Several months ago, one of my friend's mothers passed away. I didn't even know she had been sick. It doesn't matter that the illness came on suddenly and everything happened very quickly, I feel like if I were better at keeping up with my friends, I would have known.

With that being said, I know I'm horrible at keeping up with people. A week can pass before I realize I haven't talked to my mom, via phone call, text or even Facebook. It's not that I don't care or want to know what's going on in the lives of the people I care about; I just get really focused on work and then go home and want nothing more than to take a bubble bath, eat and go to bed.

So I'm challenging myself to do a better job at being a good friend. I know that true friends don't have to see or talk to each other every day for their friendships to last, but I'm making a commitment to text or call my 3 closest friends at least once a week. For friends that I've made through work who've now moved away, I'm challenging myself to communicate with them in some way at least once a month. For close family, like my parents and brother, every other day.