Ah, the new year. It smells shiny and new and exciting. As each new year begins, an optimism surges through me like adrenaline and I am convinced that the upcoming year will be full of awesomeness and possibilities.

Daniel and I have been coming up with what we want for the upcoming year. One of the first things we looked at was our finances. We reviewed our 2013 spending and saving trends, determined a new savings rate, and set a new amount to be saved by the end of 2014. There are excel spreadsheets and footnotes of assumptions to back-up our savings goal; unfortunately, we don’t have the time to visually map (in, like, a Powerpoint or flow diagram or Gnatt chart) out the plan we created to achieve the goal.

We came up a number of realistic, SMART goals in most aspects of our lives- personal, career, Urban Departures- but they didn’t feel complete. What was the the reason and purpose for setting these goals for ourselves? I pictured myself a year from now. If, all goals accomplished, I’d have saved $X, travelled to X number of countries, and blogged X number of times. That would be pretty awesome but it wouldn’t lead to new breakthroughs.

What Gives?

That is when I realized that I needed to make resolutions in addition to my goals. There is a significant distinction between goals and resolutions. “Increase net worth by $20K” or “Run in a 5KM race” is a goal. It’s specific and can be achieved. There’s a beginning and an end. Once you’ve done it, it’s been accomplished. “Save” or “Be healthy” are generally resolutions. They are this high-level overarching vision that have no start or finish.

Resolutions and goals need to in conjunction with each other. Resolutions give purpose to goals; goals should be defined based on resolutions. Resolutions without goals are vague and kinda like that ditzy girl in highschool: they look good but are without substance and depth. Goals without a resolution are just items on a checklist. However, together there is vision and mission.

The Resolution

After some thought and reflection, Daniel and I agreed that as individuals, a family unit, and Urban Departures, our vision for this year is to live simply.

We live in clutter. Our home is filled to the brim with toys, clothes, kitchen appliances, and old unused electronics. When I stand in my closet, I am overwhelmed by the amount of clothes I have, even with regular seasonal closet purges. 40% of my bookshelf is consists of books I’ve never read or intend on reading; 50% of my kitchen gadgets remain unused since they were purchased or gifted. Let’s not even start on my craft supplies.

Our to-do lists and schedules are similar. There’s work, of course, and the daily mundane tasks of existing, like eating, sleeping, and prepping for eating and sleeping. In between all that, we’ve filled our time running errands, doing chores, and meeting up with people for lunch, dinner, play dates, and coffee dates. Our lives are centered around checking things off our to-do list and when there is a brief moment, we need to rush ourselves to yet another social commitment. While we enjoy spending time with friends and family, sometimes it’s too much and exhausting, and doesn’t leave us a lot of time to explore our passions or use our creativity.

In 2014, we want to free ourselves from the stuff, obligations and preconceived notions that prevents us from realizing amazing possibilities and awesomeness. We want to declutter our lives from “unnecessities” to make more time, energy and money to pursue what we value.

The Goals

To support our resolution, we hope to achieve the following goals:

Financial

• Automate savings and investment accounts
• Save 25% of gross income (including company contributions to RRSPs); max out the 2014 contribution room in our TFSAs
• Learn about dividend investing within 6 months by reading 3 books and assess the practicality of evolving our portfolio.

Blog

• Set posting schedule with 3 posts/week; write 90% of posts at least a week ahead
• Set guest post schedule; guest post quarterly

Personal

• Wake up between 6:30 and 7AM and be in bed by 10:30PM weekdays; do not watch TV in bed past 11PM
• Purge unused items from the wardrobe, kitchen and basement storage locker
• Do 2 family activities (biking and hiking) at least 3 times each during the warmer months
• Take two family vacations, one of which being a cottage week or weekend
• Travel to a country or city (outside of Canada) we’ve never been before

Let’s Get Started

We’ll do our best to see thing through in 2014 and we’ll keep track of what we accomplish right here on this bat channel. Stick around and find out how we do!