Ten on Tuesday - New Years Edition

Carol's brilliant idea for today is 10 Intentions for the New Year. I, like many others, have to say that I do love the non-resolution based 2011 theme. I never do resolutions. If I tell myself I can't or shouldn't do something, then I just do it. Because I've set a rule. So, intentions are really what I like. Here are my 10.

1. Write every day. I had over a month of writing every day and I found it so therapeutic. I'm not sure I'll use the 750 tool all the time, because I love writing in paper journals, but I will write every day.

2. My Project Define 365. Where you take a photo each day and post it to Flickr (similar to project 365 except you write something about the photo). The photo shouldn't be "the best photo of the day", but it might be more how you feel, what you see, a snapshot into your life. I place to then use the apple tool to create a book for 2011 that is the small descriptions and photos at the end of 2011.

3. Listen better. I listen when people are talking. But if my mind is somewhere else I don't really remember what they said. I read every email that comes in. But, if my mind is somewhere else I don't really remember what they said. I believe that I've become less of a good listener than I care to be. I will listen better!

4. Project 333. I will not be doing 33 total articles of clothing for 3 months, but my own version. I'm working on minimizing my footprint by minimizing my unneeded items. All of this going back to the concept of living well with what you have instead of better through more. Of course while out shopping yesterday I looked at new pants and shoes and socks and asked myself, "How many bags did you just give to charity? Do you need this stuff?" The answer is no.

5. I want to bike more to work. In 2009 I biked about 1/8 of the year. It was a great workout and I like not driving. 2010 was a hard year to get biking in so I'd like to get more in this year.

6. Buying less food. I know this might seem like a strange thing to work on, but we normally have a stocked pantry. Our fridge and freezer normally have loads of options for things that we can cook at the drop of a hat. This is nice - but leads to buying more and more instead of just using what you have. We will buy less food and do more refrigerator reviews (which I love because we invent dishes based on what we have in the fridge at the time).

7. Practice more yoga. I feel so much better when I'm doing yoga. I don't think I need to do it every day. As a matter of fact I've been trying to do it every day for the past year and you can see on the side of the blog how that is going. But, I need to get in more practices. Home practice is great but since I stopped leading I don't have the schedule I would like. So, I'm going to sign up for a class or two.

8. Giving more. I don't mean money or things, but time, ideas and presence. I think that just being present even when typing an email makes a big difference. Giving a bit more of who you are to the people around you can impact them and you.

9. I want to redesign the backyard to be more chicken friendly. This includes reading up on what is chicken friendly, designing it, and then putting it into place. I know that if I just wait Mike will come up with all kinds of ideas - but I want to do it. I want to figure it out and follow through.

10. Eat less processed food. This past year I read ingredients labels more. Do you know that even "organic" good for you bread has like 10 ingredients in it? When I make bread at home it has really 5 ingredients. What the hell are they putting into everything? This year we will strive to eat things that have 8 or few ingredients. And if there are things that aren't even real foods - I'm not putting it into my mouth.

What are your thoughts for 2011? Changing anything? Working on anything??