New Year, New You

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2018, I hope that you all got to make some magical memories with your loved ones. With the start of a new year, comes New Year resolutions. So that had me thinking…what are your goals and visions for 2018?

This morning I watched an inspiring Instagram post by a blogger that I adore (Amber Fillerup Clark). She spoke about how hard it is to feel inspired to blog when you yourself are feeling lacking in energy and low. I completely related to this, not only with my tiny blog, but in life. Towards the end of last year, I was feeling uninspired, tired and simply not myself.

As a result, I stopped blogging, I stopped baking, I felt uninspired to do simple things like decorate our apartment or put an outfit together. It sounds radical, but exhaustion really does take a toll on you physically, mentally, emotionally and creatively. I have always been a person who takes pride in all that I do, whether big or small and I found myself too exhausted to care for myself at the end of last year.

Around August/September of last year I decided to make an active change in my life. I think I only shared this decision with two people, as I wanted to see how this change would make me feel. My first ‘New Year Resolution’ started in 2017 when I decided to be less active on social media.

I have never been the kind of person to compare myself or my life to others. I am hard enough on myself without any other added pressures. But I found that watching other people travel, shop, receive extravagant gifts, live in bigger homes, have a perfect bikini body or have more friends etc. set myself up to wonder "what was I doing wrong?". I wouldn’t say that I was jealous by any means: 1. I am beyond blessed in the life that I live. 2. I know that people only post the ‘highlights’ of their life. But I found that spending thirty minutes to an hour a day on social media, was affecting my moods. Think about it, how long do you spend watching every Instagram story? I get it, it’s fascinating to watch how the other half lives but while you are watching people live their life, you are missing out on yours.

I stopped taking photographs at every occasion, instead I decided to enjoy every occasion. I no longer had the mentality of "oh wow that looks pretty, let me take a picture of it". It has been an experiment which I have actually thoroughly enjoyed.

Don’t get me wrong, I will Insta story or Snapchat when I am feeling inspired to but I no longer automatically hit autopilot to photograph every aspect of every day.

This is a resolution, or rather, a mental shift that I will endeavour to keep to. I need to feel inspired by MY life and not someone else’s.

My second resolution is to read six books this year. At first I wanted to read twelve (one book a month) but I also need to be realistic with myself. Some nights I will be working and unable to read. Some nights, I may simply be tired or maybe have a late night dinner date with Damian. So one book every two months it is.

These are my only two resolutions. To be quite honest, I don’t really believe in resolutions. I don’t believe in waiting for a new year, a new month or a new week to do something. To me, you make up your mind and you do it. But I also understand that the feeling of a completely fresh start is enticing and exciting.

So let’s do this together, let’s start 2018 with the right state of mind, the right attitude and the right vibes. My 2018 wish for you is to have fun, laugh every day, try something new and live your best life.

Here is to us, cheers!