Good morning everyone!! Every year we see endless posts for “New Years Resolutions” or “New Year, New Me”. We all know that half of what we see, won’t actually happen. It seems to be an ongoing joke, and everyone has all sorts of excuses as to why their new years resolutions didn’t work.

Last year I vowed that I would really work on myself, and healing myself. I have done really well. I had some ups and most definitely lots of downs. Just like with my Don’t Drink In December Challenge, it’s time to step it up! I have a lot of goals that I want to reach this year, and I will probably set some long term goals for myself as well. So, without further ado, here are my goals for the beginning of the new decade.

Work From Home Full Time

In my post, The Balancing Act I let everyone know that I landed my first major freelance contract. Although that is still ongoing, it isn’t enough to work from home full time. I would like to be able to do that. In fact, that has been one of my dreams for a long time. I want to be able to work from home full time for so many reasons, the biggest however, is freedom!! I want the freedom to travel and work at the same time and on my terms.

In order to get to that point, I have to apply myself and put myself out there even more. I need to submit more job proposals and work on finding clients that aren’t on the freelancer platforms.

Another way I could do this, is to expand my blog. Which also means I need to be more consistent. Expanding my blog would be a great tool for many reasons. First reason would be that I could sign up for affiliate programs. Another main reason would be to be able to use my blog as a portfolio of sorts to land other freelance writing jobs.

Become More Financially Independent

If any of you actually know me, you’ll know that I do love my job. Not so much the job itself, but more so the people I work with. It is a small company that is family oriented. For the most part, we are all related up at the shop in one way or another and have all adopted each other as family members. We are honestly like one big happy and sometimes slightly dysfunctional family.

Although I love my work family, I wish there were more pay and benefits. As much as I have and am thankful for, I want more than anything to not only have a couple bucks to my name at the end of the pay period. You know, maybe have enough money to actually start a savings account or a safety net. Sure my bills are paid, and we have food but it would be great to have money on the side if anything happens. Might also be nice to actually be able to afford a vacation, while we’re at it.  Freelancing more will help with this, so to me these two goals go hand in hand. Also, buying less crap I don’t need will help with this. 😉

Learn Something New Everyday

I absolutely love learning. I would like to learn something new every day. There is no limit on this. It can be a new word, how to do something, or even something about myself. This might be hard, but I will try!

Lessen my Carbon Footprint / Become More Sustainable

Okay! This one… First, I want to let everyone know that most of my clothes come from a thrift store. This didn’t start as something I was purposely doing to lessen my carbon footprint. I had some unfortunate circumstances and needed some clothes in a pinch. Then… I fell in LOVE! I have gotten name brand jeans from thrift stores, that have lasted me the two years I have been here and still going strong. I have gotten Nike hoodies that are in *like brand new* condition, and Michael Kors purses! This is awesome for my wallet, my anxiety, and has become a serious hobby. What I need to do is not buy it when I don’t need it. On another note, the clothes that I own usually last about ten years. Then when they do start going, they are then used for rags around the house or donated to the shop as rags.

This goal won’t just apply to clothes though. Lately I have taken a liking to making some of my own beauty products, like eczema cream. At the stores they cost $10 or more. I found a recipe using ingredients I already had on hand, it’s all natural, it works ten times better AND can be kept in up cycled candle jars. So I might expand that more. This will also include not buying things I don’t need. For some uncertain reason we have A TON of shampoo, conditioner, body wash and all things hygiene in the bathroom. I need to have our family USE what we have before we buy more.

Recently, somehow everyone in the house was telling me we needed body wash. Yes, even though we have tons of soaps and such in the bathroom. It wasn’t what they wanted to use. So I told them I wasn’t going to buy any. Instead, I found a recipe online (again) turning bar soap into body wash. I added some essential oils and voila! It smells amazing, and actually works great. I might even be the only one using it, but that’s okay too!

This seems like a lot, but I don’t think it will be that bad. Especially since these are things I am already doing, and just want to expand on them more. Throughout this whole post, I noticed that not buying crap I don’t need came up a lot, and works into several of my goals. 🙂 Of course, working on my relationships with my kids and Bubs will always be a big one. I didn’t list it, because this is always ongoing.

What are your biggest goals for yourself? Let me know in the comments.