New Year, New Me

(photo from stylecaster)

Warning: this post contains the biggest blogger new years cliche. I'm not the type of person to make new years resolutions because they just don't always work. I'm sure each of us has tons of reasons from they're hard to come up with, hard t follow through, hard to start etc. For those of you making them (or any goals) I wanted to recommend an app I used to use and wanted to get back into called Everest, but it no longer exists according to their website. Essentially it breaks down your goals into things that you can do on a monthly, weekly, daily basis to reach your goals. E.g. if you want to be tidier a daily goal could be to wipe down the kitchen counters or make your bed and a weekly goal could be to vacuum or clean the bathroom. The app then lets you check off the things you've completed. I'm sure there are other apps out there and this wouldn't even be difficult to replicate using an agenda.

This year is incridibly important to me as it marks the end of my institutional education and the beginning of the the rest of my life: learning from experience and learning as a professional. Here are my goals for 2015 and what I hope to continue and change going into the new year.

1. Set Goals, Follow Them Through, and Hold Myself Accountable Expanding from my introduction. I want to continue what I did with Everest. I want to feel motivated and organized. This coming semester (my last) will be incredibly difficult. I am doing "research", something I am not familiar or comfortable with and I will be studying for an exam outside of school, for my profession designation. I want to be able to manage this as well as manage finding time for friends and hobbies. Even after this semester when I am sitting at home unemployed, I want to have these goals and daily checklists to keep myself busy and motivated.
2. Do More Things To Make Myself Feel Good Financially, I can be a bit of a miser sometimes. But I want to stop this (obviously with moderation). I want to be able to treat myself when I finish a project, lift my spirits when I'm feeling low and enjoy my time with my  friends. Aside from this I want to bake and cook and work out and read and everything that makes me feel good. This goal is a bid vague and open for interpretation depending on where I am and how I'm feeling.
3. Spend More on Skincare, Less on Makeup This definitely doesn't mean I want to stop buying luxury makeup but I want to save it for birthdays and Christmas and spend my own money on expensive skincare. With the right skin, it doesn't matter how good your makeup is right? I want to develop a complete skincare routine and really research and invest in the products which are best for my skin and concerns. Like many of my fair comrades, the skin in my family is not so great. Aside from freckles and sun spots, both my mother and grandmother have growths on their nose and face which have to be removed with liquid nitrogen and in one case, it turned out to be cancerous. I'm always telling my mother that I will not make her mistakes so here I go...
4. Following the ISU This one is a bit out of left field, but figure skating is the sport I grew up with and recently the CBC has lacked with the full coverage, sometimes not offering it, other times not advertising but secretly airing it. I've often considered buying streaming services but always though I'm a student and I shouldn't be spending my money on that. Starting with the World Championships again, I want to start watching all the coverage I can get and enjoy the sport again. This is really just a continuation of point two, but a more specific example.
5. Read 50 Books This is my Goodreads goal but to go with it and inspired by booktube, I want to read diversely as well as use my local libraries and the services they offer (i.e. ebooks). I also want to work on writing reviews. I am a horrible reviewer but I want to be able to say more about a book than I loved it. Recently I've read some books which I was absolutely passionate about and I want to be able to articulate that with my readers.
6. Do 100 Miles Each Season (What am I American? No but my treadmill is.) One of my favourite fitness blogs and videos are from Tone It Up. Often they have challenges to complete 100 miles which can be done anyway with running, walking, biking, etc. which can be converted on their website. Every season I want to complete this whether it's running, yoga classes or going for summer walks after dinner on the forest trails. I want to try and make this goal flexible as well. There are always going to be times when I can't find the time for workouts and so a goal like running twice a week is never going to work 100% of the time.

Finally tieing this in with step 1. I want to write follow up blogs every season, to hold myself accountable. I can share what things I've been incorporating into my life in 2015 and share some of the things that really make us happy. I think as a culture we've become so negative. In class I'll hear people arguing about who eats the least healthy or who is the closest to failing and everything else in the student spectrum. I want to get away from that and focus on what makes me feel the happiest, what is positive in my life and what I can do change those negatives.

xx jenn