Okay, here we go.  It’s taken me half the month, but I think I’m ready to set some goals for 2020.  This will be a year of changes – some I’m choosing (or hoping) to make for myself, and others for which I’m simply along for the ride – and my first resolution is to embrace the upheaval.  We’re going to move houses; the kids will change schools.  I’m looking at both of these changes as opportunities – opportunities to start fresh and to shed a lot of extra stuff we’ve been carrying around – in terms of personal property and emotional baggage.  It’s time.

Other resolutions, in no particular order:

• Get back on the running trails, and rediscover my love for my old sport.
• Buy nothing new for three months.  This doesn’t include food, toiletries, other consumables, gifts or things for the kiddos – but as for myself, I’d like to be a more conscious member of the circular economy.
• Go up in a hot air balloon.
• Hydrate, eat the rainbow, move, and generally stop putting everyone else’s well-being before my own.
• Continue to build my bread-baking skills, and experiment with new bread recipes.
• Do another twelve months’ hiking project on the blog.
• Finally finish that purge of all the junk we have been moving from house to house for the last decade.  I’m over it.
• Related: give away, donate, or discard 2,020 items, and pick up 2,020 pieces of trash in my neighborhood.
• Read what I want to read, and not feel pressured to keep up with buzzy new releases.
• Finish a big family memory-keeping project I’ve been planning for years, in time for Christmas 2020.
• Travel, have adventures, push boundaries, and get outside my comfort zone regularly.  (How’s that for specific?)

There – ten normal goals, plus one vague adventure resolution for good luck.  All over the map, but the common thread I can see running through this list is: seeking balance; paring down and simplifying life and prioritizing things like time spent in nature and with loved ones; and making the most of my time.  While this list is somewhat wishy-washy, I have an idea of what I’d like life to look like at the end of 2020, and it’s quite a bit different from what life looks like here at the starting gate.  I have some more thinking and a lot of work to get to that place, but it’s taking shape in my head – so that, in and of itself, is progress.

Have you made resolutions for 2020?