I’m too much of a pessimist and procrastinator to set resolutions. Like many, I don’t make them because I know I don’t stick to them but for the last few years I’ve been coming up with themes for the year. It’s something I started after attending a Joy Workshop for work.

In 2014 my theme was: living a life of joyful purpose. I stuck with it. We got married, I left a job I was unhappy at and I followed my heart to the Bay Area to be closer to family.

In 2015 my theme was: just do it. My procrastination and head often get in my way so I decided to focus more on not overthinking things and just do it. In that theme, I got a new job and we finally were able to build a life in the Bay Area.

In 2016 my theme was: happy, healthy. I think I focused more on the happy than healthy but overall I stuck with self care and doing what felt good for me.

This year, my theme is  intentional living. In the daily hustle, I often get caught up with work and the world that I don’t always remember to focus on what is most important to me. I have a wide range of interests and rather than enjoy them, I get overwhelmed and put them off for another day. I’d like that to stop. I know how short life can be and I want to get a lot out of my short life and I want to make a real impact in the world and with the people in my life.

Some of the main values I want to be at the forefront are family, health, my community, religion and my culture.

1. Family – I love spending time with my family, I plan to keep that up but also I’m hoping to start one of my own. I’d like to get pregnant but if that doesn’t happen I’ve always wanted to adopt, so seriously considering that in the next few years if I can’t have a child myself.
2. Health – Not just the weight on the scale but nourishing my body with the right foods, drinking enough water, getting enough sleep, keeping my mind right with learning and releasing the negative energy.
3. My community – education, politics, poverty, equality, race issues those are all things that are important to me and rather than listen to other people make a difference this year I want to do more locally and in my community to contribute and make real change. With the incoming President and Congress, it has me real nervous but I’m not going to be paralyzed by that. I’m going to act.
4. Religion – every year I want to work on this area. In 2016, I started attending a great connect group as part of the new Hillsong SF church. The church isn’t even formed yet but the connect groups are starting to build the community and I really enjoy going. In addition to connect group, I need to go to church more, read my Bible and pray more.
5. Culture – I’m Filipino and Mexican but more so I’m American. I took Spanish in school but retained nothing so I want to learn to speak my native tongues and I want to visit both countries.

I’m excited to be more intentional this year and I hope I can stick to those areas and really grow this year. I’m exciting for the road ahead. If you’re interested at all in being more intentional, this is a good place to start: The Helpful Guide to Living an Intentional Life.