resolutions – Mary's Average Adventures

2019 Goals

January 3, 2019January 2, 2019MaryLeave a comment

Since I started my blog in 2013 (dang) I’ve shared my goals for the New Year. Normally, this would’ve been done with a reflection of last years goals, but honestly, I haven’t looked at those goals and I’m not ready for a reflection. It also would’ve been posted on either 12/31 or 1/1, but again, I wasn’t ready for that. So here we are, writing this on 1/2 because better late than never!

Blog consistently and on a schedule. As you may know, I’m getting married this year. I’m also working a lot more and life is just a lot busier than it was in college. However, my blog is my passion, it’s one of the few things that I like to do so I want to devote time to it. I want to take time on Sunday afternoons to work on my blog. I’m really good at being lazy and my blog is the first to go when that’s what I want to do. I’m going to guarantee at least one post every Thursday.
Make my bed every day. A lot of my goals this year are going to do with tidiness. I’ve been driving myself crazy. Don’t @ me mom, I know you’ve been telling me that for years. But really I’d like to wake up in the morning and make my bed.
Tying into that, put my clothes away right after I wash them. Right now, they sit in my hamper, or on my chair until I either wear them or finally put them away. I’m lazy.
Budget and save more. Right now, if I want something I just buy it. That’s so temporary and I really want to think about what I’m buying this year. Like I said, I’m getting married, so I need to start thinking more long-term about everything I do. We want a house, so I need to be more responsible.
Prioritize my health. In 2018 I did the best with doing what I’m supposed to in terms of my health. I started going to doctor appointments regularly, stopped putting stuff off. There are a few more things I need to do (especially while I’m still on my parent’s insurance #honesty). Again, I need to start thinking long-term, I’ve been dealing with stomach issues for a long time, and still don’t know the cause. That kind of stuff, I’m taking care of this year.

Okay, so that’s that! What are your goals for the new year?

2016 Goal Review

December 30, 2016September 20, 2017Mary1 Comment

I know I have a tendency to put the two together, but really that’s annoying long so enjoy the reflection the day before the goals this year!

So basically my goals for 2016 were fewer so I’d be more apt to complete them all, however, that was a bust and I don’t know if I completed any, but here we go anyway:

Take better care of myself- I feel like I am so weird about chemicals that I put on my body, so I need to be more careful about what chemicals I put into my body too. I eat crap. I care but I don’t. I put way too much processed foods in my body and I really do need to be better about it.

Blog better and often- I want to blog as much as I can as often as I can. I want to be a better blogger. This is the only post besides LNBM that goes up past 7 pm. I want to utilize drafts and just be better with planning. I don’t want to be a daily blogger, but I want to be a frequent blogger. I don’t want to commit to a certain number of days, I just want it to be often. Lesson learned, I need a schedule. Without one, it won’t get done it becomes less of a priority for me because there is no pressure to do it.

Find an internship- self-explanatory. I want to expand my professional horizons and make sure I know what I want to do. I found three! I worked at the Downtown Frederick Partnership last semester, have one at home over break, and I got one for next semester.

Give 100% to everything- this ties in with biting off more than I can chew. I want to do a few things but put all of my effort into those few things that way I can give 100% to everything I’m doing. Well, my therapist tells me that I need to learn how to say no, and she’s right. I’m always biting off more than I can chew, it’s a real problem that I have and maybe I will get better at it, and maybe I won’t.

Create more- I just want to be more creative, make sure I’m always expanding that part of my mind. Nope. Honestly, I would have to say that 2016 has been my least creative year. I’d like to blame it on something but I don’t know what to blame it on.

Be more open to new ideas and things- I want to try more. I always do the same mundane things and I want to keep all of the new of 2015 going. I am proud to say that the last few months I have been really good at saying yes, and trying new things. They might also be mundane, but at least they’re new mundane.

A year scrapbook- part of being creative and part of keeping track of my life. I take so many pictures, I want to do something with them. I want it to be a yearly thing, so I will see how it goes during 2016. Back to the creativity thing, I didn’t take a lot of pictures this year. There is not enough to make a scrapbook out of, which is kind of sad. I guess it happens though.

So maybe I wasn’t as successful, but I’m really looking to 2017 as a positive year. I think I do better with odd numbers and maybe that’s what I need. An odd year. How’d you do with your goals or resolutions?

Welcoming the New Year: 2017 I’m Ready for You.

December 29, 2016MaryLeave a comment

2016 has been a rough year globally, and personally, however as December set in I began to take in about a million realizations that the new year will contain for me.

2017 is going to be a year of change, not just for me but for the world. I think there is a general consensus that 2016 was a shit year, but I’m holding out hope (and putting it into the universe) that 2017 is going to be a lot better. My goals (to be released later this week) will hold the fate of this blog, my “real” future and a bunch of other things I’m sure.

2016 brought me some good things, like I finally saw a therapist, cut off some people that were detrimental to my well-being, and God pushed me to some really good people which made for some really great friends. I hope that this year, the friendship cycle that seems to constantly be rotating ends and the people I have found stay.

2017 will bring graduation, moves (maybe), a job (hopefully), and all around some major life changes. I don’t know if I have ever been so ~~scared~~ excited for a new year. It will also bring an administration I am afraid of, but will continue to pray for and protest. Women, it is time to fight for our rights, there are too many that have suffered, we can’t let it continue. Minorities, fight. Please fight. It is nearly 2017 and everyone I can’t believe there are so many large groups of being fighting for equality.

The next few days will bring reflection of old goals and the birth of new ones. I will not be posting my statistics of the year, if they’re even available this year, mostly because there is not a single piece of me that wants to know how much they have gone down. 2017 will be different. I’m determined to make it my year.

2017, I’m ready for you.

2015 Goal Review and 2016 Goals

January 1, 2016Mary5 Comments

2014 was a whirlwind of a year a year. It’s now time for me to reflect on last year’s goals and set my goals for next year.

2015 Goal Recap

Study abroad. One of my big goals for the year is to study abroad for the fall semester. I really hope this works out, I’ll keep you guys posted once I find out if it’ll work out or not. Well, I’m going to IRELAND. I’ve booked my ticket, I register for classes in about a month. This does seem to be working out. I went to Ireland, it was great. I never registered for classes, it wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be, but I did it. Check!
Take care of self– mind and body. I need to start eating better and caring more of myself rather than just filling myself with crap. I don’t want to set a goal like lose ten pounds or anything, I just want to be a healthier person in general. Well I gave up fried food for a while and I felt good but that was for lent and then I stopped. I need to do it again. I don’t think I’ll do it as extreme but definitely cut a lot of it out. Making my own food when I was away really helped me just be healthier. I knew what I was making and I knew what was going into my body. However, there is always room for improvement when it comes to my personal health mostly because I don’t care enough about it, it’s something I want to strive to get better at.
Get shit together. Sorry about the swearing, I just feel like I need to get my life organized in way that makes it more maintainable and less stressful. I would say I’ve been a lot more organized. I’m not waiting for answers, I’m getting answers. I think I’ve been way more organized recently. It’s helped my mind a lot and it’s something I want to continue with.
Do not take anyone’s crap. If someone is treating me badly my goal is not to take it. I can be a pushover sometimes and I don’t want that to happen anymore. I am standing up for myself. I’m not letting people take advantage of me. Okay that might not be fully true, but I am stopping a lot of it. I think I’ve definitely did a lot better with this in 2015. If I’m uncomfortable with something I’m finding myself more likely to say something about it.
Develop a plan of somesort. I don’t have a life plan, a five year plan, or even a one year plan. I want to have a plan that I can help guide me so that I feel like my life has some order to it, or at least feels that way. Still don’t have one of these. I have a more clear idea of what I want to do. I have my classes for the rest of college planned out too if that counts for anything. Sometimes you can’t have a plan.
Be more creative. I want to inspire my own creativity, craft more, paint more, just create more. I would say that I have been. Being creative really helps me to relax so the more creative I am, the less stressed I am so I’m really trying to do this more and more. I think I’ve been more creative. I go through spells of creativity.
Blog 3-5 times a week with good, strong posts. I don’t want my blog to slack like I feel like it has this year because I blogged everyday. While it had it’s advantages I don’t feel like I was very good at finding a post everyday that was strong, I hardly planned ahead and there were some days where my posts were just bad. I also want to spend the few days off organizing and elaborating more of the blog itself in addition to the content I produce. I don’t want to talk about this haha. I know that I have not done this. I know my blog is lacking my personality. It’s really making me ask myself a lot of questions about my blog. I am considering going back to daily blogging. It’s a very touchy subject for me that’s hard to find people who can relate with it because I feel like most bloggers are comfortable with 1-2 posts a week, maybe three. I don’t know. I need a schedule or something, so if anyone has any tips, I would be glad to take them. I think since I wrote the update I did it most weeks. It’s just part of my personal problem where I’m an all or nothing person. I either have to have a set schedule or I don’t really do what I’m supposed to because I’m a procrastinator.
Positivity- I don’t have to be the most positive person but make an effort to be a positive person in people’s lives. I don’t need to be an optimist like I said before, I just want to be a positive influence in the lives of the people around me. I would like to think that I have been more of a positive influence on the people around me. I think it’s really important to be the positive light in someone’s day. You never know when all someone really needs is encouraging words. I think I’ve done a lot better with this recently. While my nickname is still Debby Downer, I think my influence is more positive than negative. I just have a lot of depressing fun facts.
Surround myself with people who truly care. I don’t want to waste my time with people who only want to be with me when I’m the backup option. I don’t have to be the first, but I don’t want someone to hangout with me because they don’t have anything better. Check, check, and check. I don’t think I have to add anything to this because I could hand you a list of names of people who I know care about me. I guess if I could check this off six months ago, it can still be checked off.
Care more. I care about people a lot, probably to an annoying point where I always ask what they need or what I can do for them and I constantly make sure they’re okay because I worry but I need to care more about myself. I need to care more about what I do and how everything affects me long term. I do care about myself, but I think a lot of times I put other people’s needs above my own. I don’t want to say that’s a bad thing, because as a Christian, I think it’s very important to take care of the people around you before yourself, however I do think there’s a point where if you don’t take care of yourself you won’t be able to help anyone else. Every now and then I get to that point and I need to say “Okay, yes you should help your friend, but if you don’t do this, you won’t be able to do that.” I hope I accomplished this. I think I did.
Develop a passion for something. I have a passion for my blog but nothing else. I want to have passion for something I can do long term and maybe for the rest of my life, more than just a hobby. I don’t know if this just comes down to something as simple as just not being a passionate person. I wish I was but I’m not the kind to just be passionate, I don’t know why. I am passionate about travelling, and blogging is allowed to be a passion. Social media can be my career, maybe not for me, but it is a job and it can be my passion.
Work and try harder. I do a lot of things very half-assed. I want to do things in a way where I give it my all. Everything I do should be my best efforts not my an attempt or a try it should be great. This semester definitely showed me that if I put forth my best effort in everything I do I can succeed and I really am trying and working harder. I think I succeed in this. I’ve put a lot of effort into everything I do, so maybe I’m not doing as many activities, but I’m putting so much more effort into everything that I do.
Don’t waste time. I feel like I waste so much time just laying around and doing nothing I should do something effective with that time. Ehhhhhhhhh…….. I don’t know what to say about this. Well, I think I use that time more effectively. Lately I’ve been using it to read. While I was away I used it for homework time or blogging time or picture editing time. Just time.
Be more self-confident. I don’t want to look in a mirror and see things I don’t like about myself or want to change, I want to walk out the door confidently and happy with how I am. I mean after last nights blog post I would say that this answer is more complex. I am content with how I look but I am not confident enough not to care what other people might think when they see me. I lost weight, so I think that helps. I’m not 100% happy with how I look, but I am usually 100% happy with who I am and that definitely helps the confidence.
Be more receptive of compliments and criticism. I don’t take either of these really well, compliments tend to make me feel uncomfortable because I question the motives and how genuine the person giving them is. I tend not to take criticism well because I think I’m always right and that’s how I like to live life, but I need to take into account other people’s opinions when it comes to what I say and think. I’m trying. Like there are certain things that cause me to basically shut down and be unable to think about anything else, but I’m still trying. I don’t know, can I just say yes? That would be lying, and that’s not what New Years is about. I don’t like compliments or criticism. There we go, honesty.

2016 Goals.

2016 is a year of a few big goals, I just want to accomplish a lot and one of them is kind of not biting off more than I can chew, so I’m going to start that with my goals.

Take better care of myself- I feel like I am so weird about chemicals that I put on my body, so I need to be more careful about what chemicals I put into my body too.
Blog better and often- I want to blog as much as I can as often as I can. I want to be a better blogger. This is the only post besides LNBM that goes up past 7 pm. I want to utilize drafts and just be better with planning. I don’t want to be a daily blogger, but I want to be a frequent blogger. I don’t want to commit to a certain number of days, I just want it to be often.
Find an internship- self-explanatory. I want to expand my professional horizons and make sure I know what I want to do.
Give 100% to everything- this ties in with biting off more than I can chew. I want to do a few things but put all of my effort into those few things that way I can give 100% to everything I’m doing.
Create more- I just want to be more creative, make sure I’m always expanding that part of my mind.
Be more open to new ideas and things- I want to try more. I always do the same mundane things and I want to keep all of the new of 2015 going.
A year scrapbook- part of being creative and part of keeping track of my life. I take so many pictures, I want to do something with them. I want it to be a yearly thing, so I will see how it goes during 2016.

What your goals for 2016? I know I did about half of 2015 but I think that makes it more attainable and more focused than when they’re all over the place.

2015 Goals Update (Oops it’s Late)

June 12, 2015Mary10 Comments

Something I try to do every year is reflect midway through the year on my New Year Goals. This year I know I have not been doing very well so I’m not exactly looking forward to reviewing these because I definitely have not looked at my goals since like January 20th when I moved back into school and I was supposed to hang them on my wall but I didn’t. So here is a wild stab at something that is probably going to make me very upset with myself.

Study abroad. One of my big goals for the year is to study abroad for the fall semester. I really hope this works out, I’ll keep you guys posted once I find out if it’ll work out or not. Well, I’m going to IRELAND. I’ve booked my ticket, I register for classes in about a month. This does seem to be working out.
Take care of self– mind and body. I need to start eating better and caring more of myself rather than just filling myself with crap. I don’t want to set a goal like lose ten pounds or anything, I just want to be a healthier person in general. Well I gave up fried food for a while and I felt good but that was for lent and then I stopped. I need to do it again. I don’t think I’ll do it as extreme but definitely cut a lot of it out.
Get shit together. Sorry about the swearing, I just feel like I need to get my life organized in way that makes it more maintainable and less stressful. I would say I’ve been a lot more organized. I’m not waiting for answers, I’m getting answers.
Do not take anyone’s crap. If someone is treating me badly my goal is not to take it. I can be a pushover sometimes and I don’t want that to happen anymore. I am standing up for myself. I’m not letting people take advantage of me. Okay that might not be fully true, but I am stopping a lot of it.
Develop a plan of somesort. I don’t have a life plan, a five year plan, or even a one year plan. I want to have a plan that I can help guide me so that I feel like my life has some order to it, or at least feels that way. Still don’t have one of these.
Be more creative. I want to inspire my own creativity, craft more, paint more, just create more. I would say that I have been. Being creative really helps me to relax so the more creative I am, the less stressed I am so I’m really trying to do this more and more.
Blog 3-5 times a week with good, strong posts. I don’t want my blog to slack like I feel like it has this year because I blogged everyday. While it had it’s advantages I don’t feel like I was very good at finding a post everyday that was strong, I hardly planned ahead and there were some days where my posts were just bad. I also want to spend the few days off organizing and elaborating more of the blog itself in addition to the content I produce. I don’t want to talk about this haha. I know that I have not done this. I know my blog is lacking my personality. It’s really making me ask myself a lot of questions about my blog. I am considering going back to daily blogging. It’s a very touchy subject for me that’s hard to find people who can relate with it because I feel like most bloggers are comfortable with 1-2 posts a week, maybe three. I don’t know. I need a schedule or something, so if anyone has any tips, I would be glad to take them.
Positivity- I don’t have to be the most positive person but make an effort to be a positive person in people’s lives. I don’t need to be an optimist like I said before, I just want to be a positive influence in the lives of the people around me. I would like to think that I have been more of a positive influence on the people around me. I think it’s really important to be the positive light in someone’s day. You never know when all someone really needs is encouraging words.
Surround myself with people who truly care. I don’t want to waste my time with people who only want to be with me when I’m the backup option. I don’t have to be the first, but I don’t want someone to hangout with me because they don’t have anything better. Check, check, and check. I don’t think I have to add anything to this because I could hand you a list of names of people who I know care about me.
Care more. I care about people a lot, probably to an annoying point where I always ask what they need or what I can do for them and I constantly make sure they’re okay because I worry but I need to care more about myself. I need to care more about what I do and how everything affects me long term. I do care about myself, but I think a lot of times I put other people’s needs above my own. I don’t want to say that’s a bad thing, because as a Christian, I think it’s very important to take care of the people around you before yourself, however I do think there’s a point where if you don’t take care of yourself you won’t be able to help anyone else. Every now and then I get to that point and I need to say “Okay, yes you should help your friend, but if you don’t do this, you won’t be able to do that.”
Develop a passion for something. I have a passion for my blog but nothing else. I want to have passion for something I can do long term and maybe for the rest of my life, more than just a hobby. I don’t know if this just comes down to something as simple as just not being a passionate person. I wish I was but I’m not the kind to just be passionate, I don’t know why.
Work and try harder. I do a lot of things very half-assed. I want to do things in a way where I give it my all. Everything I do should be my best efforts not my an attempt or a try it should be great. This semester definitely showed me that if I put forth my best effort in everything I do I can succeed and I really am trying and working harder.
Don’t waste time. I feel like I waste so much time just laying around and doing nothing I should do something effective with that time. Ehhhhhhhhh…….. I don’t know what to say about this.
Be more self-confident. I don’t want to look in a mirror and see things I don’t like about myself or want to change, I want to walk out the door confidently and happy with how I am. I mean after last nights blog post I would say that this answer is more complex. I am content with how I look but I am not confident enough not to care what other people might think when they see me.
Be more receptive of compliments and criticism. I don’t take either of these really well, compliments tend to make me feel uncomfortable because I question the motives and how genuine the person giving them is. I tend not to take criticism well because I think I’m always right and that’s how I like to live life, but I need to take into account other people’s opinions when it comes to what I say and think. I’m trying. Like there are certain things that cause me to basically shut down and be unable to think about anything else, but I’m still trying.

So how are you guys doing with your goals and resolutions? Half way through 2015, isn’t that crazy?????

Before Graduation…

October 21, 2014Mary2 Comments

Every year I make resolutions or goals and today I was reviewing my old bucket list and I was like I need to develop something like a list of goal or things that I want to do before I graduate college. I should do it for each school year, but this way it is an overarching goal list thing. Obviously I’m sharing it on the internet because what good would it do anywhere else? That was only kind of a joke. Literally my whole life with few exceptions is online so my new rule of thumb is put anything of somewhat importance here.

Study abroad. A goal in the making, kind of.
Figure out what I want to do and where I want to go for work right after college. Avoiding Lancaster County because I need to get out, sorry mom.
Have a serious relationship. This is a maybe goal, while I’ve had boyfriends I’ve never been in what I would consider a serious relationship. It’s a maybe goal because I have a very low tolerance of people and if I date someone here I don’t know if I would want to see them everyday because I would get annoyed and if they went here I would most likely see them everyday.
Do something daring, something I would never typically do. I’m not sure what this is, but I’m sure an opportunity will arise and I should just risk it instead of play it safe like I normally do.
Do something I’m really proud of and ignore what other people think about it. Again, not sure what this is, but I want to be proud of myself for doing something great.
Try to be more fun, like I would say I’m a lot of fun, so humble. However, I’m known as the responsible one out of most of my friends I would say, and not that it’s a bad thing, it’s just boring. I want to be less of a boring person.
Paint a big canvas that can be the first thing I hang up every time I move.
Accept the things about me I don’t like but can’t change.
If possible, depending on living situations, maybe possibly getting some type of animal.
Make a short film that is beautiful and inspiring.

Here are just ten things I want to do before graduation, eventually I will probably add more. What is the number one thing you want to do before graduation?