2013: My New Year’s Resolutions

My phrase for the year 2013 is ‘Peace in Fulfillment’.

I will:

• Go to church and take my children to church.
• Get ‘serious’ about food. Really serious.
• Continue to build on the great things we’ve accomplished as a family on eating balanced diets.
• Read.
• Write.
• Go to bed early.
• Be comfortable with spontaneity.
• Continue to trust myself.
• Remain passionate about people. Well and truly.
• Fight for a cause. Any cause for good, for meaning, for life.

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I love New Year’s Resolutions. In them, I distill some of the things that I seriously desire to accomplish. It brings me focus, aim and believe it or not, motivation. Motivation in the encouraging, not disparaging and competitive sense.

In 2012, I wrote 12 Resolutions for 2012. Here’s how I did with them all, in traffic lights:

1. Partly accomplished, to be continued in 2013: Treat myself with true & honest kindness – including the occasional manicure and pedicure. And also continue to swim, run, sleep and most of all eat right. Women, Food and God by Geneen Roth has shown me why this is important.
2. Partly accomplished (2 trips to New York, 1 trip within Nigeria, to be continued in 2013): Travel. See Nigeria and Africa (Gabon. Cameroun, Sierra Leone and The Gambia are top on my list) and if possible add a trip to New York. It’s also part of #1.
3. Partly accomplished, to be continued in 2013, outlines for both books written: Write two books. One book on Nigerian cuisine which I would love to be crowd-sourced from the ‘Cook Naija’ monthly get together I’ll ‘launch’ soon. The other book is a toss between a cookbook and a photo book of Africa. Time will tell which.
4. Not accomplished: Create a portfolio/start an image gallery for my photographs (if you know how to go about this with some ease, please let me know!)
5. Partly accomplished, to be continued in 2013: Be more respectful of people, especially my children. Half of the world’s problems as I see it are based on a fundamental lack of human respect. I will not knowingly contribute to this.
6. Partly accomplished, to be continued in 2013, began sewing a ladybug suit for my son. Only the eyes left to complete: Sew.
7. Accomplished: Paint. In watercolours.
8. Accomplished: Make a gingerbread house. In February. Or at Easter. Whatever happens, before Christmas 2012!
9. Accomplished: Finish my writing course….which I began in 2010…..
10. Partly accomplished, to be continued in 2013: Read. Everything that catches my fancy. Road signs, patterned toilet paper. News. The Real Simple Magazine. Books. African authors. You.
11. Partly accomplished, to be continued in 2013: Do something for less-fortunate women. Have a bake sale. Organise an event. But do something. To help women somewhere.
12. Partly accomplished, to be continued in 2013: Embrace the unexpected, be married to amazement and take it easy

I am thrilled at my progress.

Of course some of these are really long-term goals that I wanted to focus on and focus I did.

I went to New York twice this year. I now have a diploma in freelance journalism. I mentor women and never pass on an opportunity to make the voice of the less-fortunate heard. I embraced spontaneity – I got myself a life coach who is WONDERFUL beyond belief.

Are you making any resolutions this year? I wish you all the best for 2013, regardless of whether or not you write it out and call it a resolution.[wpurp-searchable-recipe]2013: My New Year’s Resolutions – – – [/wpurp-searchable-recipe]