2017 was a wild year for me. I quit my full-time job as a retail manager at Victoria’s Secret to pursue my blogging dreams full time. I attended my first New York Fashion Week. I got over a bad breakup. I hired a business coach. I made so many huge, scary and exhilarating changes and my life looks nothing like it did a year ago. Just like with any year, there were highs and lows. But despite some not so great moments 2017 was a year of tremendous growth for me. It was by far, my most transformative year and one that challenged me a lot. I wouldn’t change a single thing.
If you know me you know that I’m all about goals and strategy so it should come as no surprise that I love writing out New Year resolutions. Now keeping them on the other hand, is not necessarily my strong suit.
I certainly have the best of intentions and there are always a handful of resolutions I manage to stick to. But one thing I’ve learned over the years is that the more realistic you can be the better. So that’s what I tried to keep in mind this year.
If you also struggle with sticking to your resolutions you can check out my tips for staying strong and keeping them all year here.
And without further ado, here are my 2018 New Year’s Resolutions:
#1: TAKE BETTER CARE OF MY BODY
This past holiday season was a doozy for me in terms of my eating habits. All thoughts of vegetable and exercise went out the window and I did a lot of overeating. Hey man, I have a family of amazing cooks, it’s not my fault.
I really want to focus more on creating a healthier lifestyle and not being so hard on myself. I want this to be about my mental and physical well being and less about being thinner. I have been feeling pretty sluggish and lethargic since I stopped working out and starting loading up on the carbs so overall I’d just like to feel better.
I’m committing to at least 30 minutes of exercise 5 days a week and sticking to a mostly vegetarian diet Mon-Fri. I’ll be documenting this and creating a post about my attempt at a healthy lifestyle for you on the blog so stay tuned!
#2: MEDITATE DAILY
Meditation was one awesome thing that came out of 2017 for me. I got really into practicing self-care and having a relaxing morning routine and began incorporating meditation into my day.
I use a guided meditation app called Simple Habit (it’s amazing and I’m obsessed) and find myself feeling so centered and relaxed after I meditate. I’m pretty squirmy so I usually only meditate for 5-10 minutes but even with that short amount of time, I feel refreshed and ready for the day.
I also have made it a habit to practice gratitude daily. I write down ten things I’m grateful for in my journal every day and it never fails to put me in an amazing mood. If you struggle with negativity and feeling like you don’t have enough of anything (time, money, energy, etc.) then practicing gratitude daily might be the perfect resolution for you.
#3: STAY IN AN ABUNDANCE MINDSET
This definitely goes along with practicing gratitude because when you’re feeling grateful for all that you have instead of wallowing in what you lack the world around you becomes a much brighter place. It just feels better to be positive and appreciative.
I know it can be really difficult to find ways to stay optimistic all the time, especially on our worst days. But hey, if you’re reading this blog post then clearly you have a phone or laptop, and most likely have eaten today and also have a place to sleep. Show gratitude for even the simplest things and feel abundant every day no matter what your surroundings are telling you. You’ll notice that you’re in a much better mood every day.
#4: TRAVEL TO GREECE
One of my biggest goals in life is to travel the world. I know that sounds so cheesy and lame but it’s true. I am so not well traveled and have never even been out of the US. Not even to Mexico ya’ll, and I live in California.
For the most part, I’ve always supported myself so when I was working at Victoria’s Secret my job was my number one priority. I didn’t want to ask for extended periods of time off because I wanted to have the opportunity to grow with the company. With each promotion came a lot more responsibility which meant time off was hard to come by. I’ve always been so envious of my cousins and my friends who talk about their travels and I want 2018 to be my year.
Greece has always been number one on my list for traveling, mostly become of The Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants but also because it looks stunning. I’m going to Greece this summer even if it means I have to go alone.
#5: TRACK MY FINANCES MORE RESPONSIBLY
When I quit my day job and started blogging full time and running my small business I wasn’t totally clueless. I had done a lot of research and knew that I needed to keep a record of everything for tax purposes and also just because it’s a business. Duh.
However, I definitely wasn’t keeping up with my finances as regularly as I should have been and while I still have a record of everything for my tax guy, it’s not necessarily the most organized system.
One of my goals for 2018 is to be hyper-organized when it comes to my personal and professional finances so I can take the stress out it. Money doesn’t have to be a stressful, miserable thing. You just have to get organized, create a budget and track everything daily. I’m going to do a weekly finances review every Monday to stay on track.
#6: MAKE MY BLOG MY TOP PRIORITY
Well, besides my loved ones and pasta of course (kidding…kind of).
When I started my coaching business I really wanted to dive in completely and while I don’t necessarily think there was anything wrong with that I did notice over time that my blog was suffering. I wasn’t engaging on social media as much, I was only posting 1-3 times a week and mostly I just wasn’t feeling like myself.
Writing is something that completely fills me up and makes me feel like my best self. It’s therapeutic for me and if I don’t have time to do it I start to feel pretty lousy.
I am committing to putting my blog first this year and am being very bold and set a goal to post 5 days a week. I want to produce quality, interesting and useful content more often for you all. Expect to see way more of me than you maybe ever wanted.
#7: DON’T WASTE TIME ON GUYS WHO PUT IN ZERO EFFORT
In 2016 I wasted a whole entire year of my short and precious life on a guy who never tried to see me, would go days and days without talking to me and admitted that when his co-workers asked him if he had a girlfriend he said no, even though we had clarified that we were in a relationship months prior.
Basically, he sucked. But I sucked more because I put up with it for a year because I liked him so much and really thought if I hung in there he’d finally wake up and realize he was being an idiot. Trust me, I’m surprised I even have any friends left after making them endure my never-ending complaints for a year.
After we broke up I did a lot of self-reflection and realized I had a serious pattern of putting in way too much effort for next to nothing in return. I was being so accommodating and pushing my own needs and desires aside in hopes that these guys would do the same. It was an unhealthy habit and one that I worked on breaking in 2017.
Related: The Resilient Girl’s Guide To Getting Over Break-Ups
I definitely had a lot of awesome breakthroughs in the past year but in 2018 I am feeling so much more confident and sure of myself. This year is about me, my blog and building my empire. I am not rearranging my entire life to accommodate a guy ever again and I only have time for those who can match my effort. If they can’t, then I really don’t feel shy about saying goodbye and moving onto the next. I simply don’t have time to play games anymore. Insert hair flip.
Related: The Single Girl’s Guide to Online Dating
#8: HIRE AN ASSISTANT
As of right now, I am a one-woman show and while it’s certainly manageable at this point I know that as my business grows I’m going to need some help.
There is so much more to blogging than just taking pretty pictures and typing up a funny post. There are endless little tasks that are necessary for a blog’s growth that eat up time every day when I could be using that time for content creation.
Along with running my blog I also run The Productive Blogger consulting business that also comes with a million not so fun but never the less necessary tedious tasks. I would love to free up some of my time by hiring an amazing assistant who can help me take care of those admin tasks so I can focus on producing more fabulous content for you all.
#9: MAKE SELF-CARE A PRIORITY
The thing about becoming your own boss is that initially, you’ll have this vision of yourself working a few hours a week in between pedicures and grabbing lunch with your girlfriends. Once you actually do it though you quickly realize that being an entrepreneur is literally a full-time job. It’s up to you to manage your time and make self-care a priority.
I realized recently that I couldn’t remember a day since I quit my day job when I didn’t work at all. I may have only worked for an hour in the morning, or maybe just engaged on social media for a little bit throughout the day, but I was still working. I was getting burnt out really easily and I knew I had to change up my priorities if I was going to maintain my sanity.
I started taking bubble baths, listening to podcasts, making more time for my morning routine, etc. In 2018 I want self-care to be a part of my daily routine. This means I’ll be unplugging at night and snuggling up with a good book or giving myself extra time to enjoy my coffee in the morning. I’ll treat myself to a massage and facial here and there and I won’t feel guilty about it at all. Because the happier I feel the higher the quality of my work becomes.
#10: TREAT OTHERS WITH MORE KINDNESS AND UNDERSTANDING
Okay, you’re probably thinking this means I’ve been a total asshole all of 2017. But that’s not entirely true.
If any of you have worked in retail for an extended period of time then you’ll be familiar with the toll it can take on your mental well being. As a store manager, I dealt with all of the bs. Angry, aggressive customers (because coupons expiring are somehow my fault), people robbing my store weekly (I’m talking thousands of dollars at a time) and 18-year-old associates who have no concept of punctuality. When things went wrong, I was to blame whether it was actually my fault or not because I was in charge. If someone didn’t show up and there was no one available to cover a shift, I stayed. While there were tons of really rewarding and fun aspects of my job, after 6 years it had made me into such an irritable ball of stress it was hard not to resent it.
After I quit VS it was shocking how dramatically different I felt. It was like the weight of the world had been taken off of my shoulders and I could finally breathe. I stopped feeling so negative and grumpy because I wasn’t obsessively worrying about my store 24/7.
After looking back and reflecting on my time there I realized that I had turned into someone I didn’t even like. I was always on edge, defensive and frustrated. I didn’t want to feel like that anymore. I wanted to enjoy being around people and feel at ease.
This shift in my mindset has inspired me to make it a commitment to take more deep breaths, show more empathy and to lead with kindness. It just feels so much better.
#11: LET GO OF NEGATIVITY & FEAR
This is a big one. I’m in general a pretty positive person (hello, she smiles all day?) but I can have my moments where I get so wrapped up in the “what ifs” that I allow fear to take over me. This leads to me feeling super negative, scared and just lost.
Something that I like to do in these moments is to remind myself that this scary story I’m telling myself is just that. A story. Something that I have control over and something I can change whenever I want. I think “what’s really the worst case scenario here? Will I die? Will I be homeless?” and the answer is always way less terrifying than the vision I’ve created in my head.
Once I’ve looked at my fear head on, I can replace that story with a new one. One that’s rooted in reality and that is brave and optimistic. I let go of the negativity and I embrace a better story.
In 2018 I’m making a commitment to not dwell on the things that are going wrong or that could go wrong. I’m going to focus on the things that excite me, thrill me and make me feel alive.
What are your New Year’s Resolutions? Tell me in the comments below!
Xoxo,
She
