New tradition - birthday goals.

I believe I'm going to begin taking a leaf from Kenzie's book in setting some kind of a birthday tradition. A bit more serious than choosing a song, though. I know... my birthday was yesterday, so I'm a bit late - but still. A lot of my thoughts lately have been centered around the differences between who I used to be, who I am, and who I someday hope to become. To borrow a line from Relient K, "who I am hates who I've been." And although I'm happy to say that most of that person has faded with time, I can't deny that there are parts of me that are still heavily influenced by the past - including the actions of both myself and others.

Therefore, I feel it's appropriate to choose two areas of my life that need improvement. One to do with how I correspond with others, and one to do with how I deal with myself. I think I'll do this every year, and choose topics that I want to improve on, to help me become the person I want to be.

The area that I've picked for dealing with myself is finances. Obviously, I'm poor as dirt. But the moment a spare bit of cash comes my way, I have a tendency to spend it on whatever suits my fancy. The phrase "money burning a hole in his/her pocket" happens to apply very well to me, unfortunately. I think I rather take after my father in that respect. So, I intend to:
a. Quit carrying cash on me, and put it all in the bank.
b. Pay tithe regularly instead of just when I have extra.
c. Spend money on necessities instead of fun stuff first.

The area that I've picked as pertaining with others is forgiveness. I'm not a particularly unforgiving person. Minor to moderate offenses are easily overlooked. However, there are two areas of my life - which I don't particularly enjoy discussing - about which I am far too bitter. Rather specific, I know, but my goal is to somehow learn to forgive - not forget - those offenses, and maybe somehow in the process, forgive myself for allowing them to happen.

Obviously, these two objectives aren't going to come easily. But that's why I'm giving myself a whole year to work on them. In the meantime, advice would be awesome... I'm kind of leaping off my known world hardcore, here...

Feeling quite deep tonight...
--Anna Grace