New Years Resolutions

Happy New Year!

Whatever 2015 was like for you, I hope 2016 is bigger and better!

The world saw a lot of wonderful and horrible changes this past year. I don't know what this coming year will bring, but we should all strive to be the best people we can be. There will always be those who we don't agree with or those who do the wrong thing. But one person who is the most tolerant, understanding and loving person they can be can create change (so cliche, but so is new years eve!).

Some people do not believe in new year's resolutions, the idea "new year, new me" makes them scoff. It is true, the rotation of the earth around the sun should't be the motivation you need to better yourself and set goals. Life is a journey of constant self improvement! But the way I see it is that most of us spend Christmas thinking about others (or we should :P), and the holiday season is about slowing down, eating, drinking and being merry! These moments are so special and important, but mostly counter-intuitive to our previous months' efforts to improve. So after our relaxation and celebration, the new year is the perfect time to reflect on what we want to achieve. 

Last year I set a resolution to improve my grades as I had a rocky start to my university career. And I focused, persevered and achieved this goal! I earned some really fantastic, above average grades and did not fail a single unit. So as you can tell, I am a believer in a fresh start for January!

So this year I have three new years resolutions:


To save $5000

I only work casually and don't actually know how much I make a year. Saving $5k would be a huge challenge. I'm not sure if its even possible but as I want to travel to Europe for a few months (in two years time), its a good goal to work towards! Besides saving as much as I can from my weekly pay check, I will be making an effort to save on my weekly expenses, make a smarter budget and manifest income from other sources (more on that in a future blog post). 

To stop being late

I tend to be at least five minutes late for everything, or just scraping in on time. My boyfriend jokes that when I specify a time, I actually mean 15 minutes after that, and that being late is a "typical girl thing". I guess there are a few reasons for this, but the main one is that I am a bit of a perfectionist. I can waste time on little details while getting ready and I tend to double and triple checking everything (for example, the contents of my hand bag to make sure I haven't forgotten anything). This year I am going to resolve to be 5-10 minutes early to every commitment I make. This will make myself more reliable for other people, and less stressed!

To post on my Blog and YouTube channel

I have been toying (or obsessing) with the idea of making YouTube videos since 2010, six years ago now! Every year, every month and day since I say I will "make YouTube videos" or "write a blog", but always find a reason not too. I'm "too busy", I tell myself, but really I think I am just scared of failing. "Failing what though?", I have finally asked myself. I am passionate about creating content to inspire myself and others, and want to pursue a career in writing and presenting. I even bought myself a DSLR camera last year, telling myself that if I had it, I would definitely make videos (I only made one last year). I am going to do this for myself now, and the measure of my success will be how satisfied I am with my creations and their message, not how many views or hits I generate (however, feedback and sharing of my content is of course encouraged!). So I am setting a specific goal to make and upload 50 videos to my YouTube channel, and to write and publish 100 blog posts to this blog in 2016. I'm really excited for this goal and can't wait to see where it will take me!

You may have noticed that I don't have any health and fitness goals. Losing weight and getting fit are probably the two most common new years resolutions for people in the Western World. Of course I want to improve my health and fitness, but I know this is not a realistic resolution for me. Instead I will take a different approach in the areas of health and fitness, academics and any other parts of my life I think to improve on. I am going to make a record of short term goals (weekly, monthly etc.). My tips for making new year resolutions will make it clear to you why. 

Advice on resolutions

Set a time limit

You need a time-frame to push yourself to work towards your goal. This will motivate you to make it a priority, and to work on it as often as possible. With a new years resolution, the deadline is most often the next new years eve, but it is also a personal choice. 

Be realistic 

You must be able to achieve your resolution by the end of the year (or by your deadline). Me deciding that I am going to "save $20k" or "reach one million YouTube subscribers" by the end of the year is not realistic. I would love for these things to happen but I have set goals I can actually accomplish by this time next year.

Be specific 

Having vague goals leads to them being forgotten or put in the "too hard basket". I'm not just deciding to "save money" this year, because this could lead me to saving, but not as much as I potentially could. There will always be a reason not to save as much as possible and fritter away my money, but having a specific target keeps this behavior in check.

Don't set too many 

One of the reasons new years resolutions fail is that people forget them or become overwhelmed by them. Have a small number of goals you can focus on and remember. "Rome wasn't built in a day" they say, and neither is your "perfect self", the person you strive to be. It is tempting to want to identify and work on all the aspects of your life you don't like, but this is not realistic. The key to completing any task or solving a problem, is to break it up into manageable portions or steps, and new years resolutions are no different.

I am going to set smaller goals during the year if I really want something to happen, and continue with the bucket list I have of my bigger, long term goals. This helps to remind me why I do what I do when life gets hard, while keeping my aspirations manageable.

Share your resolutions with others

Informing others of your intentions will hold you accountable and motivate you to go for them! If you don't let your friends and family know what you want to achieve, they can't support you and it will be easy for you to write off what you want as unattainable. 

I will re-visit this post next new years eve to see how I went with my resolutions! Thanks for sticking around if you've read this far on this very long post. I am working on my writing still, I tend to be a bit of a rambler and over-explainer in real life. But hopefully if you are reading my blog, we are like minded people and you want to read a lot on these topics.

I will leave you with some pictures of my new years eve celebrations (dancing the night away at a nightclub with some close friends), my outfit details and an anecdote on my new years eve pet-peeve. Its "Happy New Year!" not "happy new years" Facebook people! -.-

xoxo Eliseeey

My new year's eve look

Dress - Dolly Girl

Bag - Equip

Shoes - Zu 

(accessorized with rose gold bracelets, a small gold chain bracelet and pearl earrings)

The New Years gang!

One of my besties Nadia and I waiting in line for the club

The end of the night;
My boyfriend, Nadia and I waiting for our train home (he was pretty cranky).