Happy New Year everyone!

I know that people generally make ‘resolutions’ for the New Year in an effort to have something to work towards. Many of us fail to keep those resolutions (like me failing to lose the weight I put on….and actually gaining a few lbs more!!!!!) for various reasons. (mine was just that I am lazy….when the pain from the workout starts, I stop exercising).

I have decided to have three simple goals for 2009 instead of a big list of  ‘resolutions’. They are as follows:

Simplify

Live

Learn

I chose to have these goals for the year because I can fit a number of different mini resolutions into them and still come out ahead at the end of the year.

Simplify

This means that I will work on clearing the clutter from my life.  This includes physical clutter (like the 11 tubes of toothpaste that I still have even after giving toothpaste to people) and mental clutter (worrying about EVERYTHING financially).

I need to stop getting toothpaste at CVS just because I am getting it for FREE. I need to work through those 11 tubes so I am counting on you guys and gals to keep me honest.

I have already taken a step to reducing the mental clutter by simplifying the way I pay my bills and credit cards and using a zero based budget.

handmoneyI am also taking away some of the categories in my budget and in my Money file because they were just too detailed to keep up with. There ws a time when I could go into my money file and tell you that I had spent $7.11 on fruit in March as opposed to $23.89 on staples like bread and milk. Those are not actual figures….but then again who cares?

Now my money file will show Food and Household (non food items) which will include clothing. I do not really shop for clothing (I hate shopping!!!!!) so I don’t need to track this as if I am some type of shopaholic.

Live

Life is short. I never really took that to mean anything to me personally until my mother died last month. I spent a lot of time thinking about all the things I could have done with her that I never got a chance to do. I have always been a cautious person and not a risk taker. As a result, I have let a lot of things slide past me in life that I could have enjoyed but was afraid to try.

I have a GPS so I need to get out and drive.

I need to stop being so lazy about exercise and work through the pain. It is so easy to look healthy but have something wrong with you as I found out when I ended up in the hospital and needed to have surgery.

I need to be a better blogger.

Learn

I have always had a love for reading since I was very young and I love to learn new things. I live in Texas and so I need to brush up on my Spanish to better deal with my students.

I need to learn SQL beyond what I learned during my one semester in college.

I need to get a basic knowledge of stocks so that I can build up some small investments using Sharebuilder.

I need to learn HTML so I can fix simple things on my blog instead of hounding Web Development all the time or crying each time Shawn emails to tell me the blog has gone all crazy.

I had put off going back to school for a little while because of my mother…but now I need to start looking into that again.

Those are just a few of the mini categories under my three main goals for the year that I will be working on.

What are some of your plans, goals, resolutions or whatever you call them for the New Year? Or are you staying away from making a commitment like some people are doing?

Thank you to ALL those who have supported me on this blog. You guys and gals have offered advice, linked to me, stumbled/dugg etc., clicked on my ads, criticized me, subscribed to my feed, hosted carnivals, left comments, introduced me to new services, emailed me privately, followed me on Twitter  and helped me to improve in a number of ways.

Thank you and a Happy New Year to everyone. Let’s all have a prosperous 2009!!!!