Oh, look! It’s that time of year again when we are supposed to set “New Year, New You” resolutions like saving money and losing weight. Nah… I stopped doing that several years ago because I always gave up or didn’t hold myself accountable.

But even then, even if you don’t set new year resolutions, in the back of your head you still have some goals for the new year. We all do that. It’s a habit. I think our problems lie in either setting unrealistic goals, or we set the same goals every year even though we never achieve them. That’s so boring! Believe me, I set the “lose weight” goal many times and not once did I ever reach that goal. So why bother with it over and over again?

Stop setting yourself up for failure!

I tried the “pic” a day on my blog before, or a blog post a day before and had success, but I never looked back at what I achieved. It was just something I did. It was a task I held myself accountable for everyday, but I’m not sure what I learned from it. There’s always other goals too like read more or write more, but I try not to set a specific goal because I don’t want those things to feel like tasks. They are things I do every year anyway so why mess with a good thing? I’ve burned myself out with reading before, and the same can go for writing too. You shouldn’t force those things.

So, once again, no resolutions for this year either. BUT….I did set some goals for myself. First, I want to be more charitable. I’ve always considered myself a giving person, but I could do more. So for this year I decided I would help my local pet shelter. I set my Amazon Smile charity to them, and I also checked their wish list on their website for things I could pick up for them. I got lucky yesterday because I’m also an Amazon Vine member and there were several items to choose from that the shelter could use so I grabbed all of those items for free! My plan is to pick up extra items at the grocery store throughout the year as well so that I can make regular donations.

The second part of my charitable goal is to help the homeless more. I saw a Facebook video recently where socks are the most requested item in homeless shelters. Socks! So my plan is to add packs of socks to my regular shopping lists throughout the year and stock up on socks for the homeless.

Set Realistic Goals!

And that’s it! Sure, I want to save more money, lose more weight, eat better, pay off some debt, and all those other things, but those are things I’d work on regardless of setting a new year resolution to do them. This year is more about trying to make a difference!