New Year, New Resolutions + Challenges

Happy 2014!  While spending the last days of 2013 reflecting on the year and trying to remember our New Year's resolutions from last year (oops!) we both realized that one of the 7-8 goals we made was to read many more books than we actually did.  Justin counted 6 books read over the last year, and although I became an avid blog reader in 2013, my book tally was a meager 2.75.

Image: poppet with a camera via Flickr

With that in mind, we've decided to take our New Year's resolutions more seriously this year.  To do so, we've only made one or two goals and I am going to put them in a cute format and hang them up in our bedroom so that we will stay mindful of them throughout the year.

2014 Resolutions:

Justin: Read one book per month/ 12 books throughout the year. 

Nicole: Blog at least once a week + Find a schedule/life organization system that works for James and I and stick with it.

Not only are we getting serious about resolutions around here, but after a rather long hiatus, Justin and I have decided to get back on the horse with completing 30 day challenges.  We kept sort of telling ourselves our current life situations were challenge enough (having a baby, selling most of our belongings and moving across the world), but we've decided A) that is pretty lame thinking since life is only going to get busier and more involved and we still want to make an effort to challenge ourselves to improve and gain new experiences no matter what's going on in life, and B) we really, truly liked what doing 30 day challenges has added to our life, so although they do require more time, effort, and thought, they are totally worth it to us.

Our current idea is to alternate months doing challenges where we create (challenges requiring more effort/time and making something new, like saying 'I love you' 30 different ways) with months where we consume (like reading the newspaper or trying out a new TV show each day).

To ease us back into 30 day challenge mode, we've decided to start with a consume challenge that will also help Justin get a good start on his resolution: Read a book for 30 minutes each day this month.

I am currently working on Allegiant, by Veronica Roth, the third book in the Hunger Games copycat Divergent series, and Justin is reading Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card.

What are your new year's resolutions?!