It has officially been one year since I joined Hubski! With this anniversary I give you my very first post.
I don't like New Year's resolutions. In fact, I hate them. There was some sentiment of that in this post about New Year's resolutions made by thenewgreen a couple months ago. Self-improvement is something I am constantly thinking about, and if there is something in my life that needs to be changed, I try to work on that as soon as possible.
Yet here I am with a post all about resolutions! This year I finally did decide to make a simple New Year's resolution for myself: read more. This came as a result of an e-mail I received from GoodReads that told me how many books I had read in 2013. To my dismay this list was shockingly short with only three entries. So my resolution is to read at least one book per month and at least 15 books throughout the year.
But this is very straight-forward and not very difficult. It gives me something to focus on this year, but it's not nearly ambitious enough. I can definitely do better. After some thought and questioning the reasoning behind New Year's resolutions I came upon a new thought: monthly resolutions. Why not spend each month focusing on improving a facet of my life or a facing a challenge that stands in my way? These shorter deadlines help to motivate as well as allow me to tackle more things in a single year in a straight-forward manner.
My monthly resolutions so far:
January: Finish reading Catch-22. I actually first picked up this book a number of years ago, but for some reason it took an incredible effort to actually finish. I did finally finish on the 31st of January, thus completing my January resolution.
February: Complete my college applications. It's been nearly a year since I finished community college and, my God, do I miss being in school. The transfer application to the University of Washington was due on the 15th and I've completed that. There are a couple more schools that I need to talk to before labeling this month a success, though.
I haven't decided on my March resolution yet, but I do have some ideas for the rest of the year. I plan on spending various months focusing on improving my drawing skills and/or learning how to silk screen, creating/improving my relationships, focusing more on music; especially local music, getting back to learning Italian and refreshing my German, and others. I will probably spend at least part of a month trying to "de-clutter," which I've seen become fairly popular.
I'm thinking that I will make this a monthly deal and detail my goal for each month and how well I have or haven't accomplished it. Stay tuned for more and have a wonderful year, Hubski!
-Jeshk0