Hello Internet!
I hope everyone is having a wonderful week and enjoying 2019 so far. Is everyone still dieting and exercising like they said they would or has everyone already given up on resolutions? I know we are only 13 days into the new year, but as we reach the two week mark, I feel like a lot of people start giving up. I get it. Life gets in the way and those resolutions fall to the wayside. We’ll talk about resolutions in a minute, but just know that it’s never too late to enact change in your life and if you fail, you can always get back on that horse. Now let’s talk a little about what was published on the website this week. This week I came back with a full force of published pieces that I want to make sure everyone got a chance to read. Last Sunday, I published my first Weekly Blog of 2019 which talked about The Future of the Website and gave you, as the reader, a realistic view of what year three is going to look like. Spoiler alert: More of the same for right now. On Wednesday, I published a Poem titled “New Start To A New Year” which talks about the New Year and its endless possibility. It has a mix of hope and cynicism. On Friday, I published a Writing Prompt Piece titled “Naturally Gifted” which tells the story of three young women, Dew, Fyre, and Willow, who gain magical abilities through their connection to nature. But how does their Druidic powers compare to the magical abilities of the city mage that rolled into town? I guess you’ll have to read it to find out. Lastly, on Saturday, I published the seventeenth chapter of my Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver Fanfiction titled “Pokémon HGSS#17: The Red Monster of Lake Rage.” Jonathan and Beatrice leave Ectruteak City after receiving a call from Professor Elm. Apparently there is something going on in Mahogany Town and The Lake of Rage and up to them to check it out. If you haven’t read any of these pieces, I highly recommend you check them out.
Now let’s talk about 2019. It is a new year which means people are setting new resolutions and trying to set goals for the year. I think that is awesome. I think people should be constantly striving to be better and improve themselves. That’s not something that should be discouraged which is what sometimes happens with the idea of new year’s resolutions. We hear “New Year, New Me” used as a joke for the people who set lofty goals for themselves and immediately scrap them on January 2nd. However, with some people, New Year Resolutions are powerful things that lead to real change. I know for me, a New Year Resolution lead to the creation of this website and it is the reason that I’m writing so much more. In January 2017 I made a resolution to “write more” and now two years later, I’m still writing and publishing things here on the website for people around the world to read. That’s real change. So am I some expert on life and do I always complete my resolutions? Absolutely not. I’m just a person trying their best to move their life forward and make each day better than the last. I fail a ton, but I keep moving forward. Sometimes the fact that I got through the day is enough. That’s where setting realistic goals comes in.
You know yourself best and you know your strengths and your weaknesses. New year resolutions usually focus on your weaknesses and how to improve them, but if you set your goals too high, you’ll never reach them. At the same time, if you give yourself too easy of goals, you’ll easily clear them which won’t lead to any meaningful change. It’s a balancing act where you need to constantly push yourself to be better without being too hard on yourself. One way to do this is to take your goal and break it up into more manageable pieces. You want to lose weight? Great! Now how do you do that? Well focusing on dieting and exercising is a good start. Don’t just jump into the deep end with fad diets and extreme workouts. Ease yourself in by creating a healthy meal plan and by doing simple workouts. Build up your strength and turn these healthy behaviors into normal, everyday occurrences instead of special events. If eating a salad and going to the gym is just a normal thing you do everyday, you’ll lose more weight overtime than if you treat those things like special things that distract from your normal life. How about learning a new language for New Years. Well figure out where you are going to start. You didn’t learn your first language with worksheets and vocabulary books. You learned through immersion. So figure out a way that you can use this second language in everyday life or a way to use your first language beside your second language. Everyone learns in different ways and you should know how you learn best. Cater all these things to you and keep in mind that change is a slow process and if you miss one day, that doesn’t mean you need to throw the whole thing out. Think of these resolutions as 52 weekly resolutions or 365 daily resolutions instead of one, large yearly resolution.
So what are my resolutions for 2019? Well let me tell you. I really have two large resolutions for the year, one of which focuses on me personally and the other focuses on the website. My first is that I want to read 12 books this year. Last year I didn’t read very many books and I want to change that this year. I figured that I could break down my resolution by reading at least one book a month. That seems very doable for me. I also believe that this will lead to a snowball effect where I will end up gaining momentum as I read each book leading me to reading multiple books a month. Twelve is the goal, but I hope to surpass that. The second resolution I have is that I want to “Write More.” This resolution helped create this Blog/Website back in 2017 and it is a resolution that pushes me to write and publish stuff here on the website. On top of this, I want to continue to improve my writing ability and keep on a schedule. I want to try to stay a week or two ahead of when things get published so that I won’t be stressed out the night before something is supposed to get published. I want to continue to create great pieces that I have fun writing and that you enjoy reading. There might be some pitfalls along the way, but I want to continue to grow the website and grow the community we have on WordPress.
New Year Resolutions can be daunting and you may feel like giving up already, but don’t. Remember that you don’t have to wait until January 1st, 2020 to start improving yourself. Just take a moment to take a step back and look at what habits you can improve upon and create resolutions around that. Set realistic goals that push you to be better but don’t push you too much. It’s a gentle balancing act. I know you can do it. Just turn it into a routine instead of some large, lofty goal that’s out of reach.
I hope you enjoyed that Weekly Blog. If you did, feel free to give it a like or leave a comment down below. Go ahead and tell me about your New Year Resolution for this year or years past and what things helped you achieve your goals. Any helpful advice is appreciated. If you really like this Blog, you can also spend some time reading the other pieces I mentioned above which were published this week. I really appreciate all the love and support from readers new and old and I know that together we can have an amazing 2019!
Thank you for all the support and I hope you have a fantastic week!
-Allen_The_Writer
Header Photo Credit to Deposit Photos
https://depositphotos.com/81812734/stock-photo-pen-writes-2019-resolutions-on.html
Allen The Writer 