Resolutions 2016: New Year, Old Me

Happy New Year!!!! Hope you all had a fun and festive New Year, whatever you were doing. I ended up in Westchester for a few days celebrating with the boy and some of our friends. It’s really sad when staying up ’til midnight feels like a huge accomplishment.

My first workout of the year? A beast megaformer class at Corelab in Katonah.

Hurts so good. I rarely go to megaformer classes in NYC because it’s real pricey, so it’s always a treat (er, painful treat) when I get to go in Westchester. My abs were on fire the next day.

New Years Resolutions: 2016 Edition

I love New Years Resolutions. I’m sure you’ve already read a million and one articles that tell you why they suck and why you shouldn’t even bother, but I will continue to be on Team Resolutions. Did I accomplish everything I wanted to last year? Nah. But that’s the beauty of it, I get to try again this year, reflect, and decide what I really and truly want to do in 2016. I have 12 months to figure it out and make a change.

Before delving in, I did want to say that the concept of New Year, New You makes me cringe. Not to toot my own horn, but I’m really freaking proud of all I accomplished in 2015. I’m also really proud of the habits I’ve already created for myself and the life I lead. Those are things I of course will bring into the new year with me– things such as working out 6 days a week, listening to my body and when it needs rest, balancing whole foods with the occasional treat and reading a book before going to bed every single night.

I want to continue to be the old me in 2016. There’s always room for improvement and growth, but “New Year, New You” suggests that 2015 Kayla wasn’t good enough. So screw that.

Are you making resolutions this year? Don’t just state out loud (or online) what you want to accomplish, make a plan of how you are going to tackle your goal and give yourself check point reminders. Last year I literally marked down dates in my calendar to remind myself to look back at my resolutions. Most importantly, make it something you really want– not something that you feel you are supposed to do like go vegan or run a half marathon even though you love steak and loathe running.

Career + Professional

• take the GMATs. Ugh, I’ve been putting off studying for my grad school exams because studying is not fun and there are a million other things I’d rather do with my free time. I’m almost halfway through my GMAT course and on track to take the exam in less than 3 months. Crossing this bad boy off my to-do list is going to feel like a huge sigh of relief– even if I don’t apply to business school this year, the hardest part will be over!

• never stop learning. One of the things I absolutely love about my job is that I am constantly learning new things whether it’s a new shortcut on google analytics or a new trick in photoshop. There’s a ton of other skills I want to gain in the upcoming year that will both make my job easier and make me better at my job. I’m always on the lookout for great courses at General Assembly and webinars on marketing, social media, google analytics and SEO.

Health + Wellness

• cook one new recipe every month. Cooking still overwhelms me. I think I only cook three things on a regular basis these days– kale with chickpeas and rice, matzoh brie and toast, and I rarely try out a new recipe. Once a month I will try out something new. I’m not looking to make anything ambitious or crazy, just something simple like a new-to-me soup in the crock pot or easy to make chicken dish. I’m already off to a great start and made chili in the crockpot today.

• bring lunch three times a week. Oh NYC, you make it SO easy to live off of takeout. I’m not looking to totally ditch my lunchtime takeout habit– nothing wrong with hitting up Dig Inn and byChloe here and there, but I definitely spend too much money on lunch these days and bagged lunch is an easy way to solve that problem.

• make an effort to work on my pull-ups. I’ve been talking about being able to do pull-ups since 2009. It’s really just depressing at this rate that I can’t do them. My trapeze instructor recommended taking some silks classes to help me work on that strength, so hopefully that will help.

Blogging

• start treating my blog like a business. In 2016 I want to start treating KITC more like a side job than a hobby of mine. I know vagueness is not the recipe to a successful resolution, but I’m still not positive how I want to accomplish this goal. The first step I’m taking is creating goals for this blog, which is something I haven’t paid too much attention to in the past.

• clean up my website. I love the design that was created for me 3+ years ago, but it’s start to feel a bit stale and doesn’t feel as branded as I would like it to be. Biting the bullet to spend money on a redesign feels really scary, so I’m waiting it out until I have a slightly better idea of how I want to change things up. In the meantime, the menu pages could use some attention. I started organizing them at the beginning of last year… and of course never finished.

Personal

• learn how to use my DSLR. During the summer I purchased a fancy camera… and have yet to learn how to use it. After I take the GMAT, I’m going to focus on learning how to use my camera with a the online courses I’ve already paid for from A Beautiful Mess and Megan Weaver.

• take voice lessons again. A few weeks ago Jeremy and I saw a college production of American Idiot (yes, I made him go see some random college production…) It suddenly hit me that I’ve barely sang at all since senior year of college. Within a few months of graduating NYU/Tisch with a theater degree, I totally gave up on acting for various reasons. Even though I don’t want to be a broadway star anymore (okay… maybe I do a little bit), singing is something I seriously miss doing. Growing up I absolutely adored my voice teacher and found voice lessons to be oddly therapeutic. I want to find a voice teacher in Manhattan that I love as much the teacher I used to study with in Westchester.

• be fearless. I previously mentioned that my word for 2016 is FEARLESS. To me, that means saying yes to things that scare me and not letting my own fears + anxiety get in the way.

Do you make new years resolutions, why or why not?