2012 came and went so fast I barely gave a thought to my years’ resolutions, let alone thinking about ones for 2013!

As 2013 (or, has my parents have lovingly labelled it, two-zero-one-three) has hit us big and hard, right between the eyes, I figured I ought to think about this yearly tradition!

2012 was a fantastic year, I did a lot, achieved a lot, travelled a lot, moved a lot, drove a lot and went to a lot of gigs.

To name a few things; I got baptised, I graduated, I started (or at least have attempted to start) my own business, I got a (fantastic) job, I ran my car down into the ground, I moved twice, I went to Cornwall (which included an attempt at body boarding), I saw The Killers live (this was the greatest moment of my life so far… no exaggeration), I saw Jason Mraz live and I have started doing a lot of volunteering within my church.

It’s been an amazing year!

I hope and pray that 2013 will be as good as 2012. In fact, if anything, I hope it will be even better. And why wouldn’t it be?! If you have the right attitude about things, I genuinely believe you can make anything of what you have. So I reckon if I want my 2013 to be extraordinary; it will be!!

In order to make this so, these are my resolutions:

• Finish what I start

I am terrible at starting things and not finishing them. I have committed to doing a few things recently (this blog being one of them) and then I don’t stick to the commitment. It’s not so bad if it’s just myself that I am letting down, but I need to realise that when I say I’m going to do something I actually have to do it.

• Go to more art galleries and museums

When people ask me what my hobbies are, or what I do in my free time, I get this panic-stricken look on my face and a feeling of fear inside me that cannot be quelled. This is because I don’t really have any hobbies. Not ones that people accept as hobbies anyway. I like watching crappy TV, and love watching DVDs. But that doesn’t sit well with a lot of people! I could, however, spend hours on end in art galleries and museums, but I never do it. So this year, I want to indulge in some culture and no longer dread the moment when people ask me what my hobbies are, because I can look them in the eye and tell them honestly: “I go to lots of art galleries and museums”!

• Get healthy

I’ve never really considered myself as that unhealthy, but deep down inside I know I am kidding myself as well as anyone else that believes me when I tell them that little white lie. I am going to be 22 this year, so I think it’s time to stop messing about and respect my body. So I am going to lose some weight, eat healthily and start doing a bit (/some) exercise!

• Learn to say “no”

I have a real problem of not being able to let people down. It’s often to my own detriment too. I know as a person that it’s my duty to humankind to help others, purely because I strongly believe that you should treat others as you wish to be treated, but sometimes I go to the extremes of putting myself through something that I really really don’t want to do, just because it’ll make someone else’s life easy. This is going to be a hard one for me, because I really do try my very best to treat others as I would like to be treated, but it seems like nobody else I know has the same values that I do, because very few people treat me as I would treat them (this is turning into a rant now). Maybe that’s the problem, I do the things because I am thinking about how the other person would treat me in return, but I should be doing it selflessly. Who knows. I don’t know if I’ve just talked myself out of this resolution.

• Start saving money

After visiting Vancouver in August/September 2011 I decided that I would love to live there. I have researched visas etc for Brits moving to Vancouver and discovered that I would be eligible to live in Canada for up to a year if I do it before I’m 30. I still really want to do this. Whilst being at uni I dwindled away my savings, so now that I am working I need to pay off my overdraft and start saving so that I can make this dream a reality! I have up to seven years maximum to save some money, but in my eyes, the sooner I can do it, the better.

• Stop being negative

Since leaving student accommodation I have become very negative when dealing with bills, or adult-ness in general. I always jump to a negative conclusion and this needs to stop. So I am going to be more positive, after all, a wise man (Willie Nelson) once said: “Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results”.

• Stop being so quick to judge

It is not my position to judge people. I have no right to judge people. If I judge others, I am giving them permission to judge me, and I hate it when people misjudge my character. (Once again, my philosophy of “what goes around, comes around” comes into play!) God is the only one who is in a position to judge people. He is perfect, I am not, so I need to learn to leave judgement up to Him, and Him alone.

• Become more independent

Although I do consider myself to be independent, it isn’t so much out of choice. I do things independently because I have no other choice, and want this to turn around. There are so many things I want to do in my life, and if I stand any chance of doing them, I need to be willing and able to stand on my own two feet and go and do them, on my own, and be happy about it! I’ve been so blessed in my life that I should be thankful for the life I have, and I should love every second of it, so I really need to start embracing that!

• Read the Bible more

This year I have grown in my faith so much, and I want this to not only continue, but to get stronger, and I want to be the best person I can be – the me that God created me to be. If I want to become more like Jesus and live a more God-centred life, I need to understand why, and I need to learn everything I can about Jesus. I think this is important, and God’s Word is the answer!

• Organise my wardrobe/stuff

I have way too many clothes, but am far too emotionally attached to them to get rid of them! As with all the other junk in my room too (both rooms I have, actually)! I don’t need that much ‘stuff’, so I need to organise it, chuck it, give it away, and only keep what I would re-buy (so I don’t waste my money by getting rid of it). If I am going to move to Canada (which, as I have already mentioned, I really want to do), even if only for one year, I would need to sort out all my stuff so that I don’t clutter up my parents house in my absence, but also don’t have to lug tons of stuff over the Atlantic!

• Start to make a bit of an effort

I have noticed recently that I am so low-maintenance that I might as well go out in my PJs and not brush my hair. And I would like to think that I would never actually do that but I’m starting to wonder… So I need to start making an effort!

• Stop using phrases that wind me up

e.g. “I was going to say…” Why not just say what I ‘was’ going to say? It really annoys me. A lot of the things I say really annoy me, so I need to stop! It’s like when I start saying things ironically – mebs, totes, and probs being prime examples of this – and then they just slip into my everyday idiolect. Not good!

 

2013 Bonus Round:

Place I’d most like to travel to: Dublin, Ireland

Film I’m most looking forward to: Iron Man 3

Gig I’m next going to: The Killers in Manchester (after being postponed from November!)