Hello Internet!
Welcome to Allen_The_Writer year 4! Truly we are living in the golden age of blogging and writing. Like, I’m writing too but that has nothing to do with the previous statement. Anyway, welcome back to my Blog/Creative Writing Outlet. If you are a newer reader, you might not know this, but I am entering the fourth year of writing on WordPress. I started this Blog in January of 2017 and we are approaching the third anniversary of that date. Basically there is a lot to celebrate now that we are in January of 2020. New year. New decade. New adventures on the horizon. But before we look forward, let’s quickly look backwards. Really quick I just want to shout out some things I wrote at the end of last year that you might have missed. First I published a list of my “best of” for both Poetry and Writing Prompt Pieces that you can check out if you haven’t already. Those lists link out to several of my top pieces I wrote last year just in case you are a new reader or just missed out on reading them. Also on January 1st, 2020 I wrote a piece titled New Queen On The Throne which is actually a sequel to a very similar piece I wrote on January 1st, 2019 titled New King On The Throne. Just some small stuff to celebrate the transfer between one year to the next or one decade to the next decade.
Speaking of next decade, we are in it. As in we are no longer in the Twenty-Teens and now we are in the Twenty-twenties. Goodbye 1920’s, we are the living in the true “Twenties” now. It’s the internet age and we don’t have to worry about things like world wars or preventable diseases. Right? Right… Anyway, we are at the beginning of a new year as well as a new decade and all of that new can put a lot of pressure on people to be a new person in the new year. I’m sure everyone knows about New Year Resolutions and I’ve even written some in the past. Actually, this whole Blog got started due to my resolution to “write more” which I continue to strive for every year. I really like New Year Resolutions because yeah you can start a resolution at any time of the year, the changing of the year presents a good time to look back on who you have been and look forward to where you want to be. It’s a nexus point where you can just take a moment to reflect and come up with goals that will help you improve your life going forward. That type of progress is good.
However I feel like there is a negative side of resolutions which is being magnified for some people as we enter a new decade. A new year and a new decade can create all sorts of pressure to become a new person overnight. Suddenly time is flying by and you are not where you want to be so you decide you are going to rush it. You are going to lose the weight, find the perfect person, give up the bad habits cold turkey, or whatever it is you want to change. Resolutions cause panic and stress as you set yourself up for failure by setting these unrealistic goals without any realistic timetable. If you are freaking out about resolutions, I hope you can just take a moment to breathe. Just stop what you are doing. Straighten up your posture, take a drink of water, and breathe. You are going to be fine.
Some people reject New Year Resolutions by saying stuff like “You aren’t suddenly going to be a new person just because it is a new year” or that “all time is arbitrary and the Earth just went around the sun once, what’s the big deal” and that’s fine. You can not do New Year Resolutions if you don’t want to. That’s perfectly fine. I will just say that some people do use this time to work towards a goal they have been wanting to achieve for a long time or bury a vice that they have wanted to quit. You shouldn’t crap all over that just because you don’t care about New Year Resolutions. If people are just doing what they do and it’s not affecting you, let them do it. Anyone can pick anytime to make themselves a better person or try to improve the world around them. New Year’s is just a time that a lot of people have that on their mind.
So if you are working on New Year Resolutions, I wish you the best of luck. Remember to go easy on yourself, especially if you are doing stuff for the first time. Every big change is really just a series of very small, almost unnoticeable, changes done over and over again. It’s ok if you have struggled or have even given up twelve days into 2020. You can just start over and set some realistic goals for yourself. You know yourself best and you know what type of stuff you might struggle with. Just keep that in mind as you think about resolutions. For example, daily resolutions might be better than yearly resolutions if you struggle with the thought of a year-long process. That way if you miss one day, you don’t have to just toss the resolution aside. There’s always tomorrow.
Also another piece of advice which might be helpful is that you don’t always have to do everything 100%. Sometimes a little bit is better than not doing it at all. For example if your resolution is to get healthier and that includes running a mile every day. Well if you just can’t make yourself run a mile today, running a little bit is better than not running at all. Yeah you might not have completed your daily resolution of running that mile, but that doesn’t mean it was a total failure. Don’t let the pressure of a new year or new decade crush you. You are a strong person and I know you can do it! Kick that resolution’s butt!
Thank you so much for reading my first Weekly Blog of Allen_The_Writer year 4 and the first Blog of 2020. It’s crazy to think of how far we’ve gone just in the past few years and I can’t wait to see what the next 10 will look like. Actually that’s too much. I’ll just focus on the week to week. Speaking of which, if you are new here or just didn’t know, I write and publish a variety of content here on Word Press. On Sundays, I publish Weekly Blogs. On Wednesdays, I publish Poetry. And on Friday, I publish Writing Prompt Pieces. I hope you will stick around and Follow me here on Word Press as well as Follow Me on Twitter. That way you will know when new stuff gets published to the website. In 2019, wonderful readers like you helped me grow my community here on WordPress and I had the best year in terms of visitors and views on my pieces, so thank you all for making that happen! Your views, likes, and comments mean the world to me and I know that you all are going to help me make 2020 the best year ever.
Thank you again and I hope you have a wonderful week!
-Allen_The_Writer
Header Photo Credit to Mercury EverOut
https://www.portlandmercury.com/things-to-do/2019/12/16/27656002/make-new-years-2020-a-night-to-maybe-remember-with-our-curated-collection-of-nye-things-to-do
Allen The Writer 