Happy New everyone! Am I the only one who finds it seriously hard to believe that it's already 2016?Now for my favorite part of the new year: setting goals for the year. I was fairly successful with my 2015 resolutions and thought that maybe I should be a little bit more ambitious this year.
1. Do yoga every day.
I came really close to achieving this in 2015 and it was a no-brainer to add it to this year's list of resolutions. Yoga makes me feel better in my body, stronger, and more mentally ready to face whatever life has to throw at me that day. And if how crappy I feel when not regularly practicing yoga isn't a good enough motivator, I don't know what will be.
2. Read 50 books.
I only read 28 books in 2015, but I hope this year will be the year I conquer the 50 book Goodreads challenge. This is my first year out of school, which should mean that I have far more time for reading.
3. Write something new every week.
Over the last couple of years, I have fallen into the bad habit of writing in spurts and have been unable to sustain any good writing schedule or habit. As I learned during this past NaNoWriMo, waiting to write until you're in the perfect head space isn't effective in the slightest and I hope that by trying to write more consistently, I can break myself of this habit.
4. Practice Japanese for half an hour every day.
By now it should be pretty obvious that I am very interested in all things Japan, from their culture and history to modern Japanese fiction. I studied Japanese from elementary school through high school and was almost fluent conversationally when I completed my last class. In the years since, I have forgotten much of my Japanese and although I did start working on relearning the language last year, in 2016 I want to take these studies more seriously. In a perfect world, I would re-achieve conversational Japanese by the end of the year.
5. Blog and Vlog regularly.
With the exception of some planned absences, I actually did quiet well with this one in 2015. I won't set a specific posting goal (i.e. one video a week and three blog posts), but I do hope to remain organized, plan ahead, and find a schedule that is flexible enough to actually work.
6. Finish Outcasts.
This is the manuscript I started writing during NaNoWriMo this November. While I've made some progress on it since then, I would like to have a completed and edited manuscript sent out to agents this year. A better working title might also be necessary!
7. Be brave. Push yourself out of your comfort zone.
And now we've come to the more abstract resolutions. This is something that I definitely did not do enough of in 2015 and really need to work on in the coming year. Especially now that I am no longer in a university setting where I am forced to be bolder and more social, I really need to actively seek ways to put myself out there more.
8. Communicate better and more frequently.
For someone who has four different email accounts and is active on several different social media platforms, I am really bad about keeping in contact with people outside my immediate vicinity. I have known this for years and have decided that 2016 is officially the year where I'm going to change that.
9. Be more kind.
This one is pretty self explanatory. While I am by no means a vicious person, I do think trying to go into each day with a more empathetic mindset will never be a bad thing. Like they say, be the change (or, in this case, kindness) you want to see in the world.
10. Breathe.
This one might seem really airy-fairy, but I think it really relates to all of the above. I tend to get anxious really quickly when I have a lot to accomplish or when things don't seem to be going my way. So by remembering to take a minute and breathe, I think I can remind myself to be more mindful, more kind, and more open to whatever life has to offer.
There you have it, my resolutions for 2016. Let me know some of your resolutions and keep an eye out for my bookish resolutions!
