Chapter 2026...

I – like many others – do not believe in new year's resolutions. Regardless, this is essentially a new year's resolution post, laying out the assorted goals I have for myself and habits I would like to apply by the end of 2026. 

All of the goals I have in mind align with my personal values, and major events happening in my life this year. By the end of the year I will be a wife, and in college! I want to be sure I am as ready as I can be for marriage and class work as I can, so all the habits I intend on applying fall under umbrellas of each other, each one supporting the next. 

The biggest habit umbrella, is practicing intentionality throughout everything. I am tired of looking back on my day and realizing that it all disappeared behind hours worth of doomscrolling. I do want to utilize my PBS subscription more, read more non-fiction, and consume things that benefit my learning. That being said, there is room for recreational consumption as well, I just plan on going offline for it: DVDs, listening to vinyl, reading fiction, and so on.  

The following umbrella is living a more “analog” life. I want to create more, I want to write and make music. I want to strengthen my memory and rely less on Google to recall information for me. I want to take more photos to add to the physical photo album I have. I want to be more grounded and sit within my spirituality and craft. I want to be less available to the world, I want more friendships.  

Yet another umbrella is wanting to lower my credit usage. While it is under the 30% mark, and my credit score is in the mid 700’s, it is a lot higher than I would like. Most of that is due to impulse purchases, usually food. I love cooking – that’s what frustrates me so much – I want to spend less on “convenience” when I have groceries at home. That said, I need to sit down with my fiancé and come up with a system for the kitchen as what kills my eagerness to cook is the kitchen being an utter disaster. Maybe that mean another purchase on the credit card for furniture to store cooking tools and assorted pantry items, who knows. 

Following that, I want the apartment cleaned up more consistently. It is not like we don’t ever clean, we just don’t quite keep up with it the way I would prefer. So getting us both into the habit of picking up as we go would make us both less overwhelmed! 

All of these branched out goals are just habits I want to get into so that I can be the homemaker and student I’ve dreamed of being. I truly do believe that I can do it too, it is just a matter of practice!