2019 Resolutions – My Resolutions and action plan to stick to them
So I’m super late in blogging about this, but December and January were pretty busy months for me (I got married and went on my honeymoon).
My husband and I talked through what our “goals” were for the year – we decided to name them goals instead of resolutions. Resolutions seem to focus on the negative or bad habits, as opposed to goal setting and forming new habits.
I’ve identified different parts of my life that I want to actively work on and grow this year. I’ve already started to implement some of these, and I’m excited to track and share how everything goes throughout the rest of 2019.
1. Get better at work/life balance.
I work a fulltime job as a Senior Marketing Manager for a national retailer, run an online business, am married to a firefighter and a fur mom to a dog named Charlie 😊
Until recently I was very used to being a single, independent woman. I have been growing and managing my own online business for 6 years, and the start up of this business included a lot of long nights, saying no to TV and dedicating time over the weekends to working on my hustle. It’s a work grind but I LOVE IT.
When I met Jordan in October 2017, my world turned upside-down (in a good way). I have always been used to working my job, coming home and working my side hustle. Adding Jordan in the mix presented a shuffle I needed to make in my off-time. It’s been a bit of growing pains (I spend time with him, stay up later to catch up on work), and my goal is to have a set schedule for it moving forward.
Jordan is a career firefighter and his schedule is 24 hours on shift, and 48 hours off. He leaves for 24 hours every third day, which leaves me as a single dog-momma. It works well for our relationship because I’m very independent, but I need to make a shift so that I work more when he is gone and less when we do have time together. We are establishing a “first night date night” on the first night he is home from work. He can stay up late that night and sleep in the next day (just depends on what day it falls on).
2. Make meal prep a priority.
I have a love hate relationship with meal prepping. I know I need to do it, I know it saves me money, I know I feel better when I pack my lunch and eat healthy. But sometimes it seems like such a BEAST that I overwhelm myself just thinking about it.
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Since we moved into our house 7 months ago, I have struggled to get into a groove of weekly meal prep. Before living together I cooked staple meals for myself, and Jordan ate out all the time. I am trying to do my best to bulk prep, but we eat out constantly and fall back on getting food out instead of cooking.
New plan: Make cooking together a priority, so it’s not a burden on one of us. Research healthy new recipes to try, and schedule when we have our dinners out.
3. Dress for success at work.
Some may think this is silly, but I am really excited for this one.
I’ve worked from home before, and also in an office. My wardrobe has changed over the years of casual to preppy…and my last job before working for At Home I was WFH as my own boss. As a result I was in workout clothes 99% of the time, and it was hard to distinguish “work” time when I wouldn’t put myself together.
My attire here is casual, which can also be a slippery slope. However, I’m making a conscious effort to really put myself together when I’m at work. That includes doing my hair, makeup and putting out outfits the evening before. This will also help me ensure that I actually wear all the clothes I own!
4. Earn six figures from my job as a Fitness Influencer.
Over the past six years I’ve been running this side business as a health and fitness influencer. Lipstick And Lunges the brand has been a passion of mine and it’s helped me grow as a person WAY MORE than I ever would have expected.
Since starting my business I’ve earned around $250K in total, and the last few years I’ve averaged $50K in earnings a year. It’s time to amp that up and dream big to bring in six figures in 2019. That means planning out more content, more detailed training for my Team, and bigger monthly sales goals for myself. Note: Beachbody does not guarantee a set income, you must work for it.
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But it can be done!
5. Make blogging a priority.
Writing comes naturally to me – I majored I Communication studies at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, and was on the student newspaper all four years. I enjoy writing and sometimes get more caught up in the social media posts and can’t really take the time to WRITE like I do here. So my goal is to blog 4-6x per month on LipstickAndLunges.com. I’ll have a set day of the week that I publish so I can stay on schedule.
If you ever have a topic you’d like me to blog about, let me know!
6. Track my money and save more.
I have never been great at budgeting, or money tracking. I’ve downloaded the apps and made spreadsheets and bought the Dave Ramsey money books. But nothing has seemed to stick for me.
In my 20s I got in and out of debt multiple times. Starting this side hustle helped me generate a second income to get out of it (with hard work and consistency). But there have been years that I have brought in a sizeable salary and side income and don’t know where it all went.
In 2019 I will track my income and spending habits. Jordan and I created a monthly spreadsheet to fill out (and not judge each other about). It’s just establishing a baseline of what’s coming in, and where it’s going.
First up, I cut any unnecessary monthly subscriptions including Amazon Prime (now we just use Jordan’s), Fabletics (I have enough clothes), spray tans (I’ll schedule them one-off when needed), Spotify, etc. All that money add up monthly pretty quick.
My side-hustle will be used for savings and emergencies this year. So I don’t want to depend on that money or even act like it exists!
Are you a person that makes a resolution and has a hard time sticking to it? I used to as well. I’m excited to use social media to share, update and stick to it this year (plus this counts as one of my blog posts for the month – YASS!).
If you have a fitness or financial goal – I’d love to help. Shoot me an email and we can chat further.
