Hello!

New Years is a funny time of year for me – I love the idea of leaving a year behind and starting afresh, very ‘new year new me’ kinda thing but also I get very scared by the passing of time and the thought of a year ending and I might not have made the most of it and it’s all very daunting.

So I thought I’d do a very generic New Years Resolutions post because whilst it is very generic, it really helps me focus and I love reading other peoples resolutions posts, both because it’s very inspiring and I’m kinda nosy!

In 2016, my resolutions were to:

• Take more photos for my blog
• Write more travel blog posts
• Make changes to a healthier lifestyle
• Write more creatively
• And use the scrapbook I bought

Some of these were more successful than others – I have used my own pictures for 99% of my blog posts this year, even if they’ve just been iPhone pictures, it’s made me much more thoughtful about what I use pictures of and allotting time to take photos.

I’ve written more travel posts, I’ve definitely failed at getting healthier, I’ve barely written anything creatively and I don’t think I’ve touched my scrapbook except when I was moving into my new flat and that was just to put it in a box.

But I’ve found this year that I don’t want to make such generic resolutions – I’m going to make more of an action plan and then hopefully I’ll feel in a better place to actually do them!

I’ve broken my resolutions down into three categories; personal, creative and university goals.

My personal goals:

• Being healthier (I’ll explain)
• Exercise more
• Focus on dental hygiene
• Be a morning person
• Be more careful with money

Right, I know everyone says they want to be healthier and I know it’s really stereotypical but I’m really going to kick it into gear this year because I hit a weight that made me actually cry – my friends and family have told me I should be happy with my weight and myself because I’m ‘fine’ but I’m not and if I’m not happy with myself then I need to change it.

I intend to do this by getting a couple of books on diet and being healthy to understand more about food groups and what your body needs to be healthier – I don’t know where to start and I want to educate myself because then I feel like I’ll know more about what I need and what to do in terms of what to eat and how to exercise.

And then there’s money – it’s a goal of mine to get out of my overdraft and really start saving some money for travelling next year. I’m thinking about it this way: if I want to travel I need to save for it, so every time I want to buy something I need to think about that purchase directly taking away from my travelling money for a trip to somewhere new. It’s worked so far!

My creative goals:

• Keep learning about photography
• Maintain my blog and YouTube channel
• Make sure to keep trying out new content
• Start writing again
• Find new creative outlets

I consider myself a creative person – I’m so happy with how much I learnt about photography last year and I want to carry that into the new year by continuing to grow, continuing to maintain my blogging and start a schedule for YouTube and by continuing to find new ways to express myself. As long as I actually make sure I’m really regimented with my time management, I have time for all of this.

I know I’ve talked about writing a lot – I did manage to write about 30,000 words of my novel over the summer and I daren’t add up how many words I’ve written in blog posts (with posting five times a week over three blogs?!) but writing used to be something I did every night, sat on my laptop in the corner of my parents’ living room and I want to get back to that. Whether it’s fanfiction, random little creative pieces or finally finishing my book, I need to make writing my hobby again.

One thing I want to work on is being more adaptable – my upload schedule might change a bit as uni gets busier or quieter but I need to work on not beating myself up if I miss a day or if I don’t get that perfect picture or if something isn’t as successful as I planned.

My university goals:

• Stay motivated
• Stay organised
• Keep trying new things
• Keep putting yourself out there
• Work experience

This first semester has been my best academic year so far – I went into this year knowing it counts and knowing I wanted to do well, the only way I can do that is if I put the effort in to get the grades I want and that went pretty well for me in this first semester so I’m intent to maintain that in the new year.

Work experience is something I think every university student is looking for – work experience, work experience, work experience. I always intend to get really good work experience – particularly following work experience at Channel 4 in my first year, so this year I’m going to apply for as much as I can and get some work experience I’m really proud of under my belt because work experience is the kind of thing that stays with you after university.

I know this post is really long but I feel so focused and I’m almost excited for next New Years (despite aforementioned fear of the passing of time) to be able to look back and see if this long ass blog post actually made a difference to whether I did these things!

Thank you for reading, please share your resolutions in the comments!

Sophie xx

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