Hello everyone! I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday break filled with oodles of love and joy! During the last few days of 2017, I felt I was really able to reflect on my growth in 2017 in addition to what I wanted to see from myself in this upcoming year. 2017 was a whirlwind and I REALLY felt like I learned a lot about myself and grew so much as a person. While I still try to improve in certain aspects each and everyday, I have grown to be happy with who I am and love myself unapologetically, which has taken me 17 years to do LOL!! ❤ I learned that change does not happen over night and time heals anything and everything. I have become incredibly close with my best friends and have made so many new ones along the way who I cherish each and everyday. I have been in the presence of some really really empowering teachers and coaches who have played a huge role in inspiring me and being a source of such wisdom and knowledge about the world I would not have gained other wise. All of these things have taken an entire year to figure out, and honestly I could not be more humbled that I was able to come to terms with all my new found insight on life. I could literally go on and on about what I have learned, but looking beyond this and into the future, I cannot even imagine all of the new things I will learn, places I will travel to, people I will meet, and who I become. I am so excited to make new goals and really try to stay motivated to achieve them, and I really hope my goals can inspire you too!
1.) Become more comfortable wearing less makeup. I am very familiar with the phrase “less is more”, but it really started to bug me that I could not leave the house without wearing makeup and that if I did go out with a bare face, that I would feel naked and super self conscious. This year, I want to slowly transition into wearing the most minimal makeup and embrace my natural skin and face.
2.) Cook more. You will see that this is topic of food is a common theme because while I am a natural born foodie at heart, I am actually a really picky eater and cook very very rarely. I actually really appreciate masterful cooking and the pairing of foods, but I believe that I will value meals that much more if I go through the process of cooking and gain knowledge about different foods. Not only will it help me later in life, but I can spend the time doing it with friends and family, which is another huge plus 🙂
3.) Keep up my one second a day app. This is a funny one but I had a good friend who did this last year and it is such a meaningful way to capture your year in a glance. You basically take a second long video everyday and then at the end of the year, you have a video jam packed with little snips of each day to look back on. Along with this I want to take more pictures candidly.
4.) Read more and learn to love to learn. I have always loved to read but I find that I don’t necessarily prioritize that time for myself and end up resenting myself for it. Being smart and in touch with the news and the world around you is such an attractive trait and am really trying to stay curious and acquire knowledge as often as I can. I have a bad habit of dreading doing school, but I had an epiphany and realized that if you look it as an opportunity to become more wise, it will come MUCH more naturally 😉
5.) Spend my time more wisely. I tend to look at my phone or watch youtube videos when I could be using that precious time to be more productive or to go out and experience life. When I mean spend my time more wisely, that doesn’t necessarily mean working my booty off, but just maybe instead of scrolling mindlessly through instagram, I can go look at the sunset or grab a coffee with a friend or read a book or cook (lol)
6.) Stay consistent with a personal trainer/exercise. Exercise has become an outlet for me over the years when I become stressed, I go for a run or go to spin class. This year, I am really interested in having a physical trainer to guide me through exercises that benefit me individually. After a while, I can stop using the trainer and do the moves myself, but just scheduling sessions to work out 2-3 times a week makes me so excited and motivates me that much more to be active. Plus, when I am fit and in shape, my body just feels so great and I have so much more energy.
7.) Revamp my blog and post A TON. You guys don’t even know how many ideas I have for my blog and how desperately I want to do them. This kind of ties in with the theme of spending my time more wisely, but when it comes down to it, I am responsible for how much work goes into this and if I really want it, I can totally achieve it, its just whether or not I am down for the challenge. I always say I am going to be more active and work harder, but this time I actually mean it, and I absolutely love doing this so it won’t be a problem for me 🙂 I am planning to work with a designer to customize my page and make it really fit my style and personality, which I am SUPER stoked about so STAY TUNED 🙂
8.) LASTLY, I don’t want to be so hard on myself and stay true to myself. Life is too short to be so serious and to not take care of yourself. I am a total perfectionist and control freak so this one will be really hard for me. Last year, I would feel so anxious if I felt like I hadn’t done enough or hadn’t said the right thing, and it really tore me up and stressed me out. I want to rest and feel like I had done everything I could do, and if I didn’t, I am a human being and it is all ok. If I need to skip an assignment to sleep, so be it, life goes on and everything happens for a reason. I need to prioritize and do what makes me the best version of myself possible, but I am also far from perfect and need to make allowances for myself here and there. As long as I remain authentic and myself, I am extremely satisfied and content, because there is nothing more I can do about it.
If you had made it this far, you are AWESOME HAHA. This was a heck of a lot of writing but I hold this stuff really near and dear to my heart, and by writing it down I gain even more meaning and motivation to follow through with my resolutions. I 100% advocate self improvement and I think often times we don’t thoroughly assess our ups and downs or our flaws and strengths. I hope you were able to find some inspiration and I wish you the best 2018 EVER!! I am thrilled to see where I end up a year from now and know that there is so much in store for each and every one of you!
Thank you SO much for reading!
xx, Madison
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