New year, BETTER me!

If you've been following my blog for a while, you know that I usually set some kind of goals at the beginning of the year. I do this for multiple reasons, including actually trying to hold myself accountable, having a tangible list to go back to and hopefully, inspiring some of you to aim for goals of your own!

This year, I watched a YouTube video from one of my favorite channels, Brittany Vasseur. If you haven't watched her, she's great! Lots of organization tips and other helpful things, like how to ACTUALLY meet those year-long goals.

I watched her video on that and she explained that setting static goals just doesn't work and recommended setting "active" goals. Now what does that mean? So instead of "lose 50 pounds" your goal would be "work out three times a week."

By taking your long-term goals and cutting them up into smaller, short-term goals, they become more attainable and easier to plan and create a routine. So I'm definitely taking this solid advice and trying it for myself!

This year, my first New Year as a WIFE (I still can't really believe that, haha), Sky and I have chosen some things to work toward together as well as our own goals. I think that will work out better for us because we can do things together and hold each other accountable!

Learn Spanish — Duolingo DAILY!

As a Latina woman, I have been desperately trying to learn Spanish pretty much my entire life. My dad is fluent, but my mom can't speak it hardly at all, so I didn't grow up hearing it as often as a fully-Hispanic household. I understand A LOT but struggle to quickly translate and lack vocabulary. My husband, on the other hand, who is 100% NOT Spanish, knows almost as much as I do. He seems to have a knack for languages. LOL. Anyway, I digress. My insane and amazing hubs surprised me with a Christmas/Anniversary gift of a trip to Puerto Rico in June (I am SO excited!) so that's hopefully going to push us toward achieving our goal of really being able to know enough of the language to understand and speak.

Love this quote! (Spanish Mama via Pinterest)

If you've never heard of Duolingo, it's a pretty cool app that is FREE and helps you learn a ton of different languages. It gives you a set of daily tasks and it's actually really fun. Sky and I were doing it the other day and absolutely cracking up at some of the story lines in the lesson! So we are going to try to do that every day or at least several times a week.

Read 12 books — Pick up a book at least a few times a week

Boy, I miss reading. Sky and I are both avid readers, but since we've been together, our tendency is to do just that—spend time together. That hasn't really included the mostly solitary activity of reading. Even though we both love it, there is so much going on in our lives recently that we just haven't made the time for it.

Some books I'd like to read! (Photos: Goodreads)

So this year, I really want to try to swap out some time watching YouTube together for snuggling up together with our books a bit before bed time and getting in some reading! I like signing up for the Goodreads challenge! You can choose how many books you'd like to read this year and track your progress.

Take better care of myself — Face masks, nail polish and lots of fruit

The past few months have been somewhat of a whirlwind. So much has happened and changed over a short period of time and I kind of have felt like my feet have not touched the ground. And I'll admit, I haven't been taking care of myself as much as I'd like to.

My usual goal is to do a face mask three times a week, but I have hardly done any. I haven't done my nails since my wedding (which I honestly thought would help them to be healthier, but nothing's changed, so slap on that gel lol). I also haven't been exercising or eating the way I'd like to.

So my goal to change my habits this year is to take the time for myself. I'm so in love with my husband that I never want to be away from him, which is amazing because I am so lucky, but I don't want to completely sacrifice caring for my body. Giving up 10 minutes of snuggling to slap on a face mask before bed, I think, is something I just owe to my body.

(via Pinterest)

As for my nails, I hate spending the money to get them done, but I do have a pretty extensive collection of my own nail polish. It's possible that I hate painting my own nails more than paying someone to do them, but the fact that I don't have to leave the house has its perks. So I'm planning to always have some happy color on my nails so when I look at them or take an Instagram picture of me holding something I smile!

As for eating and exercise, that is always a goal of mine. I have struggled with weight issues my entire life (thanks, PCOS...) and I don't expect it to, honestly ever, go away. But, I do have a nice motivation, several actually, to drop a few pounds and get a little stronger. Sky and I bought the Nintendo Switch game "Ring Fit Adventure." The game is cute and a little cringy, but in a good, funny way. The best part though is that it gets you up and moving but you're actually playing a game while you exercise, which is pretty cool. So we plan on doing that together and taking walks when the weather is nice. I really want to be in better shape for our trip to PR in June. I also owe it to myself to be at least a little more healthy.

Big things to come!

My last goal is a little non-descript because I don't want to give anything away just yet. But I have some big plans on the horizon and my goal is to be really consistent and have some fun! More of that is yet to come, so keep your eyes on social media for that announcement, hopefully, this month!

XO, Briana