Three years ago, I wrote a blog about my personal tradition — instead of making New Year’s resolutions, I wait nine days to reflect and then I make birthday resolutions. I got a lot of great feedback, so I’m doing it again this year. Brace yourselves for the triumphant return of the birthday resolutions!

Seeing as this is my 25th trip around the sun, it also felt like an appropriate time for a quarterlife crisis. You know, the kind of crisis where you realize that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein when she was only 17 years old. To help calm these old, old nerves, this year’s resolutions serve two purposes — to guide this year and to also reflect how far I’ve come as a human being in progress.

Without further ado, my top three resolutions for the year 2015:

1. Get Married

I asked Stephanie to marry me this past summer and our wedding date is fast approaching. As we nail down the details (What kind of cake are we serving? What color ties will the groomsmen wear? What sized dance floor will fit on the pickleball court? What is pickleball???), I resolve to enjoy the process of being engaged. I want to soak in the stress and also the moments where we lay the foundations of the rest of our lives. We have years and years ahead of us to be married; we only get to be engaged once.

2. Build Up Creative Momentum

My life has been radically changed these last six months. With a new job, a new house and a whole new laundry list of things I have to do. Often, that pushes my creative projects off to the side. I don’t want to lose sight of writing, filmmaking and photography. They are part of who I am. After getting my first short story published in 2014, I want to keep up that momentum into this new year. Short stories, novellas, short films, maybe even a novel manuscript. We’ll see where this path takes me.

3. Be the Snail

Everything is happening so fast all around me. It seems like just yesterday I was I writing the first script for Obscure Studios, my film company, but in reality 10 years have gone by. I’m 25 now and it feels like time is moving faster and faster. I don’t want to waste any of that time. I want to savor it — the good times and the bad. I don’t want to live my whole life as a cheetah. I’d prefer to be the snail. I’m in no hurry to get anywhere (but I am going somewhere). My style is slow and steady.

What are your resolutions for the coming year? I’d love to hear them in the comments. Thanks for reading!

— 30 —

Jonny Eberle is a writer and super old person in Tacoma, WA. When he’s not busy balancing his work, home, and creative lives, you can usually find him renting a car or getting cheaper auto insurance. He also likes Twitter.