Here We Go Again... Out with the old, in with the new

Well, it's out with the old and in with the new. 2011 was a pretty good year. Looking back at one year ago today, I was pretty confident with my New Year's resolutions/goals. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with what I accomplished and improved. If I were being graded on my success, I personally would give myself a generous 80 percent.

Out with the Old
1. Run a half-marathon. If you've been following me at all, I clearly didn't run a half-marathon. That is the only resolution I completely failed at. However, that's if you're only looking at that, run a half-marathon. The benefits and increased exercising throughout the year were enough to make me not distraught with the fact I didn't run 13.1 miles consecutively. I ran 6 miles on a few occasions. I worked out for 9 months. All things I wasn't doing in 2010.

2. Try new things. I tried a lot of new things. From food, to new experiences at my old job in 2011, and  new things that lead to my current job. Heck, out of the foods I tried, a few are regulars now in my diet!

3. Be better at everything. Patience is by far the one thing I tried most to be better at. I still have a way to go, but I'm much better today than I was a year ago.

4. Find luck. As I started the year saying, "...no comments really necessary right?!" I found some luck, and I'm still searching!

In with the New
So I'm approaching my resolutions a little differently this year. Yes, I want to take last years and adapt, improve, and refocus them. Instead of a half-marathon for example, I want to instead run 5-5ks and a few 10ks this year. I had no interest in running 13.1 miles consecutively, but 3-6 miles, I can handle that!

But my overall resolutions are more... personal? motivational? This year's resolutions started from reading this quote by Steve Jobs :

 For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something…

I live a good life now, I can't complain at all. But often I find myself hurrying from one task to the next, multitasking instead of giving one person my full deserving attention. I don't want to do that as much anymore. So my resolution is a bit more complex than just focusing on this one quote by Jobs, instead I have a quote book I've kept since I was young. I want to go back to that and continue to update and expand it. Take those quotes I've been noting since middle school and actually try and apply them to my life. So be it a weekly look at a specific quote, taping them back to my mirror to read every morning like I did in those middle school days, I'm going to take the words and make them a reality. Or at least... that's what I'm going to try and do.