Where Bloggers Live: New Year’s Resolutions
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Welcome to Where Bloggers Live: 2025! Happy New Year! “Where Bloggers Live” started out kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…with bloggers! We all like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes, interests, and lives, so every month this wonderful group of seven bloggers family of amazing women shares their work-spaces, homes, towns, and thoughts, with posts based on specific prompts. It’s been so interesting over the years to see the different ways each of us interpret the topics.
I write this on January 11, 2025, one day past the day this post was meant to be posted. One of my new year’s resolutions is to be more organized and get sh*t done when it’s meant to get done.
HA HA HA HA HA HA.
There’s just no taming me.
Seriously, though, better late than never. And you don’t give up just cuz you got off to a bad start.
I was just kidding about being more organized.
My REAL resolution for this year is…
Back Story: I always have a million different things I’m interested in, want to learn, want to do, want to go to, want to see, etc. And the sheer enormity of choices literally paralyzes me and I end up either doing nothing or spreading my time and attention around to too many things and accomplishing nothing at all. SO….
I’ve made a list of the Most Important Things/Projects I want to tackle/accomplish in the next seven momths, and each thing gets a full month of my undivided attention (obviously after life, school, etc). I put them in what I feel is the most efficient order (some things are prerequisites to other things, some things need to happen asap, some things can be put off a bit), and I will devote each month to Its Thing. I think you can really accomplish a lot in a month when you’re not trying to accomplish 17 different things at the same time.
So, my month buckets are:
January: start new social media accounts (TikTok, YouTube, and whatever the NKOTB* is going to be if TikTok does get banned in the US). I have accounts on all those platforms already, but they’ve been used inconsistently and are so diluted with all the interests I’ve had over the years (photography, fashion, plus size lifestyle, Korea), and I want to be more focused and yes, try to make some money there. I may not get all of them done this month…but I’ll get them set-up and start getting in the habit of posting consistently.
February: finish two courses on photography and videography I started months ago…and PRACTICE. Like dedicated, almost every day, PRACTICE.
March: really learn video editing (as much as I can in a month!)
April: learn more about and give creating UGC** a real go (I need to show myself the money!)
May: start learning Japanese (terrifying)
June: personal matters – not really a “new thing,” but I need to sort out loose ends before I leave the comfort and safety of my current temporary home in Korea and get prepared for a lot of traveling ahead.
July: This month will be devoted to preparing to leave Korea in August (exact date YTBD) – oh man, that’s sad to say. But I don’t want to be rushed at the end, and I have stuff to get rid (doesn’t it seem like I JUST got rid of all my stuff??). Part of that preparation is getting to the places in Seoul that I never got to, cuz while I PLAN to be back, you know how the best laid plans yadda yadda yadda.
So that’s that. I feel much more…in control with spreading seven things out over seven months vs trying to tackle all seven things at the same time.
That’s Number One. Number Two is, in the same vein of too much coice, I’ve been creating wheels for EVERYTHING. Like a spinning wheel…and you do the thing the wheel lands on. A co-worker and I used to use The Wheel of Lunch when we couldn’t decide what to have..and then another friend and I used The Wheel of K-drama to decide what drama to watch next…and NOW I have “The Wheel of Places & Things to Do in Seoul,” and I’m working on “Korean Foods to Eat,” because there’s much I still haven’t tried and I don’t want to leave feeling like I missed anything. But, and I know I’m repeating this a lot, but it’s really been an obstacle to me, when there are too many good choices…I end up not being able to choose and wind up doing nothing (#decisionparalysis).
So. I’m keeping it sort of short and sweet…but on like a time-release schedule. I’ll keep you posted how my monthly projects work out!
* Did you guess? NKOTB: New Kid(s) on the Block.
** UGC: User Generated Content
Take a look at my friends’ blogs as well, to see their resolutions!
Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Em at Dust and Doghair
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Leslie at Once Upon a Time Happily Ever After
Sally at Within a World of My Own
Marceline Miller
The monthly goal thing is a GREAT idea! And “the wheel of” is brilliant! I just not have known of your blog whenever you did “the wheel of lunch” 🙂
I love New Year’s, and I like resolutions. I break them, but every year hope springs eternal! hag I’m glad that you don’t scoff at them like so many people do.
bettyewp
Ya gotta love the wheel! It always feels like I’ve won something when i spin it. Yay! I get to watch a 1993 Japanese film! Oh boy! I’m going to the Hanok Village tomorrow! Yippee! I’m going to try live octopus! (I’m not, but it made a dramatic ending, right??)
I know a lot people don’t like New Year’s resolutions. But I kind of think that might be like the whole Valentine’s Day thing, the people who poo poo Valentine’s Day, saying it’s just a made-up commercial holiday and that people should do nice things or make romantic gestures all throughout the year and not save it for one day. But it’s easy to get caught up in life and responsibilities and obligations and exhaustion and forget to do the nice thing or the romantic gesture. So I think it’s nice that there’s one day every year that says HEY! YOU! Have you done anything nice for ____ lately?? it’s just a reminder. Like New Year’s resolutions are a reminder that you can always start again, you can always start fresh, you can always start over, you can always try something new. It’s just easy to forget those things when we’re doing life.
I think we can all use reminders like these.
Happy New Year, Marceline!
Marceline Miller
Of course i meant “haha,” not that I’m admitting to being a hag!!!
Marceline Miller
YES, YES! What you said about Valentine’s Day !! And anyway, St Valentine was a real person!
Iris
WOW, you’ve got a busy year ahead of you. I have trouble with the next week, much less the next year. Good luck with it all.
Iris
bettyewp
Aren’t they all busy?? At first I thought, “yeah, I do have a busy year ahead of me,” but then I realized that last year was busy…and the year before was busy…and the year before that. Probably the last “not so busy/semi-normal” year was 2020! Working from home, few social activities, and the first half I hadn’t even heard of Korea yet (ha, pretty much). I always hope for UN-busy and yet I always myself in busy’s way.
Sally in St Paul
Wow, I really like this Focus Area of the Month idea! A nice way to both plan your time and to not feel as overwhelmed by choices/decisions. The Wheel has some of that same magic. I have actually been putting together an equivalent thing to the Wheel as I am wanting to start exercising more regularly, though because I’m a geek, I am randomizing using a Dungeons & Dragons 20-sided-die to make my selections. (The bonus to that is that rolling a 20 is a critical success, which means a special treat!)
bettyewp
Ooh, 20-sided dice?? Is it huge??
jodie
Too many choices is a thing. We’ve talked about it at the grocery store…you go for olives, but there are tons of choices and it’s overwhelming and crazy.
The wheel thing?? Brilliant and funny.
You sound like my friend MK…she has a list of things for when she retires. I think I’m the opposite as I get addicted to one thing and have trouble doing the other things.
XOXO
Jodie
bettyewp
Now I want olives.
Leslie Clingan
Come link this up with our bucket list posts!! We can cheer each other on. I like the goal or activity-a-month idea, too. I usually do seasonal goals because a month isn’t long enough time for me to procrastinate and then finally get ‘er done. I need 3 months for that.
It does feel like you just got rid of all of your stuff. Waaaaa. Hate for you to go through that again. Bless your heart. But I know you haven’t collected/accumulated that much in Korea because your living space wouldn’t allow it.
Does this mean you will be bouncing around to different places AK (after Korea) and not having one spot to HYH (hang your hat)? That wouldn’t be good for me but YOU are brave and fearless!!
I thought UGG was surely the warm, suede boot. Had no idea about the NTLJFOIDFULKM New Kids on the Block acronym. Guess I am old.
How’s the knee? Learning Japanese? Is that an indication of where you are off to next?
Love that we are family. We are. This great group of former friends – now fam!!
Happy new year!!
bettyewp
Okay, I’ll link up (once I figure out how to do that)!
And the stuff I have to get rid of this time is not interesting or sexy…it’s just stuff I can’t take, but also can’t just put in the trash. Storage cntainers, broom/dustpan, crutches, multiple umbrellas, books/textbooks, notebooks, clothes, etc.
The plan is to bounce around for a bit, yes. But as I keep saying, all future plans are health/finance contingent. Can I really AFFORD to bounce around the world?? Not really. Can I afford to go back to the US? Not really. I’m in No Man’s Land. Which is why I’m trying to learn/attempt some ways to bring in some more income (like UGC, which I’ll explain in the blog on that month).
Oh, and I am NOT fearless! I am fearFULL – FULL of fear…and I don’t think this is going ot be easy, but…I plan to do it anyway cuz there are places I want to go and see and experience.
The knee is…bearable pain/discomfort most days with the occasional “oh crap, I pivoted/turned too fast or tried to move my leg laterally” shooting pain…and sometimes as I’m walking along there’s like a trying to bring me down amount of pain but just for an instant and then it goes back to normal level. I think at this age you just have to accept that there is going to be pain…hopefully it’s not debilitating. And now that I’m back in the far-away building again and walking up and down the long hill every day, I fear it will get worse but I don’t really have an option at this time.
Once I have concrete info on when/where I’ll be next, I’ll let y’all know!
Daenel T.
Love Love love the wheel idea. The hubs and I should use that for nights when we can’t decide to eat because those decisions lead to a lot of angst. It’s hard to believe you’re preparing to leave Korea, it feels like you just got there (I know not to you). You will always be my do the danger thing hero!
bettyewp
Oh, it feels fast to me, too!
Let me know how you make out with The Wheel of Dinner!