Behind the Blog 34: New Beginnings

Behind The Blog is a meme to help bloggers connect their life and interests to the content showcased on their blog. The co-hosts Faye Kathe and Melissa will provide a different topic, idea, or question every week that bloggers can relate to themselves and the books, films, or media they find interesting!

New Beginnings

New Year's is often a time of new beginnings. People often make resolutions to help themselves achieve their goals. Are there any new beginnings that you are looking forward to in 2013? Are you planning on making any New Year's Resolutions? If so, what are they?

In relation to books and media:

Are there any books or movies you like where the characters get a chance at a new beginning? Or beginning scenes of books or movies that are particularly noteworthy?

I think the idea of resolutions is nice, but they can also be a lot of pressure, too depending on the circumstances. For resolutions to really take hold, you have to truly want to accomplish these goals or make the changes that you set out to. If you're doing it just because you think you should, or everyone else is doing it, it won't really work that well and you'll give up after a few weeks or a month. (I wonder how many gyms get money from people who join up in the new year, don't ever go, and then forget to cancel?)

I've already posted about my reading challenges for the year. You can read them at the top of the page in the 2013 reading challenges tab. I'm actually doing pretty well so far. If I can finish a book today, I'll have read a book a day so far in 2013. A pretty good start to those challenges, and being ahead will probably keep me motivated to keep it up. 

As for personal resolutions, I have a few.

I want to keep up with the healthy habits that I started in mid December.

 I decided to switch out soda and most other beverages for water or green tea. Now, instead of one (sometimes two) sodas a day, I'm only having soda once or twice a week as a treat, or to go with a particular meal like burgers and fries. You can't not have a soda with burgers and fries. Well, you can, but it just doesn't feel right. I would cut out soda entirely, but I don't want to, because I don't want to deprive myself, since I know it's okay to indulge every once in a while. And going from a soda a day to one a week is a big improvement, so I'm happy with that.

I've seen some improvements with this already. I feel a little better, and I've even lost a pound or two.

Get a new job. 

I've been out of work for far too long, and I've been looking and looking, but haven't found anything yet. I really hope that things in this department of life turn around for me soon, because I really want to be working again.

Work on projects that I want to complete, like scrapbooks. 

I bought a lot of scrapbooking items last January, with the intention of starting a scrapbook but I never got around to it. I am a bit of a packrat, and I save all my old cards and letters, and I want to do scrapbooks of these cards and letters. I'm having trouble with planning out how I want to organize them though, and it's halting me a bit. Plus, I really want to find all the letters for the one I want to start, before I start it because I would hate to find another few letters after I've already begun.

These are just a few things that I want to do. What are some of your resolutions for this year?

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