New Year's Intentions

It took me quite a while to come it with a list of things that I want to focus on in 2016.

As you might have noticed from the title, I am calling each item on this list an "intention" instead of a "resolution".

Definitions:

Resolution-noun

1. a firm decision to do or not to do something.
2. the act of finding an answer or solution to a conflict, problem, etc.: the act of resolving something

Intention-noun

1.  The thing that you plan to do or achieve: an aim or purpose

*Note: I got these definitions from www.merriam-webster.com

You see, I like the idea of having a list of New Years' intentions rather than resolutions because of the following reasons:

1. An intention is a plan to achieve something. It is a goal, a goal with a purpose.
2. A resolution is too cut-and-dry for me. I am not looking for a solution or an answer or a permanent change to my life by making a list of resolutions. 
3. By making a list of resolutions, I feel that I am making rules for myself that I must follow, however, I need some wiggle room. I know that I will not be able to always follow my resolution plan as I want to.
4. I feel that my "resolutions" (or…in this case, my "intentions") would be difficult to just start doing all at once. I need to ease into them. I feel that slowly getting used to making habits out of things is better than jumping in right away. 
5. To go along with #4, I think that I would more likely to quit or give up on my "resolutions" if I automatically start doing them. Adding each habit/intention into my day-to-day life, little by little, will help me feel more accustomed to them, therefore making my goals more natural with every little step. 

I hope that list made sense.

Now, I should probably tell you what my intentions are, sense I just made a whole list of reasons why I chose to make my "resolutions" into "intentions" in the first place…

Maddie's New Year's Intentions:

1. Give more of myself to the community- I intend to spend more time doing community service. Not just for school requirements, but because I know that whenever I do volunteer for those in need, I always walk away feeling so much better about myself. My goal is to serve my community at least once a month. I intend to achieve this goal, however, if I miss a month or two, I intend to make up the time that I missed in my free time, especially in the summer months.
2. Make homemade dinner for my family at least 3 nights/week- I know that this goal will not always be possible, especially when track season starts up. With school athletics, my life is instantly made so much busier. It creates a constant cycle of eat, sleep, school, sports, homework, sleep, repeat. There is almost no down-time. However, I believe that, if I keep this intention in mind, I figure out ways (crockpot meals, anyone?) of which my family and I can still enjoy nice home-cooked meals without much hassle.
3. Walk Cooper at least once/day, and on the weekends, walk him twice/day-I used to walk Cooper twice a day; once before school, and once after school. Recently, though, I haven't been walking him in the mornings because I: 1.) Take more time getting ready 2.)Use that time to get more sleep and 3.)Try to arrive at school earlier so I can go in and get extra help (or sit in the parking lot of my school and listen to my all-time favorite radio station, Mix106 with Mike and Kate in the morning) I don't have a good excuse to not walk Cooper twice a day on the weekends, though. This will be a good goal for me to aim for, as it won't just benefit me, but it'll benefit Cooper, too!
4. Exercise at least three days/week- This is going to be a tough goal for me, because I have really been slacking in the exercise department lately. I get so tired from school, however, if I keep with my intention #5 and #9, this will create more time for me to do productive things like exercise! (See how my intentions all tie together?)
5. Stop procrastinating chores/homework-I'm really bad at this one. I get in a bad habit of coming home from school, having a snack, walking my dog, and then plopping down on the couch and turning on the news. I convince myself that "I need to be informed about what's going on in my local environment and community", however, it is not an excuse to wait to do homework until 9:00 p.m. Who says I can't listen to the news while doing math homework? Besides, I prefer doing homework with some sort of background noise anyways, so this is something that I can do to use my time more efficiently.
6. Learn to say "no" to hanging out with friends if I have not finished my homework/studies-I find myself worrying about my friends/family thinking that, if I say "no" to hanging out with them one day on a weekend, that they will then think that I don't want to spend time with them, therefore I will not get asked to meet up again in the future. I think that this is kind of ridiculous of me to think of, and I just need to relax and know that it is OK for me to put my education first before hanging out with friends. 
7. Become a better baker- I can use my free time to practice what I really love to do instead of moping around looking up "ideas of things to do when I'm bored" on Pinterest. (I know… I'm embarrassed that I've resorted to Pinterest for ideas of things to do when I'm bored. Ugh) I know that my family doesn't mind if I bake, however, we never eat the treats ourselves. I know many people who would, without a second thought, take the treats if I offered them, though, so why not practice my baking?
8. Take better care of myself (goes along with #4)-I think that this intention/goal goes along with all of my intentions on this list. I need to learn how to respect myself more and, while keeping up with school work and studies, I need to know that it is OK to take a little time to myself every once-in-a-while to relax and reflect. 
9. Try to get to bed as early as possible on school nights--no staying up an extra 1 to 2 hours just to "relax" and watch TV-I am SO guilty of this. I do my homework and then all I want to do is kick back and relax and watch the news… I don't know why, but I love watching the news lately, (which, I guess isn't necessarily a bad thing) but again, this goes with #5… I can double up on my homework while listening to the news. Hopefully this helps me get more sleep, which will help me focus more in school and will further enable me to complete more homework in school. 
10. Learn to relax and enjoy the little moments of life-I think that on the weekends especially I feel like I'm always on a "go-go-go" mindset. The weekend is the time where I do all of my chores. I end up trying to do so much that I over-do it and I never end up completing everything that I start up. I can help fix this and give myself some extra free time by maybe doing one little chore each week night in order to save myself from overloading on the weekends. (That is, if I can make habits of the other intentions)
11. Stop apologizing so much- I apologize for EVERYTHING. It's ridiculous! People are always telling me things like, "stop apologizing!", or, "Maddie, why are you saying sorry? You didn't even do anything!" or, "Maddie it's no big deal, stop saying you're sorry because there's nothing to be sorry about,". I constantly am wanting to make people happy. I hate disappointing people, and when I do the slightest thing "wrong" (a lot of times I apologize for things that people don't even notice) I feel the need to apologize for it. It's something that has become so natural to me, and I don't really know how to stop it. For these reasons, I made this an intention because it is a goal, and it will take little baby steps to reach. 
12. Boost my self-confidence- This goes along with #11. I'm not a very confident person in general. I am very self-conscious about how I look, what I say, and how I act around people. I don't give myself enough credit, and I tend to just focus on what I think that everyone else wants to see me as, instead of what I think of myself as a person. I can work towards this by taking a little extra time to take care of myself and maybe every once-in-a-while I can treat myself to a new makeup item or a new pair of shoes with my own money. I tend to use my money/savings on others, rarely on myself, so I think that doing something nice for myself every now and then will help me feel like I have done well and am deserving of something nice. (I am not advocating that money buys happiness, just FYI)
13. Talk with family members more often-I am bad about checking in on my family members and relatives, especially the ones that live out of state. It'll be a good goal for me to try to call each of them maybe once a month or so, just to show that I care and to see how they are doing. The last thing I want is to have something bad happen to one of them (or myself) and to not have remembered the last thing I said to them due to my lack of keeping in touch. 
14. Journal/blog more often-This year, I intend to journal/blog more often. I always have ideas of what to write about, I just never sit down and take the time to record my ideas or thoughts. I want to have something to look back on and reflect on when I am older. I want to have an outlet for when I have kids, especially as teenagers, that I can resort to when I need a little bit more of an understanding about how my child is feeling. I feel that every person has a different experience as a teenager, and for that reason, it can be hard to relate to their kids. However, if I make a better habit of opening up on my true feelings--even if it offends some people--I can really make my story and my journey more useful in the long run.
15. Take pictures-I want to take more "candid" pictures. Posed pictures are great, however, recently I realized that I don't have many "in the moment" photographs. The pictures that are taken randomly truly capture the essence and mood of a memory. They don't have posed smiles, they show real and true emotion and feeling. I think that it is important, when able, to capture these moments. Pictures provide a "time machine" (if you will) that can take you back to a certain time in your life, and I think that that is very powerful.

So, needless to say, I have a lot to work on this year. As I explained before, I don't expect myself to accomplish these goals all at once. I don't even expect myself to be perfect at striving for all of this goals after 2016 is over. All I want to do is to work to be a better person, in all different categories of my life. I've realized that life is going by very fast. Yes, I am only 17, but I am already looking at colleges. It's CRAZY. I can still remember my first day of first grade (no joke--I sat in the front row, and all I could think about was how much older I felt just from making the transition from kindergarten of going from sitting at tables to getting my very own desk), and this made me think of how I have limited time to become the person I really strive to be. 

There will always be a way to improve myself, no matter what, but I am hopeful that this year, I can get a good start on becoming a better me.