Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great holiday season, I know I definitely did! Now I'm back on that work grind and I realized that coming up on the 6 month mark at my job... seriously, where has the time gone?
A new year is the perfect time to start a new chapter, and 2016 was definitely a year of change for me. I graduated from college, started my first official job and moved back home. I experienced many (and I mean many) very high highs and very low lows this past year, but looking back on those moments, I've realized that I had to go through all of that to get to where I am right now - and I'm pretty darn happy with the way my life is going.
If 2016 was the year of change, 2017 is going to be the year of happiness. I'm settled into my work situation now, so I want to change focus on figuring out what makes me happy outside of work. I'm creating my own life - my adult life, as some might say - and I'm living each day the way I want to. I don't live by anyone else's schedule but my own now, so I need to figure out what it is I want to do to live life to the absolute fullest. I've grown so much over the last 6 months and I want a life that reflects who I am and who I want to be.
Since now is the time to start making resolutions for the upcoming year, I thought I would share mine with you all. I am so excited to see what this year has in store for me, and I'm hoping by working towards (and hopefully achieving) these goals, I can take my future into my own hands and create a life for myself that I love.
1. Work Out 3 Times A Week
I am the worst at exercising. I don't enjoy it and I would much rather sit and do nothing, but I know that in order to live a healthy life I need to change that. I could say "Sarah, you're going to work out every day", but I know I would never be able to stick to that. So I'm starting at 3 times a week.
2. Drink More Water
I've been pretty good about this, but I've fallen off track since December since I was drinking all that hot chocolate. I'm going to get back on it and have a water bottle at work and at home to help me keep track of how much I'm drinking. I do notice major skin and digestive improvements when I'm drinking a lot of water versus when I'm not.
3. Devote More Time To Creating
This is new for me. I have always been very creative, but I've lacked the confidence in myself to persue anything. I can't really draw or paint or anything like that, but I always have this urge to create something so I'm going to tap into that somehow. I just have to figure out what.
4. Social Media Detox
I've been thinking about this one a lot. Lately, I've realized I spend so much time on social media and it is driving me crazy. There are times where I'm scrolling through my feed and I get angry, frustrated or annoyed by what people are saying (Facebook is the worst offender) and I just need a break from it all, but I don't do anything about it because I don't want to miss what's going on in the world. I think for my own sanity though, I have to just have days where I'm off social media completely.
5. Read More BooksI love reading, but when you're in school you have very little down time to read what you want. I've recently gotten back into the habit of reading regularly. I'm not someone who usually finishes a book within a few days, but I'm hoping that by dedicating more time to reading, I will be.
6. Look On The Bright Side
I want to work on becoming a more positive person. I wouldn't say I'm a pessimist or an optimist, I'm definitely somewhere in the middle, but I can seem very unemotional (think: Kourtney Kardashian) and I want to change that about myself. I want to look more on the bright side and see the good things in life and get excited about everyday things that happen. I think this will generally help me be happy more often and put me in a good mood. It'll be useful when I'm having a bad day and need to be reminded that everything happens for a reason and that getting caught up in the little things is just a waste of time.
7. Dedicate More Time To Friends
If you go back to my post about being an introvert at work, you'll see that I struggle with finding the right balance of time to myself and time with friends. I tend to err on time to myself and I know that I need to start cultivating more meaningful friendships, especially with the friends I've made at work.
8. Change Up My Style
I do this every couple of years, and I think it kind of goes back to my itch to create things. I constantly want to reinvent myself, but in the past I always just jumped into it, I didn't take time to reflect on what I really wanted. This resulted in a lot of money wasted and a lot of bad purchase decisions. I've learned my lesson though, and I'm ready to find a wardrobe that's a bit more young adult chic and less college kid comfortable.
9. Declutter
I have so much stuff in my room that I am constantly overwhelmed by it all. Like, I still have things from when I was in High School, not okay. I need to spend some serious time going through my desk and closet and getting rid of everything that is totally unnecessary or no longer fits my aesthetic. Get rid of the old to make room for the new, right?
10. Travel More
I want adventure in the great wide somewhere, I want it more than I can tell! Ok, sorry for that little Beauty and the Beast reference, but I had to! Anyway, I love to travel and I have always talked about going to new places and seeing the world, and now I've come to the point where I have to ability to actually act on it. Like I said, I'm living on my own schedule now, so if I am able to go somewhere I want to go - I'm going to go! I already have one trip planned for February (to Disney World, of course!), but my cousin and I have been talking about going to Iceland of Greece for the past few weeks, so maybe that will happen in the near future!
I'm embarking on this incredible new adventure that adults apparently call "Real Life". It's so exciting but incredibly daunting at the same time because my life is totally different now than how it has been the last 22 years. Post-grad life is great, but it's no joke, guys. It can get overwhelming and stressful, but that's why having a healthy and happy life is so important to me right now. You need to have something to look forward to and be happy about when you're having those down on your luck days that are just inevitable. I feel like my life is finally beginning and I'm so ready for it.
