Goals for the New Year

I don't like resolutions; they're a little to Draconian for me in that they require too much commitment and they make you feel really bad if you break them. Instead, I make goals: they're more concrete than suggestions and provide you with something to strive for, rather than abide by. With that in mine, here are my goals for 2011:


1. Try not to sweat the small stuff. I get too stressed out by situations that I don't need to make stressful. Usually these situations involve public transportation and trying to complete the workload of a full time job on a part time work schedule. This year--and the following--I am going to try to take it easy. The world will not end if I miss a train or can't post an event to our website. I just have to (remember to) breathe...

2. Eat less meat. I've been making the conscious decision to eat vegetarian lunches for quite a while now. (The only exception is if I am having leftovers for lunch.) The idea behind this decision is that it isn't really necessary to eat meat in every meal...actually I feel like its pretty selfish and kinda stupid (here's an example). With exception of the sandwich shop near my office that makes damn good BLTs, I've been pretty good at following through on this dietary decision. But this year I want to take it one step concretely forward and extend my meatless meals to 2 a day. I'm not designating which of my deaily meals will be meatless--that would be too restrictive--rather I'll make that decision based upon what I feel like eating that particular day/week. (P.S. Fish and seafood do count as meat. Those who say otherwise are kidding themselves--both emotionally and environmentally.)

3. Volunteer. The wonderful thing about working part time and in a small organization (I'm 1 of 3 staff members) is that I have a pretty flexible schedule that grants me one day off a week. I've been using this day to do chores around the apartment, indulge in cooking more elaborate meals, crafting, and whatnot. This year I am going to use this day to volunteer. I don't know what I'm going to be doing or who I'm going to help--that doesn't really matter right this moment--the point is that I'm going to start helping out in my community.

4. Complete my crafts. I am going to finish what I start before I start something new. Simple as that...hopefully just as easy.

5. Buy local, buy handmade, buy sustainable. This will apply to accessories and small clothing items, produce, and especially craft supplies. I want to stop buying craft supplies from big box retailers and instead utilize local stores and online marketplaces like Etsy that support entrepreneurs and small businesses...even if I end up buying more that I do selling on Etsy (that's another story). I also want to use less synthetic fiber-based crafting materials. Crafting creates enough waste as it is, I don't want that waste to add to the massive amounts of plastic that we (as a society) produce, consume, and throw away. *For financial reasons, these guidelines won't really apply to shoes, clothing, and some household items, but I'll try my best.*

5 goals. Seems pretty reasonable to me. Let's get started.

A post with about progress on my crafty doings from this past week tomorrow.

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