Good Vibes, Good Year

I don’t know about you guys, but I am totally one of those people that when the New Year starts approaching, I make all kinds of resolutions. And then by the end of January I’ve done none of them and end up feeling like complete crap. This year I made the decision to ditch the resolutions, and instead focus on what’s really important, and what will honestly make me happy. (This post is heavily influenced by the article on Rookie, so I suggest you go read that some time, too.)

The more I thought about resolutions for this year the more I started to feel overwhelmed. I kept thinking of all the things that I needed to make better, the things that needed to change in order for me to be happy. I needed to be happy with my grades, my body, blog, friends, etc., and it started to give me more anxiety the more I thought about it. And once I started reading posts on Tumblr about resolutions, and then the Rookie post, it sort of clicked with me; I don’t need to make resolutions, I need to make realities. And if that makes absolutely no sense, hold on. I’ll try to explain my thought process haha

When I think resolutions, it’s these things you do because you think there’s something that needs to be changed in order to make you a better person. You go to the gym to lose weight because that’ll make you happier. You (try to) start a diary because you think it’ll help you learn about yourself or it’ll help you sort things out. But when you try to start doing these things, go to the gym, buy a brand spanking new diary, after a week it feels like a chore. And I should know, I’ve been there before. The resolutions sit at the back of your head, nagging that you haven’t done what you said you’d do, and you start to feel guilty. But once that guilt sets in things get worse, because then you really don’t feel like doing things. It just becomes easier to sit back and say “I’ll do it next year”, “I can always start again later in the year”, “It wasn’t that important anyway”, and you never ever do the things you told yourself you’d do starting January 1^st.

And I think that’s totally okay. I mean, if you feel like you’re not good enough and doing these things is suddenly going to make you better, smarter, healthier, or happier, nothing is going to get done. Because nothing is wrong with you in the first place. There’s nothing so bad about you that you have to make a pact with the New Year to change it. And that’s where realities come in!

When I think “make realities not resolutions”, it’s about getting things done, but on your time and how you say. You can still go to the gym and lose weight, but not because it’s going to make you ‘a new you’, but because you want to honestly go and start working out. You can write in a diary but when you honestly have something you want to get out, not because you feel pressured to write every day. And it’s ourselves that put on that pressure, so by changing “resolutions” to “realities”, at least from my perspective, things become more genuine. You do things when you have time and when you feel like you can give it your all.

The biggest things I want to do this year is to get better grades and do my work, and the thing is, I say that every single year. It’s nothing new, but this year I have a plan of attack. I asked one of my best friends if she’s stay after school three days out of a school-week to do homework with me and study (and she said yes). I know that I need to stop procrastinating, but now I know how to go about it. I know that by giving myself positive motivation instead of “if you don’t get this done on time you’re a complete failure” I’ll be able to actually get things done. For me it’s about accepting that things take time and that I need to find what works and not expect that by berating myself, things will get done.

Reality is accepting the situation and knowing you can change it, not because you have to, but because you want to.

I hope this post has made some lick of sense, I might hate it in a week and rewrite it, but I hope that maybe I’ve helped in the smallest of ways to make the start of a new year a little easier. Don’t hate on yourself! Make 2014 the “year of action”! Get out there and change things, but on your terms.

I hope the start of 2014 has been a good one, and tell me; what were your resolutions for this year? Are you going to change them? ;) Also, how were your holidays?! Tell me your favorite gift!

Lots of love~ Amanda