New year, new you?  I am not really a resolution maker, but so many people are we decided to come up with a few ideas to get you off to a great start in the new year.

Here are some pretty standard resolutions and some suggestions on how to keep them!

“I’m going to lose weight/go on a diet/go to the gym!”

This is probably the numero uno resolution made every year.  I would advise that if this is your goal you shouldn’t be waiting till the new year to do it, just make it happen, but since my opinion doesn’t really matter 😛 check out these options:

  • Midnight Sun Athletic Club – just moved into a new location on the PW highway. 24 hour access and conveniently located between Palmer & Wasilla with fun, friendly people! https://www.themidnightsunathleticclub.com/
  • Denali Crossfit – they are starting a Whole 30 challenge in January which will help you stay on track with your diet and it’s a crossfit gym for all shapes, sizes, and abilities! You must register for the challenge by Dec. 29th, so check it out! http://www.denalicrossfit.com/

“I’m going to stop procrastinating and be more organized!”

Procrastinator extraordinaire over here! In all fairness, I work extremely well under pressure… Even so, procrastination is a bad habit and unless you’re my mother you could probably use a little help in the organization department also.

  • I have an actual, physical planner that I write my schedule and to-do lists in.  Well really I have two, one for Revive and one for personal/my business.  I use Passion Planners – they have space for goal setting/tracking, an awesome daily layout, graph paper in the back that I use to track our budget at home and a section of blank paper that I use for notes/ideas/random stuff I need to remember. http://www.passionplanner.com/
  • If you have a goal that you think you might need a little extra push to accomplish, check out http://www.stickk.com/ This website lets you basically bet on yourself.  You define your goal, choose your stakes, pick a referee to monitor your progress, you can add friends to support you.  For example, “I’ll work out 3 days a week every week for a year and if I don’t I’ll have to give $500 to the International Clown College.”  You’ll want to pick something that you really don’t want to give any money to to help keep you extra motivated to accomplish your goal.  The monetary bet is optional, but they say those that do it are three times more likely to succeed.

“Less TV, more reading.”

Reading is the best!  I love it so <3 If you’re stumped I have about a bagillion books at home I can recommend, so feel free to ask.

  • Check out https://www.goodreads.com/ There’s an app too.  You can enter books you’ve already read that you liked and it will give you recommendations based on them!  Super cool!
  • The Wasilla Public Library is an excellent hang out.  It’s beautiful and quiet.  They have fireplace with a bunch of chairs and couches so you can just relax and read.  It’s delightful.

“I’m going to get out of debt/save more money.”

Have you ever looked at your bank account and thought “Huh.  I wonder where all that money went…”?  Once upon a time that was a frequent thought in my noggin. Bills were paid, cool stuff was bought, but those student loan balances sure weren’t getting much smaller.

  • My husband and I are both very much “I want it now.” people, but we started following the Dave Ramsey budgeting system (ish) in August and it’s amazing how much money we’ve “found”.  We’re not “gazelle intense” as Dave likes to say, but simply having a written budget each month has helped immensely.  I read The Total Money Makeover, but you can also find a bunch of info on his website https://www.daveramsey.com/ There are of course a ton of other budgeting systems and tools that could work for you, this one has just been personally beneficial.
  • Consider getting a side job or turning a hobby into a business.  Revive is my “side job” and I love it because my main source of income is a home based business, but working at Revive guarantees that I’ll leave the house 3 days a week hahaha 😛 Check out Craigslist https://anchorage.craigslist.org/ for some odd jobs or look through Etsy https://www.etsy.com/ to find some inspiration for some home made creations you could sell!

There are 101+ other resolution ideas I’m sure, but this should get you started!  Let us know what yours are in the comments 🙂

xo