Over the past couple of years I have written blog posts (2015 & 2016's posts) about my resolutions and goals and just things I want to improve on int he new year. This year I decided to go along a similar path; instead of trying to become a newer version of myself, in 2017 I would like to become a better version of myself.

At this stage in my life I am pretty happy with how I am at the moment, there isn't much that I want to do differently in 2017 than what I did in 2016. This time around I just want to improve and grow and see where the universe wants to take me.

Mental Health

2016 has been a bit of a rough year, mentally. Doing honours at university was a bit of a toughie, I pushed myself quite a lot and I did crash a few times, but I still managed to pull through and get through it all. I am managing my depression and anxiety a lot better this than I have previously, I am starting to learn aboout my triggers and warning signs that my mind and body are being pushed too much.

Ideally I would like to not have to rely on my medication to cope with it, but I feel like it's a little too early to do this in 2017. Over the next year I would like to be able to understand my emotions better. What I usually do is push them down a lot until I end up in a very upset mess when it all explodes, which isn't fun and is very exhausting. I am still leanring, as mental illness is a new thing for my mind to think about (ironic, right?!) but I would like to really focus on my mental health a lot more this year.

Physical Health

I feel like this is a cliché "new year's resolution" to get healthier, but this is still a goal of mine. By no means am I wanting to lose weight or start going to the gym, because that's just unnecessary. What I am wanting to do instead is simply just exercise; to get outside when I have a free day and go for a walk, not catch a bus and to get out there and walk. Now that I have my Fitbit, I am able to track my exercise rate and am able to see it in the figures how much I have exercised and moved about. I would like to continue hitting that 10,000 steps daily goal each day.

Eating wise, I just need to do it more. Too many times I am skipping meals, which is 100% not healthy whatsoever and it doesn't make me feel good, it just makes me feel disappointed in myself. Something I really need to work on is eating healthier; apart from potatoes I don't think I eat vegetables at all, and the closest to fruit I eat is some orange juice. Now that I am aware of my celiac disease and having to cut a lot out of my diet, I haven't really replaced those foods.

Overall, I need to manage my quality of eating a lot more closely, and eat more regularly. And, with the combination of eating better and exercising more, hopefully I can also combat my fatigue and insomnia!

Creativity

Only a few months ago I completed my BDes degree, and in another few months I get to graduate! But now that I don't have university to keep my creative juices flowing I need to do it myself. My online store is gathering a lot of cobwebs and I have so many ideas for what I could make, I just need to do it!

Career wise, I would like to transfer to a job that lets me use my creativity. As I am only just getting my foot onto the career ladder I will be starting out small, so probably not working for some super flashy company doing super flashy design work just yet! My goal is to just get myself out there; to apply for jobs, to believe in myself and my creativity, because someone will want to have me!

Possessions

Now, possessions is a bit of a weird one to focus on but just hear me out. I can be, at some times, a whee bit of a hoarder. I used to collect every single train ticket, every movie ticket and little rubbish-y bits and bobs like that, which I really don't need to do! But in 2016 I have managed to combat that messy part of my life, however, the new "problem" that I have is just having a lot of things. I don't need to have all of these things in my life, but I just keep buying them! Whether it's clothes, nic-nacs, pens, candles... my desk is crowed with all these cute things that I keep buying but just don't have the use or space for! I need to de-clutter!

Something that should be able to go hand-in-hand with decluttering my life is to thing of "quality over quantity", which at the moment I am wanting to begin with my wardrobe. So many times I buy, say $30 jeans that then fall apart after a few months or stretch in weird places so that I need to repurchase them; however if I saved up and bought some jeans of good quality that wouldn't keep happening and I wouldn't have a bunch of mishapened pairs of pants!

Within this, quality also includes ethical quality. I would like to transform my wardrobe, my beauty reigime, my pantry and everything else in my life to be 100% ethically grown, made and distributed. This is going to be quite a challenge for me as I have no idea where to start, but this is somethign that I just need to work on in the new year!

Are you making any goals, resolutions or things to focus on for the new year? What are they, are they anything similar to mine? OR, do you have any suggestions on how I could approach my goals?

- Louise x