Resolutions

Yeah, yeah, it's still very much December. But this is a good time to reflect on the resolutions I made at the beginning of 2013. I got two of them covered: save a certain amount of money (I'm not going to put a dollar amount because I think that's tacky) and be a homeowner. Both of those came to fruition much easier and quicker than I ever thought (more on the house later - squee!), but the third one... well... not so much. I had a goal to run a 10k by the end of the year. I have all sorts of excuses (how do you do that with a teensy baby, the mastitis from hell, moving across the country), but the bottom line is that if I'd put my mind to it, I could have done it. I did do an unofficial 5k in October (basically I just ran 5k by myself one day), but it was nothing like the 5k's I ran in 2012, so I've got to work on that one. Here's to hoping I can keep that up in 2014. I didn't start this blog post to tell you about how I did this last year, though. I'm writing to tell you about the goal - yes, only one - that I've thought long and hard about and am setting for myself for 2014.

You do whatever you want.

OK, that seems ridiculous, I'm sure, so let me explain. I am really really good at being a people pleaser, to the point where I take other peoples' opinions that I think they have into consideration before my own. How lame is that? And while it will take me probably much longer than a whole calendar year to get over that (if I ever do), my goal this year is to take me into consideration first. I'm going to do whatever I want, not whatever I think my neighbor, my mailman, or the clerk at the grocery store want. Does that mean I won't turn to people for advice? Absolutely not. Does that mean I won't consider others wants/needs? Heck no! I just need to be better at not feeling bad about doing what's best for me.

Example: Over Thanksgiving, I noticed myself feeling like a terrible mom. I wasn't spending any time with my baby. I felt like everyone was thinking what a bad mom I was because he and I were never together. Here's the catch, though - every time I had him, people would ask to hold him and spend time with him. How on earth is that me being a bad mom? I realized how, well, stupid this was and decided enough was enough. I need to stop thinking about what everyone else is thinking. If they thought I was a bad mom, they can either say something (hopefully nicely) or get over it. And I should do better at living my life this way.

So here's to 2014, when I do whatever I want, and hopefully, dear reader, you will do whatever you want, too.