My New Year's Resolutions

"By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be." -Mark Victor Hansen

Happy New Year! For the first day of 2018, I took the time to lay out a few personal goals and aspirations for the year ahead. When I was younger I used to think of goals and dreams as only tangible things like a job, a husband or a house, but I've come to realize that they can also deal with the intangibles like the person I want to become. As I look at my 10 New Year's resolutions, I can see that I'm shaping this year up to be one of personal growth, and hopefully by sharing these with y'all too I can hold myself more accountable! 

1. Complain Less

It's so easy to exaggerate and complain about the little difficulties in life when everyone else around me is doing it. This year I want to focus on thinking before I speak and seeking the joy in everything. Positivity is something I am always striving for, and this is a smaller, attainable goal I can hold for myself this year as I continue to work toward the ray of sunshine I want to be!  

2. Be More Personal on My Blog 

Two of my most popular blog posts of all time are the two where I was completely raw and open with y'all. You can read them HERE and HERE if you like. In 2018 I want to push myself to write at least one post a month from the heart. 

3. Practice Patience 

Patience is a virtue and a virtue I seriously lack. In 2017 I focused on learning how to wait and accept God's timing in my life, but this year I want to be more cognizant about practicing patience toward those around me, especially my family. 

4. Grow My Blog

While I had several amazing opportunities this past year, I also feel like I have hit a major plateau. This year I really want to prioritize blogging and see where hard work, time management and passion can take me. The first step toward this for me is sticking to the content schedule I create and treating the deadlines I set for myself seriously.  

5. Live in the Moment

While I love documenting and writing about everything I do, this is something that I feel like blogging has made very difficult for me. I constantly feel like I'm living behind a camera, and this is even more frustrating for me when I'm on vacation. I think working on planning ahead will allow me to decompress and flip the switch off from blogging when I want to spend quality time with those around me!

6. Learn to Make Decisions

There is nothing I dread more than making a decision haha! While I made slight improvements on this in 2017, I need to stop using "I don't care" as a response. Even if it's just deciding where to eat, I want to challenge myself to express my opinion the first time I'm asked.

7. Make Time For What I Enjoy

Life is busy, and it always will be. But that doesn't mean I should have to give up the things I really enjoy. By exercising better time management, I want create time to spend reading and watching movies rather than procrastinating and wasting time scrolling through social media. 

8. Establish a Healthy Sleep Schedule 

I know college is a hard time to do this, but for the sake of productivity, this is something that is going to be essential to accomplish everything in I want to in 2018. My wake-up time is going to be dramatically earlier this year for class, so I want to counteract that by going to bed earlier each night, no matter how "uncool" it is. 

9. Continue Pushing Myself Out of My Comfort Zone

Whether that's by continuing to attend local events, vlogging or something totally new, I want to continue nixing fear from my life in 2018.

10. Embrace Joy

I feel like a totally different person when I'm home with my family, and it's for the better. Around them I find myself singing, dancing and laughing at myself for no reason. Rather than keep it bottled up inside, I want to challenge myself to embrace my happiness no matter where I am throughout 2018! 

I know none of these goals can be achieved over night, but hopefully, through baby steps, I will be able to see progress in all 10 of these facets by the end of the year!

"Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer to your goal." -Elbert Hubbard