Hello Internet!
I am happy to report that the laptop-ocalypse is officially over. August was a rough month, especially at the beginning, but now it’s coming to a close. We are doing a soft reboot of the website starting with this special Weekly Blog Special Update: September edition. I am happily typing away on my new, HP Laptop which works like a dream. Hopefully this laptop will last me five years like the last one did. So this special Weekly Blog is coming out today as well as a new Writing Prompt piece so you get two for the price of one if you are visiting my website on September 1st. On Sunday there will be a regular Weekly Blog going up like it does almost every Sunday and then Wednesday there will be a new chapter of Pokémon going up on the website. That’s right, I’m still going with my Fanfiction story of Pokémon Sun/Moon. I know it’s been over a month since you’ve gotten a new chapter, but I want to get it started up again. There will be at least one, maybe two chapters going up on Wednesday, so keep your eyes out for that. Then on Friday you will get a new Writing Prompt piece and our weekly schedule will be on track once again. (YAY). I’m also hoping to continue with smaller, Creative Writing pieces which will go up at random whenever I have some extra down time to write them. I noticed that my first real attempt at Haikus went over really well with the readers out there and I will keep that in mind going forward. If that’s the stuff that you guys want to read, then I’m willing to write it. If you have not read that piece then you can find it here.
Ok so these special monthly updates to the Weekly Blog have always been about my New Year’s Resolutions and this update will be no different. If you want to, you can go read through all my previous iterations letting you know how my New Year’s Resolutions are going. All of them can be found under the Weekly Blog tab at the top of the page or you can use the search bar and search “Resolutions” and that will bring them all up. I’d recommend that you check out my original post here detailing my New Year’s Resolutions and how I hope to accomplish them. You can also check out last month’s update here which will you know how I did between July 1st and August 1st. I noticed that in last month’s update, I kind of forgot that September was even a thing. I talked about how we were entering August and starting our approach to the end of the year and how we have things like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas to look forward to. I completely left out September as a month to look forward to. I know there aren’t any major holidays in September but it does kind of symbolize the ending of summer and the beginning of fall. Honestly Fall/Autumn is one of my favorite seasons so I can’t wait until the leaves start falling, the air gets colder, and every product gets a pumpkin flavored/scented equivalent. But before we look forward towards the Autumn chills, let’s take a look back at the month of August and how well I did with my New Year’s Resolutions.
My first resolution of 2017 is that I wanted to write more. Ever since High School I have been someone who has already had a ton of ideas floating around in my head, but I never wrote anything down. Ideas are great, but I’m never going to become a writer unless I start writing stuff down, so I decided that in 2017, I was going to write ideas down and start myself on that path towards being an Author. The whole idea of writing more then lead me to starting the website you see before you and I started uploading stuff in Early January and launching the website (officially) in late January. I have been writing and uploading posts including Weekly Blogs, Political Posts, Creative Writing pieces, and pieces based on Writing Prompts. In July we celebrated the 100th piece being uploaded to the website and since then we are up to 114 total pieces being uploaded to the website including this Weekly Blog update. Honestly that blows me away and I am flabbergasted by all the views, likes, and comments that you have sent my way. I know that the beginning of August was rough with very little being uploaded to the website, but at the back end of August, I saw one of the biggest upticks in views and likes in the history of the website. We had some posts blow up in popularity and I was amazed so many people wanted to read the stuff that I wrote. So thank you so much for your views, likes, and comments. All of it means so much to me and your support literally makes my day. I’m hoping to see a continuation of growth going forward into September and I think a normalized schedule will help with that.
My second resolution that I have been working on is that I want to be more positive as well as be a positive force in the world. Going into 2017 I noticed a lot of negativity on the internet and in the world and that really dragged me down. I had some of my darkest and loneliest moments in 2016 and at times that despair really got to me. So I decided that I wanted to shake off those shackles that would get me down and try to focus on the good out in the world. I wanted to use this website as a place for positive feedback and support for others and I wanted to spread those positive vibes to people in the real world. Now it is impossible to be happy and positive all the time. That would be an unrealistic goal and I would never achieve it. However, even in those darker times or times when life is getting me down, I try even harder to focus on the silver lining among the dark, storm clouds. I try to let things slide off my back instead of focusing on them. It is important to remind myself that there’s no point of trying to change the past and make it better. It is the way it is. I can only focus on the present and how I’m going to make it better so that I have a more positive future ahead of me. So how well am I doing at this resolution? Well, like I said, I’m not perfect. I’m not happy 24 hours a day, every day. But I’m trying and that’s what counts. I’m trying a little every day and I’m hoping that it is helping the people around me and therefore helping myself. So I spend a little time each day picking people up instead of tearing them down and I reach out to my support system whenever I need help. I’m thankful I have people I can turn to who care about me and listen to what I have to say. Living without good people around you is hard and can be more damaging than a world of solidarity. At the end of the day, I hope that I’m creating a positive atmosphere both online and in my real life.
My third resolution that I’m focusing on in 2017, is that I want to be more adventurous. I want to be someone who is open to new experiences and puts myself out there for the world to see as well as going on literal adventures. I want to travel more as well as spend the time to take in all the stuff around me that I might overlook on a daily basis. This adventurous attitude that I’m trying to embrace is sometimes a double-edged sword, especially when things don’t work out. The fact that I’m putting myself out there often leads to more setbacks and getting more criticism. The past few months I have been trying to find a new job and start my path towards a career. Unfortunately there hasn’t been any real opportunities and that has become frustrating. I kind of feel like I’m stuck in a rut at work and the longer I’m there, the less and less likely to move on to something else. I want to keep on moving up in the world and even though I like my job, it’s not what I want to be doing for the next 30 years of my life and it doesn’t have a ton of room for improving. When it comes to actual trips and going on adventures, I don’t have a lot to report on that either. I feel like I’ve kind of wasted the summer and all this beautiful weather we had by not going out more, but between work, friends, family, and writing, there isn’t a ton of time left at the end of the day. Altogether this resolution is probably the one I struggled most with in August and over the entire summer.
My fourth and final resolution is that I want to be healthier in 2017. This resolution has a big focus on my diet and exercise as well as my mental health. If you have read any other of my updates, you’ll know that I have been pop-free for about two and a half years now and I have been drinking a lot more water. There are days where I have sugary drinks like Lemonade or Gatorade, but most of the time I drink only water, milk, or juice. I try to cut down on sugar and drink only water while I’m at work. There are days where I crave a Coke or Mountain Dew, but most days I don’t even miss it. I feel a lot healthier since I gave it up. When it comes to my diet, I’ve been trying to add more leafy greens to my diet. I eat a lot of salads at work for Lunch and things like carrots and asparagus. I also eat a lot of chicken and less red meat like steaks or hamburgers. So far my diet (“Diet” makes it sound like I’m on some specialty diet, but I’m not. I’m just watching what I eat more and more. No fad diets for me.) is going really well, but I have been lacking in exercise. There some days at work where I really get my step counter up and get my heart racing. Then there are other days where I mostly just sit in a chair at a desk and my step count is terrible. I will say that I spent quite a few days at the County Fair and those days lead to me getting a lot of exercise. So altogether, August was kind of a mixed bag when it comes to my levels of exercise. Overall I think I did pretty well with my fourth resolution, but there’s always room for improvement. Eating less and less sugar and exercising more and more definitely helps me feel better and look more in shape.
So that’s a summary of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2017 and how they are coming along during the month of August. I think I did a pretty good job overall, but I’m still working to improve myself everyday. There is room to grow and hurdles to jump over along the way. I think I’m improving from month to month even if there are some setbacks and days where I don’t quite make my goals. It is important to look at resolutions as a way to better yourself through small, achievable steps. Sometimes people can stop working on their resolutions because they set unachievable goals for themselves and then become frustrated when they fall short. Make sure you set small goals that you can improve upon everyday instead of one huge goal that is too far out of your reach. It’s good to have lofty, overarching goals, but make sure there are realistic steps between here and there so you can work towards it overtime. Another problem that sometimes arises, is that you focus on others instead of yourself. Don’t compare your life to others because you only see one part of it. Other people’s lives are complex just like yours, so don’t assume you are seeing the whole picture when you compare your life to others. Just focus on yourself and your improvement. Have you approved since a month ago? A year ago? 10 years ago? That should be your focus. Also remember that you don’t need to wait until January 1st, 2018 to start on your goals. Come up with a resolution right now and start on it today. If you procrastinate, it might never happen. Take this time to think of something you can improve upon over time and create some realistic goals that will help you get there. Improve yourself little by little and you’ll be surprised on how far you’ve come when you look back in a year’s time or even just a month.
That’s all for this month. I hope you enjoyed reading about my New Year’s Resolutions. If you did, maybe spend some time on the website and check out my other Weekly Blogs located under the “Weekly Blog” tab. If blogs aren’t your thing, there are plenty creative writing pieces so maybe you’d enjoy those. Just another reminder that we are starting up with our regular schedule starting with a Weekly Blog on Sunday, new Fanfiction on Wednesday, and Writing Prompt piece on Friday. Thank you again for all your support and if you liked this post, don’t be afraid to hit that little star indicating that you liked it.
Thank you again, and I hope you have a fantastic week!
-Allen_The_Writer
Allen The Writer 