2015: it's here!

The year passed into 2015 overnight and, while we slept through the midnight shenanigans (being somewhat older and wiser than years past), we embraced the new year this morning and celebrated with a thoroughly decadent breakfast of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs.

I love resolutions. I enjoy change as much as I enjoy the comforts of established routine. I view the opportunity to change, to try and introduce improvements into my life and the life of my family, as essential to a well-lived life.

Resolutions can be tricky to articulate. Sometimes people are quite specific i.e. I want to lose 10kg.  Other times it can be more of a feeling that you have about the year just gone, a feeling that there was something that didn't sit quite right and that you would like to do better but there's no easy concrete defined goal to spell out. Things like I want to be a better boss or I want to make more time for my siblings.

I have some readily-articulated resolutions for this year, but also some more ethereal ones. In summary, I'm hoping 2015 will be the year where I:

1. Swear less

Don't get me wrong, I'm a true-blue Aussie and believe a thoughtfully-placed profanity can often make an impact that nicely draws attention to the main point of your argument.  But when it becomes habitual rather than a considered choice, it's lazy which in turn makes you sound ignorant and unimaginative. For 2015 I'd like to reel it in somewhat and be more ladylike. M is a country Victorian boy and he sometimes is a bit shocked by my language. Ideally your partner should make you want to be the very best version of yourself and M certainly acts as that yardstick for me. This isn't to suggest I have no vocabulary beyond curse words - on the contrary, I'm quite capable of expressing myself without resorting to f* this and f* that - it's more that I have slipped into more casual usage of swear words and I'd prefer to keep them a rarity.

2. Keep up the fitness, diet and general lifestyle changes

2014 marks the year I lost around 8kg (actually the last 6 months of 2014).  I would like to do a more detailed post on my diet and exercise changes so here, I'll just say we've drawn on principles from paleo and 5:2/intermittent fasting and it has worked amazingly well.  We are very excited to keep going - and the weight loss is a very charming side-effect that couldn't be more timely considering our wedding is coming up in May :)

3. Drink less

This is largely tied into the lifestyle changes in #2 however, it's also particular to M's and my relationship. M doesn't really drink alcohol. He'll have a beer with friends after work perhaps once every 2-3 months but at home he never choose alcohol over soft drink.  On the other hand, I do enjoy a glass of wine with food and find that it's a natural progression from my passion for cooking. Over the course of the past two years however I have noticed that, whereas previously the side-effects of alcohol consumption were simply coincidental to the main event of pairing different wines with food, the slightly spacey feeling has now become something I quite enjoy. It's probably not an unexpected flow-on effect of long hours and a stressful job, but it's not something I ever want to even get close to being a problem in my life.

My family has a history of alcoholism on my father's side. My siblings and I have always been conscious of the risks and have tried very hard to make sensible choices in our lives to minimise these risks.  M thinks I'm slightly overreacting (he has said he doesn't think I drink excessively at all) but I prefer to just wind things back as part of our general healthy lifestyle upgrade.  It can only help with the healthy choices generally.

4. Feel more confidence

This is definitely one of those airy-fairy goals but I want to put it down anyway. I am very proud of my career and my achievements but if there is one thing that I am vulnerable to, it is that I sometimes second-guess myself and doubt my abilities.  When I get in that slightly anxious headspace, it can badly affect both my work and my relationship. My work can be affected because I get slow, I get almost frozen and hold off decision-making and I can react over-sensitively to feedback within my organisation.  My relationship can be affected because I am conscious of all of those impacts and I become stressed and less 'present' at home, which is obviously unfair on M and our fat dog.

I want this year to be the year I finally accept the corner office. It's mine, I've earned it and I am therefore completely responsible for every aspect of decision-making. It falls on me to make the right decisions, at the right times and to reap the rewards accordingly.  I don't need to apologise to anyone for my success, because it's absolutely not guaranteed: I have to keep earning it.


Happy 2015 everyone - I hope it's a big year for all of us :) xo