Adjectives, not resolutions, for 2013

A few weeks ago I did something that was outside the realm of my personal comfort zone. To most people it would have been as mundane as washing their hair or mowing the lawn, but for me it's something that is intensely unpleasant. I bucked up, did what had to be done, and got on with life. It's better, more often than not, to suffer in the moment, than to prolong an unwanted experience for days or weeks on end and suffer agony on top of the eventual reality of what you know simply must be done. And this got me thinking.

Thinking about bravery, about gumption, about moxie, and confidence, and as the day wore on, as my nerves settled a bit, other words began to flash into my mind, not about myself per se, but about the traits, be they ingrained or donned like a superhero costume when need be that we all have, and those which we aspire to apply more to our own lives.

Nestled into the taupe hued sofa in our living room, I began reflecting back over the past year once again and it struck me just how many times I'd stepped outside of my comfort zone over the last twelve months, and how - more often than not - my life had gotten better in some regard because of it.

Throughout my adult life I've often tried to consciously get better at various things, to improve those that I'm less than stellar at, and to stare fear straight in the eyes until it backs down. This will never change, it's tied to my tenacious nature, but that doesn't mean that I can't keep working and improving myself. Every can, and should, continue to better themselves however possible.

New Year's resolutions can be fantastic little critters indeed, but I've long been of the opinion that one can make a resolution at any point in the year, if they so desire, no need to wait for the ball to drop in Times Square (as I discussed in this post last January), so I'm not really setting any hard and fast resolutions that will kick into effect with the speedometer rolls over once more on January 1st .

There are goals I'm working on already, others that I'll likely kick off later this year, and some that will probably come about throughout 2013 that I'm not even aware of the possibility of yet. No, instead of resolutions for the coming year, I'm making a list of the adjectives that I want to personify, get better at, and work on rocking as often as possible - even when doing so sends a shiver of fear or worry down my spine.

{Image source}

I want to be, or will continue to be brave, confident, creative, beautiful, open (to new experiences and opportunities), thrifty, adventurous, and awesome.

These are my words for the year. Reminders both big and small of who I am, who I want to be, and who I'm developing into as I continue to grow.

The older I get (and at nearly 28.5, believe me, I'm scarcely a spring chicken these days), the more I come to realize that so much of what we think is holding us back, truly isn't. So often it's just a matter of changing our mindset, stepping out of our comfort zone, and being ok with not knowing what tomorrow may bring that launches that greatest changes - the moves and decisions that are more than just resolutions, but full on revolutions in our own lives.

You’ve got to love that. I sure do and I cannot wait to live my adjectives in the exciting year ahead.

My four fun goals for 2012

Resolutions can be a fantastic thing, and while I've certainly set a few in my time, I've never been the sort that felt I needed January 1st to roll around for me to make them. When I look back over my life, some of the biggest and most influential decisions I ever made took place on  completely random days (one, for example, happened in early April a few years back).

Generally speaking, I'm the polar opposite of a procrastinator and I love to be decisive whenever possible - if I want to make a change in my life, I try to do it right then and there. So instead of setting specific resolutions to kick off the new year, I'm more about ongoing goals that I can begin now and fully achieve in 2012.

I know that this year (especially during the first three or four months) will be a massively busy one. There's the cross country move at the end of February, setting up a new house, living near friends and family again (so a busier social life!), career related changes, all manner of exciting unknowns to embrace and tackle as each fresh day arrives.

Knowing this, and not really needing to massively overhaul too much (aside from the move!) right this moment, there's something really empowering and exciting about shifting my attention instead to some things that I want to accomplish this year. None of these self-set challenges is hard, in the grander scheme of things, in the least, which is why I'm calling them my "fun goals" of the year.

It can be all too easy to focus on massive tasks and resolutions we want to get done, and while these can be awesome and thoroughly important, it's wise to not loose sight of some of the little, less stressful, easier to accomplish things we'd like to do in our daily lives, too.

While I'm sure other cool tasks will pop up throughout 2012, with an eager smile on my face, allow me to share my four fun goals for this year with all of you.

1.) Do something about my hair! Uggghhh, I've just about had it up to here (and then some!) with my hair. It's bone straight, ultra fine, and has been thinning since I was 14 (much to the mystery of the many doctors I've consulted about it over the years). I know that - if I'm really lucky - I've got three, maybe four more years until it will have thinned to the point where simply no amount of smoke and mirrors, side parts or updos will hide the fact that I'm gradually loosing all my hair (and I’ll need to wear a wig).

In the meantime though, I need to try and whip it into shape - and pronto! For the moment I'll likely stick with my dark reddish-auburn locks, though I have been toying with going brunette (again - haven't tried that look on since I was in my late teens). Much as I'd love to give into the siren call of golden blonde locks, I know from past experience that lighter shades only seem to highlight the aforementioned thinning hair problem, so I'll likely be sticking be darker hues.

The colour really isn't the issue though, cut is. Right now my hair is too long (given how thin it is) and really has no personality of its own. I've been doing small victory rolls in the front/sides and curling the ends most days, but I feel like I need a hair style that I love, not just like (impossible dream?).

I want one that adapts itself easily to the era that the bulk of the pieces in my wardrobe hail from (mid-40s to late 1950s), isn't too taxing on me from a health standpoint (honestly, I don't have the physical strength most days to spend an hour or more on my hair), and that I won't grow tired of any time soon.

I'm strongly leaning towards getting a shoulder length (or thereabouts) cut with perhaps one or two longer layers, which I'll pin curl or otherwise curl, wear side parted, and add in faux bangs or a roll or two, when desired.

Whatever I decide, I want to get it done before the move, so that I don't have to fret about my hair too much once I'm hanging out with a larger crowd of people again (and also for the sake of another the fourth goal on this list). Looks like I better get myself to the beauty parlour pronto!

 

2.) Keep working towards filling the wardrobe gaps I talked about in my last post. Things are going really well on this front so far. With a hefty dose of elbow grease, I'm unearthing some pretty great bargains online on certain pieces, which is giving me room in my budget to squeeze in those pieces (like vintage repro pants) that bigger ticket items.

This goal is one that's both pressing and ongoing; the key now is to cross off as many the missing items from my list in the next couple of months as possible (so that I won't bore everyone with the same threads day in and day out!) and then add additional new pieces (perhaps like the pretty 1950s summer dresses pictured below) throughout the rest of the year.

3.) Buy more shoes! Ok, I can see you laughing a little. What gal, you're thinking, needs to set this as a goal, but hear me out. As I've mentioned before here, I have a tricky time finding shoes (I'm being too soft on the situation, it's more like I have a brutally, ultra stressfully impossible time finding shoes that even remotely fit).

My feet are a bit uneven sized, but that alone isn't the biggest issue. I have really, really high arches (I soooo should have been a ballerina!) that make my feet feel thick from top to bottom, as such the vast majority of shoes end up being dreadfully painful for me (boots, as a general category, being the one exception - but even there I haven't been able to find a pair of rain boots I could wear since I was about nine years old).

While I'm not leaving the house in bare feet, I'm not exactly giving Imelda Marcos a run for her money either, and I'm in serious need of a few (heck, even a couple) more pair of good, highly versatile day-to-day shoes. A point that is made all the more tricky by the fact that my my nickel and leather allergies mean I need to avoid those materials like the plague (especially nickel!) when shopping for shoes.

I'm determined though, even if (as the case as sometimes been in the past) I have to try on hundreds of pairs to find a few that actually work for me, I will grow the size of my footwear wardrobe in 2012. In a way I think this is the most labour intensive and hardest (so completely relatively speaking!) of my four goals, but at the end of the day, even it still ends up being pretty darn enjoyable.

 

 

4.) Take more pictures of what I wear and post them here on Chronically Vintage. Thanks in no small part to this blog and my endlessly sweet, supportive readers, I'm no where near as shy as I used to be about having my photo taken, and moreover I genuinely want to share some of my vintage outfits with all of you. Therefore once my foot has finished healing up and we've settled into our new home in B.C., I really want to try and make sure I post more "what I wore" photos here (not to mention other snaps of various going-ons in my life).

As such, it's of even greater importance to me that I tackle my hair and wardrobe issues asap! Certainly don't want you gals to see me with straggly hair, worn out shoes, and the same dress every day!!!

{All images via Flickr. Please click on an image to be taken to its respective source.}

 

 

And there we have it, my four fun, relatively easy goals for the start of 2012. I hope to tackle the first one this month, whereas the second and third are already underway. The fourth will happen, all things willing, in two or three months, so I've got that too look forward to as I go about working on the others.

I'm excited about sharing the progress I make in regards to these attainable goals with all of you in the coming months, and would love to hear about the resolutions, dreams, and goals you have in the works (no matter how big or small they may be) for your own life this year.