Happy New Year! I recently read an essay about setting New Year’s resolutions and goals that are based on what makes you happy. The author didn’t make lofty proclamations about losing weight or ceasing unnecessary expenditures; she highlighted things that bring her joy like traveling or attending concerts, and then identified potential vacation weeks or tour dates to make those goals a reality. I like this approach because it’s so much more optimistic than self-reflecting on your perceived failures. And even if you do have goals centered on changing a habit, reframing the intention behind it can be powerful.

TRAVEL TO AT LEAST FOUR DESTINATIONS

Travel somewhere new has been my perennial resolution for as long as I can remember. We rarely book trips more than a couple of months out, letting competitive flight and hotel prices guide us, so there’s always a bit of mystery about where we’ll find ourselves vacationing in the new year. That said, we do have two domestic getaways booked already: a summer weekend in Chicago because we found relatively inexpensive hotel prices at The Robey and a longer trip to Philadelphia. Where else will we go in 2025? Who knows! I’m sure there will be an international trip and I’m hoping for a beachside escape, too.

FIND JOY IN MOVEMENT

For whatever reason, I’ve always seen exercise as a type of punishment. I’m sure there’s plenty to unpack there about my perceptions and body image, but we’re not going to do that. Instead, I’m going to focus on how good I feel after I exercise. It takes a lot of mental energy for me to get started, but I always feel proud of myself and more energized afterward. I’m going to work on reframing a workout as something that will make me happy rather than something that I have to do.

CONTINUE MAKING PROGRESS ON HOME PROJECTS

What I love most about “home” is that it’s ever-evolving. Furniture moves, walls are repainted, new decor is added, renovations are considered. It’s never really done, and I can’t really predict what we’ll end up doing this year. However, I do know that focusing on our space makes me incredibly happy. Here are a few things I’d like to take care of in the first half of 2025:

• Purchase a bookshelf or credenza for the living room. We moved the bar cabinet to the dining room and now have an empty space in the living room that needs some sort of storage, whether open or closed.
• Purchase a second armchair for the living room. Whenever we have guests over, I feel like we need one more comfortable chair in the room. I’d like to buy a matching leather chair to the one that’s already in the space, but the leather color is no longer available. I’m not sure if a different chair would make the room feel too chaotic and mismatched when the existing armchair already doesn’t match the couch.
• Install a curtain rod and curtains in the guest room. The space has roller shades already, so this isn’t a privacy- or light-related priority. It’s more for aesthetics. I already bought curtains from Amazon in “Key Green” that match the wall color pretty well (Sherwin-William’s “Billiard Green”), and curtain rods are backordered until March.
• Finish with the guest room. After curtains are hung, we really only need to hang a mirror, add artwork, and consider replacing the hand-me-down nightstand. I’d also like to find a queen-size bedspread or quilt for the space that I love, rather than using our king-size blankets and tucking under the excess. Addressing the guest room was one of my 2024 goals and I’m so glad we did it because it’s allowed my parents to stay with us when they visit.
• Begin organizing the basement. This has been on my to-do list for years. It’s a daunting project that I never actually want to start doing. However, if we can even just start with a small section, I think it’ll give us motivation to keep going — or, at the very least, that small section will be organized! Progress, not perfection.

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