lifestyle January 2, 2016

My 2016 “Resolutions”

Hello! (It’s me).

Tomorrow is 2016! I seriously cannot believe it. They say that time flies when you’re older, but c’mon, I’m only 19!

That being said, let’s talk about resolutions. At the beginning of 2015, I wrote up a post about my resolutions for the year. Let’s end that conversation right there; in other words, I didn’t follow through with my resolutions very much at all. I was going strong for the first couple of months, but then it really kind of died out as I lost track of my resolutions. That’s what typically happens.

But it’s the New Year, and I want to do something better, and obviously making yearly resolutions didn’t work for me. Luckily, I stumbled upon this blog post written by Maxie McCoy (LOVE her stuff, by the way), and it changed my perspective on resolutions. It’s so well-written, and it really resonated with me. I love Maxie’s idea of picking a word to set the year. In the blog post, she says, “Even when you’re not consciously thinking of it, it sets a tone of who you are and how you show up.” I thought about my word for 2016, and I’ve decided upon jump in.

Jump in technically is a term – but this is the word that I want to define my 2016. I’m in college now and it’s all about trying new things. I’ve held back more than I should during my first term, so I really want to do all the things in 2016. Examples:

  • go set up an appointment with my adviser so I can start planning study abroad!
  • make plans to hang out with friends who I won’t have class with anymore. Go out of my comfort zone and don’t stay in and read all the time.

With jump in as my word of 2016, I hope I really branch out and just jump in to many exciting events and activities.

That’s one way I’m making a “resolution”. But also, since starting college, I did learn one thing about myself: I’m someone who breaks down huge tasks into little parts. And without even knowing, I make to-do lists every day and in a way, that is making goals – the only difference here is that my goals are huge, yes, but I break them down to little parts that are more manageable and easier to focus on.

I bought a new planner for 2016, and I am more than excited to use it to make all of the lists (I’ve upgraded to a 8.5 x 11 size planner! Blog post coming soon on that..) and cross off everything on my to-do list every day.

So what are your resolutions for 2016? Are you like me and don’t really fulfill your yearly resolutions? Are you more goal-oriented like me? What’s your word for 2016?

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  1. Aneeqah

    January 3, 2016 at 7:41 am

    JEN I LOVE THIS POST.

    I’ve always been wary about doing the whole ‘choose a word’ thing for a year (for some reason, honestly, I thought it was just so hipster lol) but after thinking about it more, I’ve realized that it would be really nice to have a defined theme for the year, something I keep bringing myself back to (I also love what Maxie said in that post!).

    I LOVE your phrase- jump in is just so perfect! Sometimes the best of opportunities are right in our face, but we just need to take that leap of faith. I know you’ll be super successful in college, and keeping this phrase in the back of your mind is going to help you make it for sure <3

    Like I said before, my phrase is 'do the work'. Not sure if I'm going to write a blog post about it or not, but I think it's going to help me really focus and actually be productive instead of THINKING about being productive, lol.

    Here's to a fabulously adventurous 2016!! <33

    1. Jen

      January 18, 2016 at 2:50 pm

      Do the work or do the WERK? 😉 love it, since it’ll really keep your #girlboss status up for sure. 😀

  2. Nikki Wang

    January 3, 2016 at 9:19 pm

    THIS IS AN ABSOLUTELY LOVELY POST. I DIDN’T REALIZE PEOPLE CHOSE WORDS FOR A YEAR AND THAT’S SO COOL and I love yours and I hope you have all the luck with that <3 Jumping in seems so hard sometimes, butI'm absolutely certain that you'll have a blast by going wherever your gut leads you! (And I suppose if I had a word for the year, it'd just be STRIVE. Especially with so many important things happenings this year with all the ap classes and studying for the SAT gah.)

    1. Jen

      January 18, 2016 at 2:49 pm

      Nikki you totally got the SAT thing down, stop stressing about it!! I love “strive”, I think it’s a great way to stay motivated throughout the last few years of highschool, to really push yourself to the finish line!

  3. readwritelove28

    January 18, 2016 at 11:27 am

    I love this post!!! I never even thought about using a word to describe my goal for 2016…that’s so unique! I love love love it! It sounds like you have a lot of awesome things happening in 2016, so I hope that everything works out and you have a great year! 🙂

    1. Jen

      January 18, 2016 at 2:44 pm

      Thanks Nori!!

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