Happy New Year: 2013

Happy New Year, friends! I hope you all had an amazing holiday season and an extraordinary New Year's Eve. We had a party here in our apartment and it was lovely to be surrounded by my new fabulous friends. It was very surreal to realize that I have joined such an amazing, shiny new group of people in exactly one year's time. See a few of my 2013 Resolutions below, and feel free to share some of yours! I'd love to hear them.

Image taken at the party via my Instagram account

1  BLOG MORE
I've talked about this many times before, but since I sort of fell off the blogging wagon last year while adjusting to my new surroundings (and an extremely taxing new work schedule), I vow to carve out more time this year to writing in this blog. It always makes me feel like the truest version of myself when I am taking the time to be creative and share my thoughts with all of you readers.

2  MAKE MY BED EVERYDAY
I am embarrassed to say it, but I still don't religiously make my bed in the morning. I am not a morning person so I tend to just roll out of bed, throw on some clothes, brush my teeth and get on the subway. But I'm proud to say that I took the time to wake up earlier and make my bed every morning this past week and it made my room feel much cleaner and more organized! And it was a much better sight to come home to, and more comfortable to crawl into at night too. This is one resolution I am definitely going to stick with!

3  SPEND LESS MONEY
This is getting into the cliched New Years Resolution territory, but I seriously need to stop eating out for lunch everyday. It's not healthy and it's really not affordable. Instead, I am going to pack a lunch the night before, or bring a Lean Cuisine or something. I am also going to take fewer taxis, as I've crunched the numbers recently, and that is a huuuuge cost that will definitely be easy enough to cut. I could also stand to cut out some of those guilty pleasures like after-work drinks too, which will be sure to lighten my monthly spending!

4  WHITEN UP
This is probably more of a vanity thing, but I'd really like to cut out dark beverages like Diet Coke and coffee, because I can tell they are slowly but surely staining my teeth. Everyone likes to have a bright, white smile, and I have identified a few things to cut out of my daily routine that will help brighten my teeth.

5  WORK/LIFE BALANCE?
This is the biggest struggle in the world for me...I tend to be a bit of a workaholic, and my job is equally very demanding. This is a disastrous combination, to be sure. I need to know when to say enough is enough, and leave the remaining work for another day. There's always something more I could do, but it often doesn't have to be now, now, now, and completely interfere with my personal time! I need to reclaim my life, and I'm planning on doing it soon!

I know that New Years Resolutions are commonly scoffed at, but I can't imagine ever discouraging someone's quest for self-improvement. It's a very human thing to want to be better and do better and this time of year feels like the closing of one chapter and the opening of another! Good luck with all of your New Years Resolutions! I will keep you posted on how mine are going...