Happy Tuesday y’all! I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend! I went home to Houston and spent the weekend with my parents and I just can’t express how nice it was to be home and in warm weather and with family for a bit. The last few weeks have just been super stressful, and I really was in need of a trip home.
Today I’m doing something a lot different. I have a ton of new content that I’m excited to share in the coming weeks, including more details on moving into a new place this week that’s double the size. I’m not sure what it is recently, but I’ve been in such a funk and realized I never really made goals for myself in 2018 when the new year hit. We’ve just been constantly going and going that I never took the time to sit down and think about everything. That being said, I low key feel like I’m having a quarter life crisis ever since I turned 24 and wanted to share with you all my different goals for myself in 2018. I’ve really been neglecting my blog and while I understand life gets crazy I’m getting to a point where I genuinely need to figure out a system that works because I can’t keep going a month without answering emails, posting on my site, etc. I hope to incorporate more lifestyle posts like this one, so looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this!
Image via Pinterest.
1. Focus on living a better lifestyle.
This is such a broad category, but I’m going to start by saying I don’t necessarily live the healthiest lifestyle. We go out roughly four nights a week, work 10-12 hour days, stay out until 4-5AM on the weekends and just really not take care of ourselves sometimes.
Recently I just started going back to the gym and noticed how huge of a difference it makes in my mood, appearance and overall daily routine.
So let’s talk about fitness. By no means would I call myself fat, but I have definitely fluctuated over the last year with my weight. I typically eat pretty healthy with the exception of things like Chipotle Friday and drunk/hungover food on an occasion, but I think getting older has finally set in with my body. Things have stopped fitting as well, and it’s something that’s really been bothering me over the last couple of months. I’m 5’10, and there’s absolutely no way in hell I will ever be a size 0-2 and that’s something I’m completely okay with but my goal for 2018 is to get to a healthy point with my exercise/fitness where it’s a daily to-do as opposed to being such a drag. All of my friends are capable of going to classes/the gym, so I should be able to too, right? As I type this on the plane, I actually plan to start BBG tomorrow morning in hopes of finishing the program when summer is in full swing. I did BBG in college, and actually still eat the meal plans, but when I read THIS review from a blogger I genuinely trust I knew I had to give it a go. I’m not trying to look like a toothpick or lose 40 pounds or anything insane, but I would be happy if I could tone, get my core back and lose weight in the meantime. I plan to keep y’all posted on BBG, but not necessarily in real time since I hear it’s pretty draining. I plan to do the workouts every Mon/Wed/Fri morning early so no one sees me, and then spend Tues/Thurs running after work.
Let’s talk about partying. I’m fully aware that I’m a wild child. If I were to try and stay in I would immediately get FOMO (fear of missing out) when I would see snapchats/insta stories. However, there’s 100% a balancing act that can be taken here. I’m only 24, but I feel like I’m quickly approaching the age where it isn’t cute anymore to go out and bar hop and act a fool. I’m not fully convinced on that yet, but I think I’m just becoming more self aware of the image I portray and how people see you. Growing up I looked at 24 year olds and thought they were adults, now I think I had to have been crazy to have assumed that! With partying I’ve recently started to compromise, which again has definitely improved my mood (and bank account). I’ve stopped saying yes to Thursday night outings since they’re usually a waste of calories and money, and we’ve definitely slowed down on brunching at noon and day drinking all day – but we’ll see how that sticks once summer comes around. One thing I want to focus on is doing different activities with my friends that don’t involve going to the same bars, seeing the same people, drinking the same overpriced vodka soda and that sort of thing. This past weekend going to dinner with my parents, a drink afterwards and then home to rent a movie was seriously so much nicer than I thought it would be.
Let’s talk vulnerability. One thing I really struggle with is bottling up my feelings and self imploding when I’m stressed/angry/upset/etc. I would rather keep things and feelings to myself instead of opening up to my friends or family mainly due to a fear of looking weak or too vulnerable. Another thing I struggle with is breaking the wall down when I meet someone new (i.e. dating, new friendships, etc). I’ve had instances in the past that genuinely make me scared to let anyone in, whether it’s trusting a new friend or fully committing to dating someone. To be completely honest, I have a ton of friends in New York that I love but only a handful of those I could trust to genuinely be there for me when I need them- which I’ve definitely learned over the last two years. I don’t like showing anyone my weaknesses because I get worried they’ll find a way to use it against me. I get scared too many personal things on the blog because I’m worried about losing followers or someone I knew 12 years ago twisting it. When I get comfortable in a new relationship I get worried and do something to mess it up because I get freaked out to be in that real, raw state with someone else. I’m really going to try and focus on my willingness to be vulnerable with others in 2018, and hopefully on the blog as well.
Image via Pinterest.
2. Being better about pursuing endeavors.
This again is pretty broad, but it fits in my personal life and blogging life. I always say there are things I want to do (i.e. start YouTubing again, etc) that I just never get around to and it’s something I want to focus on for the remainder of the year and just adapt to my daily schedule.
Let’s talk blogging endeavors. I’ve gotten really bad lately about putting my blog on the back burner and it honestly makes me sad because it still is such a key part of my daily routine and the way I do things. I worked so hard to build up everything I currently have, and to see it just dwindle in front of me because I can’t prioritize is honestly heartbreaking. I’m really excited to move because I’m hoping that having a set working space will help me prioritize blogging and work on it in my spare time to grow it in lengths I had planned on. I’m starting with baby steps, like creating more lifestyle content, attending more events, and becoming more personal with y’all. On that note, let’s talk separating my personal life on my blog. This is something I’ve struggled with over the last few years of blogging, especially since I moved to NYC. I try not to open up on here as much as I could because I worry about who’s reading from home, work, life in NYC, etc. Not like I would ever say anything self incriminating, but the last thing I want is to be talking about a horrible date I went on and for the guy to actually be reading that post, or an ex to read a story about something and just open up all sorts of cans of worms. I’m deciding to just sort of say f*ck it and go for it and see what happens. One of my biggest endeavors that my friends and co-workers have talked me in to is starting a Podcast on millennial life in NYC, and this will be where I try to integrate more of my personal life and get real with you all. That said, it’s not an endeavor I’m pursuing in hopes that my grandparents or parents listen to it but it’s something that everyone expressed interest in when I polled on Insta stories and it’s some of the most frequently asked questions when I’m catching up with old friends. So plan for more open content with you guys in the upcoming weeks/months that I’m really excited about!
Let’s talk personal endeavors. I started my second adult job in beauty PR in May of last year, so I’m coming up on my one year and I genuinely feel like I grew so much as a professional in the last year than I did in my previous job. In my personal life, I feel like I’ve grown in the sense that I’m a lot more mature than I was a year ago. One thing I want to continue to focus on is being a convenience for myself first – in friendships, work, relationships, etc. I’m typically such a pushover with things because it’s just the way my personality is and that’s one thing I want to focus on not doing in all aspects whether it’s something small like being convenient when someone you’re dating wants to hang out as opposed to when you want to hang out, or prioritizing your work behind helping someone else with theirs. I hope to continue growing in my job because I genuinely do like it, and continue to progress my relationships with friends and family.
Image via Pinterest.
3. Learning to walk by faith again.
I grew up religiously and always went to church, bible school, etc. I had a conversation with my friends about how we’d all love to go to church every Sunday but it’s just so hard to actually get yourself to go.
Let’s talk spiritual beliefs. One thing that’s really been bothering me lately is my lack of trust in the big man upstairs and I’m not sure if it’s the city that’s made me think this way, being a millennial or what. My nana and poppy have had some health issues pop up over the last year and they’re the two most God-fearing humans I know and I just can’t process why bad things happen to good people who are living the way that the Lord says we should?? Ideally I would love to get into a routine of going back to church and hopefully understand why these things happen in the long run. I’ve always heard that without faith you just feel sort of empty like there’s a void needing to be filled and I think in the last few months I’ve tried to fill it with anything possible and finally just realized that I could use some Jesus in my life. I admire bloggers like Lone Star Southern and Dani Austin who share their faith with their followers and I’m hopeful that once I get on the right track that I can see things the way that they do, too. I think living in the city you lose a sense of self that can be so hard to get back and one thing I’m going to focus on in 2018 is re-discovering myself through my faith, if that makes sense.
So there you have it! Apologies for this being a mile long, but it’s all things I’ve been thinking about for so long that I decided to finally share with you all (being vulnerable already, ayeee). I’d love to hear your thoughts and if you have any different recommendations on how to help with any of the above! Have a great day and thanks for reading!