Dear World,

Run another marathon.

• Why this matters to me: I’ve never felt healthier than when I trained for my first marathon- that’s the bottom line here.  But I also know I could do SO much better.  I didn’t really later my life habits for training until the month leading up to the race and love the idea of taking the summer to train for the marathon both in terms of mileage accumulated and the way I’m treating my body.
• How I’m going to do it: My little sister and I are going to lightly train for the Indy Mini (race is in May, I’ll probably start training end of February), take a few weeks off, then start training for the Chicago Marathon (race is in October, we’ll start training end of May).  I figure if for some reason I get injured or can’t do the race in October I’ll still have a few months left in the year to accomplish this goal. 

Save more money.

• Why this matters to me: I make WAY too much money to have as little money saved as I do.  I’m also not entirely sure where most of my paycheck goes which is never a good thing.  Money itself isn’t that important to me but being responsible and planning for what I might want in the future is.
• How I’m going to do it: A few things… #1- Pay my credit card off as soon as transactions show up so the money I have in my checking account is really the money I have.  Along the same lines I’m going to ‘pay myself first’ and transfer money to savings automatically from my paycheck.  #2- On top of the 5% I have going straight to my 403b I’m going to save 10% of my paycheck every month.  My plan right now is to save 4% from my first check of the month and 6% from my second check.  This will start in February and the money will go straight to an account I cannot access easily.  #3- When I move in June I’m going to work on keeping my cost of living as close as possible to what I’m currently paying so even though my salary will go up slightly by living expenses will remain about even.

Put energy into what I want my life to be.

• Why this matters to me: I seriously LOVE my life.  I have a job I care about that allows me to do something I’m good at with people I genuinely like.  I live steps away from my sisters and some of my best friends in the entire world.  I have the means to travel to visit the people I care about who don’t live in Chicago.  My parents and grandparents are an hour car ride away and love coming into the city for a quick adventure.  I’m healthy and happy and have an incredibly full life.  This year I want to really pay attention to the thing that make me most happy and fulfilled and really maximize them.  I also want to pay attention to the things that drain my energy and try to eliminate or minimize them.
• How I’m going to do it: This one is the trickiest because it’s not all that tangible.  What I’m really going to push myself to do this year is say ‘yes’ to the things I might sometimes dismiss (random concerts, trips to see friends, meeting up for that drink late on a Wednesday night) and say ‘no’ to the things I always say ‘yes’ to but don’t really want to do (taking on a random extra project at work, a morning yoga class when I really want to sleep in and go to candlelight yoga in the evening, not going home for a family event because of a work event).  There honestly aren’t a ton of changes to make but this year I really just want to pay attention to what brings me the most happiness and energy and make sure I maximize those things in my life.