My New Year's Resolutions 2018
Goodbye 2017! I spent my last night of the year with my best friends playing a board game before heading to a pub, and drinking in the New Year. So naturally, I have begun the year feeling a little more fragile than usual.
But once my hangover subsided, it was time to turn my focus onto the year ahead of me. Now, call me cliché, call me an unconscious follower of social concepts, call me whatever you like, but it's tradition in Western culture to set Resolutions when the New Year hits. I believe there's no time like the presence so I've actually spent the majority of December working my way through these already, making little changes. After all, there's no point putting too much pressure on yourself on the 1st and two weeks into January you've fallen off the bandwagon back into your Christmas food coma!
I believe resolutions are different to goals. Your goals are long term achievements and your resolutions should be small, but mighty changes you can apply everyday to help work towards your goals. With that in mind, here are a few of my New Years Resolutions 2018!
First up: Break My Technology Addiction
I spend so much of my life scrolling through Instagram and staring at a screen, and I know I am 100% addicted to my phone. And I don't want to be. It's so hard in our culture not to be when everyone around you is addicted to technology too! Anytime I'm waiting on my own or need to kill some time, I'll have a cheeky scroll and it's not healthy. Also, the constant viewing of everyone pretending their lives are perfect on social media has been linked to causing depression, and why wouldn't you be depressed looking at everyone having fun while you're sat scrolling on your own with nothing better to do? But there are better things to do, and 2018 is the year that I'm going to do them.
Read More Books
To have a distraction from my phone, I'm going to try and read more regularly. I used to read all the time when I was younger and I guess that's because I wasn't addicted to my phone so I didn't have anything else to do. And I've started this one already! I've finished three books in the past two weeks. Start as you mean to go on, they say. This also makes me super excited to begin writing Book Review blogs. I have also created an account on GoodReads so I can keep track of what I'm reading, how long it takes me to finish each book and how many books I get through in 2018. At the moment I'm aiming for 20 books, even though my To-Read list is over 80 books long!
Play Piano Again
Last Christmas I was bought a keyboard by my parents in the hope of fulfilling my pipe dream of becoming the next Mozart prodigy. And to give myself some credit, I did learn a few songs and recorded a few covers but my piano skills only went as far as playing chords. So my goal in 2018, when I'm putting my phone down and not in the mood to read a book, I can work my way through a beginners piano book. I stopped when I was 13 and had got up to Grade 3 standard, so there's hope there but my lack of practise over the past 7 years has affected my double-handed playing ability. Even Mozart had to start somewhere, right?
Be My Own Best Friend
In 2017, there were so many artists I wanted to see in concert but didn't get to see because none of my friends knew the artists or liked them as much as I did, so many meet-ups with the fitness Youtubers I follow that I didn't go to because I had no-one to go with and so many places in the world I wanted to visit, but no-one who had the freedom or the dollar to come with me. Don't get me wrong, I did do lots of things with lots of different friends and family but if I want to do something in 2018 and no-one wants to come with me, then I am going to do it for me and myself only. There's such a stigma about eating in a restaurant by yourself and I've done that many times before. I am just not going to let the lack of company stop me from doing anything else that I'd like to do in 2018.
Invest in Self-Care
I didn't want to stereotypically put 'get fit and healthy' as an item on this list. Instead, in 2018 I will be making my self-care a priority. Being healthier this year for me includes maintaining a healthy sleep pattern, a regular morning routine, keeping a healthy and positive mindset and being kinder to myself. But this also stretches to include exfoliating and moisturising my body once a week, incorporating more meditation and yoga into my days, as well as listening to my body when it doesn't need caffeine or when it needs a rest day. Hopefully this focus will put my brain and body in their best shape to make the most of the next year.
There's a lot of pressure at the beginning of January to begin the year the way you mean to go on. But we are lucky that with everyday that passes, we're given a fresh chance to change what we do. So even if you haven't started the year today with how you wanted to, tomorrow is a new day to start again, don't just wait until next year.
I think it'll be fun to check back in a few months to see how I'm getting along with these resolutions. And most of all, as cheesy as it sounds, I am very excited to see what this year brings me. I have lots of plans and ideas for 2018, but only if I can look away from my phone long enough to achieve them.
Have you made any resolutions for the next year? Have any of mine inspired new ones for you? Let me know in the comments below.
Happy New Year!
But once my hangover subsided, it was time to turn my focus onto the year ahead of me. Now, call me cliché, call me an unconscious follower of social concepts, call me whatever you like, but it's tradition in Western culture to set Resolutions when the New Year hits. I believe there's no time like the presence so I've actually spent the majority of December working my way through these already, making little changes. After all, there's no point putting too much pressure on yourself on the 1st and two weeks into January you've fallen off the bandwagon back into your Christmas food coma!
I believe resolutions are different to goals. Your goals are long term achievements and your resolutions should be small, but mighty changes you can apply everyday to help work towards your goals. With that in mind, here are a few of my New Years Resolutions 2018!
First up: Break My Technology Addiction
I spend so much of my life scrolling through Instagram and staring at a screen, and I know I am 100% addicted to my phone. And I don't want to be. It's so hard in our culture not to be when everyone around you is addicted to technology too! Anytime I'm waiting on my own or need to kill some time, I'll have a cheeky scroll and it's not healthy. Also, the constant viewing of everyone pretending their lives are perfect on social media has been linked to causing depression, and why wouldn't you be depressed looking at everyone having fun while you're sat scrolling on your own with nothing better to do? But there are better things to do, and 2018 is the year that I'm going to do them.
Read More Books
To have a distraction from my phone, I'm going to try and read more regularly. I used to read all the time when I was younger and I guess that's because I wasn't addicted to my phone so I didn't have anything else to do. And I've started this one already! I've finished three books in the past two weeks. Start as you mean to go on, they say. This also makes me super excited to begin writing Book Review blogs. I have also created an account on GoodReads so I can keep track of what I'm reading, how long it takes me to finish each book and how many books I get through in 2018. At the moment I'm aiming for 20 books, even though my To-Read list is over 80 books long!
Play Piano Again
Last Christmas I was bought a keyboard by my parents in the hope of fulfilling my pipe dream of becoming the next Mozart prodigy. And to give myself some credit, I did learn a few songs and recorded a few covers but my piano skills only went as far as playing chords. So my goal in 2018, when I'm putting my phone down and not in the mood to read a book, I can work my way through a beginners piano book. I stopped when I was 13 and had got up to Grade 3 standard, so there's hope there but my lack of practise over the past 7 years has affected my double-handed playing ability. Even Mozart had to start somewhere, right?
Be My Own Best Friend
In 2017, there were so many artists I wanted to see in concert but didn't get to see because none of my friends knew the artists or liked them as much as I did, so many meet-ups with the fitness Youtubers I follow that I didn't go to because I had no-one to go with and so many places in the world I wanted to visit, but no-one who had the freedom or the dollar to come with me. Don't get me wrong, I did do lots of things with lots of different friends and family but if I want to do something in 2018 and no-one wants to come with me, then I am going to do it for me and myself only. There's such a stigma about eating in a restaurant by yourself and I've done that many times before. I am just not going to let the lack of company stop me from doing anything else that I'd like to do in 2018.
Invest in Self-Care
I didn't want to stereotypically put 'get fit and healthy' as an item on this list. Instead, in 2018 I will be making my self-care a priority. Being healthier this year for me includes maintaining a healthy sleep pattern, a regular morning routine, keeping a healthy and positive mindset and being kinder to myself. But this also stretches to include exfoliating and moisturising my body once a week, incorporating more meditation and yoga into my days, as well as listening to my body when it doesn't need caffeine or when it needs a rest day. Hopefully this focus will put my brain and body in their best shape to make the most of the next year.
There's a lot of pressure at the beginning of January to begin the year the way you mean to go on. But we are lucky that with everyday that passes, we're given a fresh chance to change what we do. So even if you haven't started the year today with how you wanted to, tomorrow is a new day to start again, don't just wait until next year.
I think it'll be fun to check back in a few months to see how I'm getting along with these resolutions. And most of all, as cheesy as it sounds, I am very excited to see what this year brings me. I have lots of plans and ideas for 2018, but only if I can look away from my phone long enough to achieve them.
Have you made any resolutions for the next year? Have any of mine inspired new ones for you? Let me know in the comments below.
Happy New Year!
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