always satisfying.
We bought our first place, which involved being temporarily homeless for about two weeks and nearly jumping across the table to punch the underwriter in the face. Talking to BOA at all hours of the day and night, and being practically in tears during those two weeks at any given point in time.
(If you were curious, by the way, you’re not *actually* supposed to go talk to an underwriter in person. Probably for their own safety. I can’t speak for all underwriters but ours was pretty damn incompetent and I think she was scared. And rightfully so.)
I got to see my dad for the first time in about 4 years. Shane and I hit our 5 year anniversary (and 6 is coming up in 4 short months). Engagements, babies and breakups (none of which were mine), financial stability and lots of personal growth.
I was in the 2nd year of helping an amazing company grow, which brought a ton of changes in and of itself. Even looking back to the beginning of 2010 with Search & Social, it’s really crazy to see how I’ve evolved, as well as everyone around me, and grown professionally.
I don’t necessarily want to make “resolutions” this year. Resolutions are the kind of thing that you say you’re going to do to make up for something you failed at the year prior. Except you don’t actually maintain it past the first or second month because it’s something that is completely counter-intuitive to you as a person. Like people who say they’re going to workout and be healthy in the New Year, and flood my gym so that I can’t use a machine. I give them kudos for wanting to improve their health and make their lives better, but I also know 90% of them won’t make it past month 1, and for that I am grateful. Cause really, who the hell wants to wait in line to use a weight machine? Not me.
There’s also things I want to DO. Like SKY DIVING. Or taking a car drifting around a track. All things that will probably KILL me. But hey, if the world is ending that’s okay right? RIGHT!? I can believe that stupid prediction for the sake of this argument OK?
With that said, there are things I want to do better. Or don’t want to do at all. Because last year was HARD. And I’ve learned a lot about my mental limits, stress levels, and what it takes to make me happy- as well as what it takes to make sure everyone around me doesn’t want to smack me.
So without further ado, here are my “not-really-a-resolution” resolutions (aka, things I want to do) that may or may not make you want to gouge your eyes out if you continue reading through them all.
Coerce my sister into coming down here and tattooing me. Hey Lydia! That means you, and yes, I’m totally roping you into my not-really-a-resolution resolution. I’ve had this amazing idea for a completely custom rib piece (for the other side, not adding to the rib piece I already have) but because my sister and I are never in the same place, at the same time, for more than a day or two, it’s been pretty impossible to have her sketch it up and start it. I refuse to go to somebody else so I’ll just have to wait and find some way to convince her she absolutely needs to come and play in Florida long enough to at least start the outline and partial fill of it. :)
Don’t be so social on social media. This may seem counter-intuitive to someone who is working in the Internet marketing industry, but you really begin to realize how much you miss real relationships when you spend the majority of your time working online. I’ve noticed that the relationships that mean the most to me are the ones that don’t actually exist on or leverage social media on a daily (or even weekly) basis.
The friends that we see when we go back home, family members, etc, can stand the test of time without social media. While it’s a necessary ‘evil’ if you will – on a personal level, not on a marketing level – I’d like to take more time to foster actual relationships with the people around me. Starting a Friday (sometimes) ritual of grabbing beers with some people from work and the boyfriend has been a great step in that direction. I like the face-to-face and I think it’s something that’s slowly dying as we turn into a more online-driven culture. I’m the kinda person who would rather walk over and talk to you than instant message you. Sometimes I think our generation just doesn’t like to TALK.
Write [blog] more, consume less. I used to write all the time. AAAAAActually, I used to be a way better writer than I am now, and I feel like spending so much time on social media (and getting things shared in under 140 characters) is forcing me to be more of a consumer rather than a creator. It’s kind of (who am I kidding, it HAS) killed that creative side of me. As such, I will try to write more. Whether people want to read it or not is one thing, but I lost a lot of readers over the past few years by not staying true to my writing style. Also, having a career has kind of swayed the way I utilize my blog because I suspect that people come here to see thoughtful and insightful things about the industry that I work in. But it’s not always that stuff- it started as a personal blog and will mostly stay (mainly) personal. Which means it might be slightly offensive, slightly off topic, and sometimes (OK, MOSTLY!) completely irrelevant to what I do on a daily basis.
Consume more. Yeah, I know. I just said that all the consumption has killed my creativity and I wanted to consume less. But by saying I want to consume more, I really mean I want to consume more things of quality, rather than consuming things like UNICORNSANDLOLCATS. Because of my attention span and perception of an ever-existing time crunch, I’ve only been scanning articles that I probably would love to take the time to read and digest.
Last year, I would take time out every night to read articles that were of interest, which helped keep me on top of my game and on my feet. I would even read things that weren’t directly relevant to what I do on a daily basis, such as design/coding related articles, political articles (because I have a secret Love/Hate relationship with politics), Science articles (because I have a secret love for quantum physics and all things weird on a micro level) … all of these types of articles I haven’t allowed myself to take the time to read this year. And seriously, I think all the garbage social media consumption is killing my brain cells. I need to get back to the quality, and not necessarily the quantity. Then of course, there’s consuming more articles directly related to what I do on a daily basis.
Spend more time making instead of buying. OK, I can blame this a little on Pinterest… but in my defense, I did start CondoSWAG with the intention of doing a lot more DIY projects since buying the condo before Pinterest existed. :).
We spend a ton of money throughout the year, and I think if we’re going to spend money, we can at least have a little fun with it. As such, before I buy something expensive just because it looks pretty, I’m going to see if there’s a way to make it personalized. Then I kill two birds with one stone. Spend less money, and actually have something to update on CondoSWAG.
Be more thoughtful. I seriously dropped the ball this year around the holidays. No matter how busy you are, there’s absolutely no excuse for letting Christmas sneak up on you and realizing that you’ve done nothing to prepare for it. I barely squeaked out a handful of Christmas cards this year (and sent them out a few days prior to the actual holiday, mind you) and didn’t even have time to update my friends and family with the new address. Which is absolute bullshit because it would only take me a minute to do that. We also decided to buy a live Christmas tree but never got around to getting a stand (I know. I know. STOP JUDGING ME!) and barely got any other decorations up. So this year, I’m going to plan ahead and be more thoughtful. I think back in horror to this month and how absolutely horrible I was with getting into the holiday spirit. I mean, I didn’t even get my dog reindeer antlers like I wanted to. That is sad, in and of itself.
Unplug more. And spend more time trying new things and spending time with my loved ones. I took a lot of PTO from work between November and December, simply because I only used 1 or 2 days the whole entire year and had to use them or lose them. And on those PTO days, I was neurotic enough to decide to work. Please see my “not-really-a-resolution resolution” realize that things can exist without me below. During the actual week of PTO I took over the holidays (and also during the time I was trapped in a car for close to 30 hours without a jailbroken phone and the ability to use my laptop or tablet) I really took the time to unplug and do more things that I enjoyed doing.
Having those few days of mental relaxation made me realize that I actually STILL like decorating the condo, taking on fun DIY home projects, trying to cook, lounging around reading my Kindle and spending time with someone I love who probably feels like my face is always glued to some kind of screen. I totally forgot what some good relaxation can do for your spirit. I also spent over 15 years of my life riding (and owning) horses, and I suddenly stopped riding when I moved to Tampa. I miss it.
Even when not doing anything work related, the constant barrage of Facebook status updates, Tweets, links to articles, updated photos of that person you knew a long time ago but really don’t care what their doing now filling your stream, updates of people talking about how great their life is (when really, they’re probably sitting there writing the update rather than actually doing said update in real life) and ALL SORTS OF OTHER STUFF can really break your concentration and consume you. Because of this, I’m trying to unplug more in the new year. For my own sanity, and probably yours too. With this, comes not using my laptop in bed until 3 am. I didn’t think this was a problem until:
1) I could never get to sleep after and,
2) Shane looked like we were in a sauna from the laptop raising the temperature about 10 degrees, and I felt bad. Sometimes it takes someone else for you to realize what you’re doing isn’t a good habit.
Learn more and be great at a few things rather than “really good” at a lot. Somewhere down below, I mention the fact that I’m kind of like a sponge and can consume tons of brand new information, digest and understand it, and put it to work. Because of this, I pick up a lot of strange hobbies. I know a lot of RANDOM stuff. It’s weird, but fits in well with my need to constantly be doing a ton of things. Because I’m so busy consuming a lot of everything, I’ve been lacking in the time to really sculpt a few of the things that I’m good at hobby-wise. I saw this in school a lot. For those of you who haven’t been following this blog for very long, my college career was extremely long and full of degree changes. I somehow managed to complete 2 Associate’s Degrees and a Bachelor’s Degree with double focus solely because I wanted to do everything. If you think I’m kidding, I’m not. I’ve wanted to be an Engineerlawyerscientistentrepreneur[mesh more careers here] and the sad thing is, I did beyond well in classes for all of those things. Including financial derivatives that had an 80 percent fail rate. I’m one of those people who gets bored really easily, so I think taking the time to master something directly or indirectly related to what I do on a daily basis will help focus me.
I got Shane a Think Vitamin subscription last year (which is now Tree House) which has some development stuff I want to learn. Also, with the release of the new MITx initiative that’s launching next year, I think I’ll have the ability to do this. I’ve always wanted to make it a goal to go back to school and get my MBA, or get a degree from Full Sail but I can’t fathom the amount of money I would spend interest wise, each year, if I took out a loan.
Truly pursue my ideas. I have a bank of ideas for businesses, projects, products, apps, website, etc. I’ve even gone so far as to write business proposals or spec out pages of details for my ideas. But you know what they say, a great idea doesn’t mean anything unless you have the means and grit to pursue it. Along with the “making more time to do learn and try new things” idea, I’m also going to make it a point to put myself out there and try to get one of my ideas created.
Fully listen. I’m the queen of multi-tasking and half listening. I can hold a conversation with someone when I’m thinking about something else at the same time. I think faster than I speak, so I’m always light years ahead, in thought, of what I’m actually talking about at that very moment. I blame this on my attention span and brain that seems like it’s running on a treadmill and pumped up with thought-steroids at any given moment. So I’d like to listen more. REALLY listen more, as in, get engaged, shut my wandering thoughts off and bring myself into the present, fully and completely. You can totally tell when I’m half-listening too. Shane catches me all the time because I go, “mmhmm. Uh huh. Yeah.” which isn’t really fair to the person I’m holding a conversation with. So fully listening is on my list of things I would like to do this year.
Be more direct. On all levels. The fluffy, filler crap in life is sometimes pretty pointless. A lot of time and effort can be saved by being more direct- with friends, family, professionally. Shortening those 15 line long emails to 1 line. Not playing phone tag, but finding an alternate way to contact that person and save time.
Be more proactive. Okay, I manage a lot of things in my life. I help my dad manage all the properties that he owns and is renting out . And by manage, I mean I deal with all the angry people, associations or agencies when something goes wrong. And since my dad is constantly traveling and contracting jobs, I generally get all his mail and deal with it accordingly. Meanwhile, this is our first place so half the time I don’t know how to deal with new things that arise with the mortgage, taxes, association fees, etc.
So it’s all LEARNTHISASGODDAMNFASTASYOUCAN so I can keep up with life. So essentially, my whole life is a job at this point, and I think dealing with things quicker and faster, and not getting it pushed aside because I insist to myself that I’m so busy with other things, will help alleviate the stress that builds up. And really, everyone has a ton of things going on. I think about all the people around me who have 80 billion more Things and Responsibilities than me and they somehow make it work. So making excuses is pretty anti-productive on my part. I just need to GSD (Get Shit Done) and be on with it.
Realize that things can exist without me. Not all the time. But I don’t have to have my eyes on things 24/7. Because I do need to sleep, regardless of whether you think I’m a nocturnal vampire or not.
I’m a complete mental basket case when it comes to being involved in any kind of project on a personal or professional level. If you haven’t noticed, I like control and I like being involved in every aspect of something even if it’s of no direct use to me. I soak things up quickly, and that’s how I learn. It’s also why I know so many random things. It’s definitely a quality that’s of value, but personally, it’s mentally taxing. One thing I’m trying to work on in the new year is realizing that it’s OK to actually go to sleep and not drive myself crazy over little things until 3 am. If it’s something I’m not directly involved in, it’s OK to watch from the sidelines once I don’t need direct input. And with that…
Sleep more. And yes, I know sleep is for the weak and all that good stuff, but I spent about half of this year running on under 6 hours of sleep. If you really wanted to know what an angry, irritable gargoyle looks like, you probably could just look at me and fulfill that desire. No amount of coffee can cure constant sleeplessness. While I don’t mind getting little amounts of sleep, there are times when I really just want to go to bed early. And that whole “realizing that things can exist without me” thing is probably one of the first steps to that.
Stop using annoying words. OK. The word Awesome is.. well.. awesome, except when used in abundance. It’s a stupid word that’s a substitute for (sometimes) not putting any thought into what you’re saying. But then, some things are truly awe inspiring. Hence, awesome. So, I’m going to try to stop saying things like that when really unnecessary. We’ll see how that goes… I said I wouldn’t swear last year, but we all know that didn’t happen. Maybe I’ll have more success with this. :)
So we’ll see if I can actually make do with some of these “resolutions.” I’ve picked the above for my own sanity. And enjoyment.
What are your “not-really-a-resolution” resolutions this year? And if for SOME reason you expect the world to actually end, I expect your resolutions to be wild and crazy.
