I love the beginning of January!  It’s the beginning of a fresh new year with promises of wonderful things and the opportunity to shape the year you want. 

This year, while Bo nor I have many formal resolutions, we are both focusing on us. My resolution, or intention, is to strive to be the best possible version of myself, whether as a wife, daughter, co-worker, friend blogger or athlete.  It is easy to try and do many things during the course of a year only to look back and find that I focused on too many things. This year, I have come up with a few easy ways to improve each area of the roles I hold on a daily basis.

Wife: There is going to be a lot of change in 2015, just like there has been in each of our five years of marriage. Now more than ever, we need to stay connect, talking with each other each day over a glass of wine or in the kitchen cooking. When life gets busy, stressful and chaotic it’s easy to lose ourselves in the routine but we’ve learned a lot over the past month when we took time to pause and reconnect each day.

Daughter & Friend: Towards the end of the year I started picking up the phone more often, as part of the changes we made for a happier life. This made all the difference when we saw friends and family this holiday season. Instead of feeling disconnected, we were able to give huge hugs and then fall into comfortable, normal conversations since we were caught up on everyone’s life happenings during our regular phone calls and FaceTime conversations. In addition, my mom had the wonderful idea to start a mother daughter book club. Our goal is read a book a month, beginning with Pride & Prejudice.

Co-Worker: There are many days at work that are wonderful but it is during the more stressful moments when I believe I have the opportunity to lead by example. My goal is to remain calm under stress and motivate those around me with a positive, supportive attitude versus the natural tenancy to stress.

Blogger: After five years, I continue to gain a great deal from each of you who read and support the blog. The blog introduced me to a number of close friends in New York City, London and Geneva. In addition, the motivation and inspiration I gain from reading other blogs is endless. This year, I want to continue giving back to you all by sharing more posts that you request – European travel, tips for working out and staying healthy during travel, and more recipes.

Athlete: I haven’t finalized my goals for this area but I do know I’d love to train and run a sub 1:55 half marathon. It took me years to break sub 2 so I know it won’t be easy but it will be a great thing to focus on during the winter months! In order to help with this, I am going to use the Run Less, Run Faster method again and track every workout in DailyMile so I can keep myself more accountable and review the progress I make during the year.

Your turn: What are your goals or resolutions for 2015?