Moment:
Thursday, January 9th at 2:37 PM CST
”If you have 20/20 vision when it comes to your future, you basically have 1 vision...because math. Mine is to make myself proud, even if I don’t make anyone else proud.“
If I’m being completely honest, I waited a week to post this to make sure I actually maintained all of these resolutions. Now I’m posting them for some accountability, so if you run into me, feel free to ask me about them!
1. Read my Bible every day (and finally finish a whole read-through!)
I’m the kind of person who always has to be doing something, so it can be hard to carve out some time in the day to just sit down and be still. Especially as a college student with a million and one things racing through my mind, I think it’s important for me to spend one-on-one time with God. I’ve read through the whole Bible before when I was a kid, but two years ago I resolved to read the Old Testament all the way through, and purchased a giant journaling bible to record my thoughts or doodle. This year, I’m resolving to finish the Bible by reading through the New Testament
I’ve linked the plan I’m following here, so if you decide to take on the challenge, please let me know in the comments (actually that goes for ANY of the resolutions on this list) because that would be super encouraging to know that there are other people on this ride with me!
2. Gratitude Log
Many of you have seen my Thanksgiving post that talks about all of the things I was thankful for over the last six-ish months, and if you haven’t, it’s linked here. This was an awesome experience because it forced me to take a few moments to reflect on my day, regardless of how good or bad it was, and find one unique thing that I was thankful for, so I want to continue that "attitude of gratitude" in this coming year.
3. Listen to new artists
I had a friend in India whose dad ran a radio station, so they had shelves and shelves of CDs from different artists both local and global, and I was really inspired by the diversity in genre and style. During the Christmas season, they play a playlist that has hundreds of different renditions of classic holiday tunes as well as original Christmas songs (P.S. add mine?). As a musician, I think it’s important to explore and appreciate all of the different artists that are out there creating music, so I want to listen to a new artist every week.
4. Learn a new bar chord
This is something I have struggled with for almost seven years since I first picked up the guitar, and it’s time to finally tackle it once and for all. For all you non-guitar players, bar chords involve pressing ALL of the strings down with your index finger and placing your other fingers on the strings to form a chord, which has always been difficult with my small hands, but I want to get better at playing the guitar, and I think this is the next step.
5. Workout 4 times a week
This falls under my productivity category because on the days that I exercise, I have so much more energy to do other things. Over the past few years, I‘ve done 3 times a week, and found myself exceeding it most weeks so I think I’m ready to add in that extra day. I know this is a really typical New Year’s Resolution, because I see literally twice as many people at the gym now, but it‘s a great stress reliever, and a healthy body and mind go hand-in-hand.
6. Wake up by 7 am every day
This is something that I used to do consistently in high school, but when I got to college, my sleep schedule just went out of whack. Waking up early (early for me at least) every day, rather than only on the days that I have early classes, means I have to manage my time better in order to prioritize sleep. In the past, sleep has been the first sacrifice I’ve made when it seemed like there weren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done, and I don’t want to do that, because sleep is awesome (but so is the sunrise)!
7. Aprender Español de nuevo
I’m going on a medical mission trip to the Dominican Republic this March over spring break, so it’s time to brush up on that high school Spanish! I’m hoping to relearn enough to help out with triage and basic care when we are treating patients in the DR.
8. Brush up on my Hindi
I just spent a whole semester in India learning how to read, write, and (kind of) speak Hindi, so I want to make sure that I retain what I’ve learned and hopefully learn even more so I can become conversational. It’s a very widespread language across India and now the globe, so I think it will beneficial for me in the future.
9. Blog once a week
This blog has transformed from a website to update my family and friends about my study abroad experiences into a platform that I can share things about my life that I want to put out into the world. I’ve had so many great conversations, with friends and strangers alike, that were sparked by a blog post they had read, so it has been a cool way to connect with people in a way that I really haven’t before. I love writing and this is a great creative outlet for that, so I really hope I can keep up with it.
10. Journal more
Yes, this might be one of the more vague resolutions that I have for this year, but with all of the blogging, bullet journaling, and bible journaling I do, I’ve found that I don’t really take as much time to sit down and journal my thoughts and reflections, rather than simply recording the events of my life. I was looking through some from that I kept when I was in elementary school, and it was so awesome to look back on the seemingly little things that had such a huge impact on my life, and on the flipside, the things that seems life-altering but didn’t really matter in hindsight.
