HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I hope you had an incredible Christmas and a fun NYE! It’s 2018 and that is wild to me. I’m at the awkward middle point where I graduated high school two years ago but I’m still two years away from graduating college (but my man graduates uni this year…woah). I’ve been trying the resolution thing for years, but I needed a change this year so I have decided to set goals that I can easily track. Overall, my list is composed of pretty small and seemingly insignificant ideas, but I believe that if I can stick to these things I will be a whole //new\\ person come January 2019. Let me know in the comments how you’re starting the new year and don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter!

1. Wake up earlier…and go to bed earlier. I’mma be real, this is SO hard to do while at school. This semester I will only have classes 2 days a week so I will have to consciously remind myself to be in bed early the other days. My classes start at 8am so I will have to be up early on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I want to try and be awake by 9am MWF. Whether I spend the extra morning time at the gym or writing for you guys, I’m sure those hours will be helpful and worth it!

This certainly was not everyday, but I made an effort so that has to count for something, right?

2. Read at least one new book each month. Again, MUCH EASIER to do at home when I’m not taking 5 classes. That being said, I love reading so I really want this one to work out.

This was more of an every-other-month occasion, but I also found several new blogs that I read daily so I am reading more!

3. Have an “unplug night” every single week, no matter what. Life can get so stressful and even one night away from it all can help so much. For my unplug night, I’ll be spending it locked in my room with a good face mask, some fruit water, a long shower (so I can actually have a deep conditioning schedule bc lol @ my current hair), my candle warmer on and a good movie…I mean book ;). I think it's safe to say what's pictured in the thumbnail for this post will also be present....

It ended up being about every-other-week, but it was so dang peaceful to be able to just sit alone in my room and unwind.

4. Treat myself to something new for school/work. I was planning on buying a pack of Paper Mate Flair pens (they’re not the cheapest and I’ve been eyeing them for the past semester) but my sweet mama got me two packs for Christmas!! Since I no longer need to buy the pretty pens, I bought a cute Kate Spade notebook (ya know, so I can use the pens even more!).

I bought all the notebooks.

5. Eliminate one unhealthy thing each week. College makes it so easy to be unhealthy, especially when you don’t have a meal plan. This year, I am going to make more of an effort to grocery shop once a week (aka no more daily trips to Sprouts) so that I always have healthy options. With the eliminations, I know that if I can cut something out for 7 days I can easily go without it for 7 months. The first thing to go is soda, but eventually I want to eliminate sugar and caffeine in general.

I don’t think I cut anything out for good because I am a strong supporter of the “everything in moderation” mindset, but I did challenge myself to cut random stuff out for 2 weeks at a time! And I was right, once I was able to go two weeks without soda or dairy it made it much easier to just cut back in general and save that stuff for occasions where I really wanted to indulge.

6. Be more natural. With the whole natural thing, I want to truly make my lifestyle more natural. I’m not dieting, I’m trying to transition to the point where I mainly eat only good food that is good for me and to the point where I use minimal to no over-the-counter medications. When I moved into my dorm freshman year my mom got me a set of essential oils that help with headaches, insomnia and nausea (and they really do work) so I am going to stick with those and cut the advil!

I’m not gonna lie to you, I’m very so-so with this. That being said, I did make more of an effort this year. I even took the leap to natural deodorant (save the gag for a second) and I actually love it. Over the past couple months I switched to Kopari full-time. I am an active person and I sweat a lot…this stuff genuinely works and it lowers my chance of breast cancer so I am proud of this switch.

7. Be more active. Last semester I got suuuper into Pure Barre for a few months after purchasing a groupon but I quit going because of the membership price. I have found a couple different barre studios in my college town that are a little cheaper and I am so excited to try them out once I get back to school! When it gets warmer out, P and I will be hiking and biking a bunch since we have the same days off from school, which will also be a really fun way to just be more active and healthier!

I did not go back to barre because I chose to save more money but I did find some new ways to work out for free that were actually really fun. Do you guys want to see a post about that once it gets warmer?!

8. Write out weekly goals each Sunday. Whether it’s do all laundry in one day or start on my final project an entire month before it’s due, I want to write everything out. Doing this will make my accomplishments easier to track and I think it will actually help me to accomplish more in general!

This started out as a Sunday goal and ended up becoming an every-other-day activity. While I still think it’s important to draft out all of the important info at the beginning of the week, I also think it’s smart to write down goals and ideas as I think of them — whether it’s 2am and I can’t sleep or whether I’m sitting in class!

9. Plan ahead. This kind of goes with writing out weekly goals and kind of with just not waiting until the last minute for everything. I am the worst at procrastinating and it stresses me out so bad! Last semester I got a little better about planning ahead and I started using my planner religiously so I want to keep up with it!!

Self brag — I got SO GOOD at this.

10. Save $$$, plan for vacay! This one is fun because I LOVE traveling and I genuinely love setting aside money for it. Last year I saved a lot of money from nannying and working as a campus tour guide and was able to pay my way to Disney World for fall break and a bunch of weekend trips to Georgia and it was so much fun.

P and I traveled about twice a month for away games and we just got back from LA! Saved so much more than I thought I would be able to and it really paid off.

Don't forget to leave a comment about your goals and resolutions for 2018!!!

10 Self-Improvement Goals for 2018 (Update)