Normally I don’t make New Year’s resolutions because I assume that I won’t actually do the things I pledged to (because I’m pessimistic like that). But this year, I decided to make some realistic goals for myself…and I’m posting them publicly so you guys can shame me if I don’t do them by this time next year.
Keep my GPA above 80%. This one should be easy enough to do next semester because all of my classes seem pretty straightforward. In first semester of second year, I’m not so sure but as long as make a good effort towards my assignments, I should be OK. And keeping my GPA above 80% means that my $3500 Queen Elizabeth II scholarship gets renewed, which covers over half of my tuition for the year, so that’s a pretty good motivator.
Start budgeting my money. Once I move off-campus at the beginning of May, this will become super-important since I will have to pay actual bills (like rent, internet, phone, possibly utilities if rent doesn’t include that, etc.), along with having to pay for textbooks, food, clothing, etc. And right now I don’t budget at all. So starting next month, I’m going to start making a mini-budget for myself for the small amount of expenses that I have right now, just to get myself in the habit.
Start doing yoga regularly. I’ve done yoga before and loved it, but I’ve procrastinated on going to classes. So I’m going to sign for one of the many, many yoga classes being held on-campus next semester, and hopefully from there I’ll be able to do some yoga on my own.
Read two books per month. I need to read more, period. And considering that I read 3 books in just over a week while I was staying with my grandma at the beginning of my break, I think I can handle reading two books per month.
Write 100 blog posts. 2 blog posts per week works out to 96 posts in a year, so I thought that I would just make it an even 100. I think this is pretty doable.
Get paid hosting and a domain name. I really like WordPress, and I definitely recommend it if you’re looking for a free blog host, but I’m starting to get frustrated with its limited features. I also want a domain name for aesthetics reasons (yeah, I’m vain). I’ll probably wait a few more months for this one, but indifferentlights.com (or some other domain if I think of a better name) is coming soon. By the way, if you have any good host recommendations (my requirements: cheap-ish while also having decent support), let me know!
Comment on 5 blogs per week. I keep meaning to read more blogs because I only have maybe 5-10 that I read regularly and I mostly lurk on those blogs. So having a goal of 5 comments per week will encourage to read and comment on more blogs. And 5 is pretty damn easy, so yeah, no excuses for this one 
Upgrade my phone. I got my first cell phone, a Motorola Rival, in February of 2010. Almost 2 years later, I still have that cell phone. And it’s a shitty phone. I’m eying the iPhone 4S, but I’ll probably buy something a little more affordable. Again, smartphone recommendations are welcome.
So those are my goals for the next year. I’m hoping that I won’t be blogging about my failure to achieve any of these next year
Happy New Year to all of you!
100 blog posts is definitely doable! I did that this year (well, I’m at 99, but publishing my goals/recap later today), and it wasn’t a huge challenge.
Reading is one of my goals, as well. Here’s hoping we can both achieve our reading goals!
In terms of hosting, I totally recommend A Small Orange. You can use discount codes (tell me if you need one) for 15% off, and a yearly shared hosting package is $60 (or $5/month). Their support has been prompt and polite and I really haven’t had any problems other than being too dumb to figure out how to set everything up.
ANYWAY. I hope your 2012 is fantastic! It seems like your goals will help you make this year awesome.
I’m hosted with fatcow.com Incidentally, they have a deal for friends/family of existing customers! Go to this website: http://www.fatcow.com/secret/. The code is boxing (as in boxing day). Hosting is $1.99 per month for the first year.