If you’re reading this, well done! You’ve made it to 2014 🙂
I would have posted this earlier but I was on Christmas Holiday with no access to the Internet for TWO WHOLE WEEKS!!! Now I’m at Schipol Airport trying to make up for it, thankful that the plane landed safely after a journey of slight turbulence. I don’t have a phobia of flying but the lightning I saw from the little window was not inspiring peaceful thoughts.
So, it’s the third day of the New Year and by now most of you will have at least thought of, if not decided on, your New Year Resolutions!
Now I know many of you will be groaning by now. Why bother with something you’re just going to epically fail at? Well, the reason for having these resolutions is to have a goal to aspire to– something that will motivate you so by the end of the year you can pat yourself on the back and say “This was a great year.”
Here are a few guides on making New Year Resolutions:
- Make them achievable. There’s no point in reaching for the moon if you know you will just crash back down to earth. Don’t make your goals so far fetched that you freak out about achieving them. Having said that, it’s always good to challenge yourself, but only you know your limits.
- Have a plan. If one of your resolutions is “To Get Fit”, don’t just leave it at that. Define it! Have a weight goal in mind, or some sort of race you want to achieve. Maybe set yourself monthly goals so you know that you’re keeping track. In the case of all thing books, you may have a quota of books you want to read. My goal last year was 40 and I failed. Why? Because I didn’t have a good average of books read per month. Becuase I let the stress of exams and getting into university overtake me, and because in the end the goal of getting into university was more important thatn reading 40 books in 2013. And that’s fine. This leads on to my next pointer.
- It’s OK to fail. Take for instance NaNoWriMo. The goal is to write 50k in a month. A number of people reach that goal whilst some even exceed it. And then there are those that float by the wayside with far less than they had hoped to write. But the idea is, if you’ve gotten more on your manuscript than you had before you started NaNo, you’re still a winner in your own right. That may sound corny, but it’s true. Don’t let yourself be bogged down with what you were not able to accomplish, and don’t let the fear of failure stop you from at least trying.
So what are my goals? Oh, I have a few…
- Pass my 1st year at university. Ideally I’d want a First but I could live with a 2:1.
- Get Fit. I’ll should be getting a personal trainer for a 10/12 week scheme at my university gym thanks to the NHS due to my RSI, and after that I’ll probably join the gym full time. Right now I can’t say for sure what I hope to accomplish but running around without getting dizzy and so easily winded will be a good start. I also want to continue Kickboxing and get into sparring.
- Finish writing a novel. I’ve been writing one particular novel for maybe 3 or 4 years now and I’d really like to be done with it.But as a contingency plan in the event I don’t finish it, I’d like to add at least an extra 30,000 words to it.
- Read 30 books this year. I’m hoping this is a realistic goal. We shall see.
- Blog regularly. Considering how busy uni life will be, I will try to post at least twice at the month and at most, once a week. Wish me luck.
- GET A JOB! Need I say more?
I don’t know about all of you lot, but I can definitely say that this is my Year of Greatness.