18 in 2018

If you read my 2018 Goals & Resolutions post, you might have noticed that one of my goals was an "18 in 2018" project.  I want to use this as a fun way for me to make sure I'm either reading books that I've had for a while/love and want to reread, watch movies and TV shows I feel like I'm missing out on, and in general decrease the amount of things on my plate.  I also enjoy seeing a list, so that when I'm done with one I have another right there for me to choose from instead of my entire collection.

I've been a little back and forth on how often I want to update you all on my progress, but right now I think it's going to be every quarter.  While I'm sure I'll be able to get a lot done in a month, I'd hate to only end up showing one or two changes to my lists a few times; it would be a waste of a post. 

Books
1. Wicked: The Life & Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
2. 1984
3. The Great Gatsby
4. Milk & Honey
5. The Hangman's Daughter
6. Water for Elephants
7. Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen
8. Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take 5 Minutes or Less
9. Valley of the Kings: The 18th Dynasty
10. The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love the Lasts
11. Pride & Prejudice
12. A Song of Ice and Fire
13. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
14. The Opposite of Loneliness
15. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
16. Black Beauty
17. The Hobbit
18. The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman
There's a few different reasons why I picked these books.  Some of them are books that I've read and loved and want to reread, some have been sitting on my shelf for a long time and need to be read and moved out.  I also have a few of my kindle books that are Amazon Prime books I want to exchange for others and NetGalley books that need a review. A wide array of books!


Movies
1. The Hot Chick
2. Finding Dory
3. Beauty & The Beast (Live Action)
4. The Secret Life of Pets
5. The Little Rascals
6. Stardust
7. Bee Movie
8. Atlantis: The Lost Empire
9. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
10. Breakfast at Tiffany's
11. Walt Disney Short Films Collection
12. Nacho Libre
13. The Benchwarmers
14. Tropic Thunder
15. Moana
16. High School Musical
17. A Cinderella Story
18. Harry & Snowman
All of the movies on this list are movies that I haven't seen yet that are either classics or new movies that I feel like I'm missing out on by not watching!  I also made sure that every movie on my list I can find on either Netflix or Hulu; it would really suck to not be able to watch them after adding them here!

TV Show Seasons
1. Gossip Girl - Season 3
2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 3
3. The Great British Baking Show - Season 4
4. Grey's Anatomy - Season 12
5. American Horror Story - Season 3
6. Stranger Things - Season 1
7.The Office - Season 1
8. Friends - Season 1
9. Big Mouth - Season 1
10.Once Upon a Time - Season 1
11.Orange is the New Black - Season 3
12. Sherlock - Season 3
13. Dexter - Season 2
14. One Punch Man - Season 1
15.Total Drama - Season 1
16. The Originals - Season 2
17. Scream: The Series - Season 1
18. The Guild - Season 1
Again, this is a combination of shows that are classics that I need to watch or shows that I started and haven't finished yet.  Can you believe I haven't seen some of these shows?  I can't either.

Makeup Used Up/Decluttered
Unlike my other lists, the make up used up list is going to be added to as the year goes on and not have items crossed off. This is because I don't have any specific makeup items I want to use up this year, I just want to use what I want to use and then see if I happen to finish anything off!  I do still need to focus a little bit on getting things out of my collection which is why I still have a goal of finishing off 18 items.

Skincare Used Up/Decluttered 
This is the same exact idea as the makeup use up.  I have a feeling I'll be able to fly through the skincare since I use this much more than makeup, but I still want to make sure I'm working hard at shrinking my collection.

Bucket List
1. Get an adult job
2. Live on my own
3. Learn calligraphy
4. Make my blog more active
5. Organize my Pinterest
6. Get an Emotional Support Animal
7. Fill an entire journal
8. Paint a canvas
9. Graduate with honors
10. Go to a zoo
11.Visit a trampoline park
12. Start a scrapbook
13. Go to a spa
14. Visit a new state
15. Keep to a budget
16. Have a date night with myself
17. See a musical
18. Go to a wine tasting
As you can tell, my bucket list is full of different activities I want to be able to say I did this year!  Some of them are corresponding to the goals I've already set such as organizing my Pinterest and graduating with honors, while others come directly from my actual bucket list.  Since I'll be graduating college, I really want to start experiencing more in my life. This feels like a great start!

Well, there you have it!  As I write this, I already want to get started crossing things off my list. I'm so excited to have this direction for my year.  It'll also feel so good to be able to minimize my large collection of "stuff", and this is definitely the best way to jump start that.

Have you ever heard of an 18 in 2018 project? Are you interested in joining? Let me know!

 

My 2018 Goals & Resolutions

Hello everyone!

I am so excited for this post!  I absolutely love the new year, because it means new challenges for myself to tackle, new habits to include, and inspiration abound.  I feel really good about the goals & resolutions that I've put together for myself this year.

I've decided that my word for this year is going to be mindful. It fits into so many aspects of my life that it just felt like the best word to apply to this year's goals.  My goals are also sorted out by areas I want to pay attention to with my mindfulness, as you'll see below.

Let's jump right in now!

Mental Health:
Develop a self-care routine. This year, I want to make a big push to work on my self-care!  Self-care is sincerely one of the best things that anyone can do for themselves, and doubly so for myself.  Every day I want to have some small self-care time for myself, whether it be taking a nap or listening to a podcast, for example.  I want to have one pamper night every week, where I do things like masking or painting my nails.  Finally, every month I want to have a "me day", where I only do the things that I want to do and not have to worry about keeping to a schedule.  This may be difficult to do while I'm still in school but I want to really make a push to take care of my mental health.

Read 24 books.  It's always a goal of mine to read, and I seem to fail every year with the amount!  I always pick way too many. Last year I chose 60, which is more than one book a week, and with how busy I was I didn't even come close.  This year, I want to make it a far more reasonable goal and say that if I read two books a month I'll be happy!  I'm hoping I can knock this goal out of the water and add more books on later in the year!


Finish one coloring page a month. I know, this is a bit random!  I own a lot of coloring books and I really love taking the time to color, so I figured this would work perfectly.  Plus I just got a set of 48 colored pencils; it's a sign.

Journal every day. Again, I own a lot of journals and I never use them! This not only helps me get use out of my stuff, it's really good for anxiety to get all the thoughts out of your head.  It'll also be nice to see if there are any patterns in my moods and behaviors. I'm also really excited to be able to look back on my day and see what I've been up to!

Physical Wellbeing:
Develop a healthier lifestyle. I know, this seems like a super vague goal, but it's kind of an overarching goal for the year. I have more specific things I want to do below!

Eat breakfast every morning. The first step of starting the day off right and in a healthy way is to eat breakfast!  It kicks off your metabolism and gives a boost of energy.  I want to make sure I'm giving myself the best head start by eating!

Stop eating candy. I don't eat candy super often, but it really is just a bunch of extra sugar and bad stuff to put in your body.  While there's a lot more junk food I can cut out of my diet, I want to start with this!

Work out 3x a week. This may be the hardest one for me!  Going to the gym is a mixed bag for me as to whether I like it or not.  I struggle when I don't have a clear plan, so I'm hoping that going with a friend will help me stay focused and enjoy being there more!


Get to 150 pounds. I'm a little less strict on this goal!  I would like to lose weight, and that's an easy weight to set my goal at, however it's not all about numbers for me.  If I weigh more than 150 pounds but look fit and healthy, I won't be upset about not technically completing the goal.

Education:
Graduate with honors. This means graduating with a 3.60 GPA or higher. I currently have exactly 3.60, so I'm cutting it pretty close!  It also means I'm going to be working very hard to get good grades this coming semester, so that I can graduate and get those cords!

Get A's in every class. Part of the reason that this is on my list is because of the goal above, and part of it is because I want to leave on a high note. A's are a great way to feel accomplished about a class, and it'll push me to pay more attention and work harder in the classes.

Finances:
Get a job in human resources. This is more career than finance, but it still fits in well. I want to be able to graduate college with a job in the major I got a degree in!  That's the short-term career goal I have set for myself.


Pay off credit card balance every month. I made a nasty habit of spending too much money last year with my credit card.  While I'm not out of control, I'd still like to set a conscious goal of either having my balance at a predetermined amount or have no balance at all. That way, I'm not paying a bunch of interest or leaving myself vulnerable to spending over my limit (highly unlikely but could happen!).


Pay every bill on time. I don't necessarily struggle with paying my bills on time, but I know that the more I have to pay, the more likely it is that a bill will slip through the cracks!  I also want to make sure that I'm not paying the crazy late fees that come up when you're late.

Begin budgeting and watching finances. I set up a spending log where I want to track how much money I spend each day and on what.  This will hopefully help me slow down on shopping and especially buying food at school when I don't need to!

"Stuff":
Makeup low buy (12 items or less). While I certainly don't need more makeup, I also know that restricting myself from buying any new makeup will make me more likely to buy it.  By allowing myself the opportunity to purchase, but limiting how much, I'm much more likely to succeed!  Plus, I'm expecting that I will not end up buying 12 items anyway, as I've been pretty good about not purchasing things that I realize I don't need.  On top of the spending side, my makeup collection is out of control!  I really need to stop adding things to it, and this will help me be more conscious.

18 in 2018 project. This is something I'm most excited for!  I have multiple different categories (movies, TV show seasons, books, activities, makeup & skincare) that I'm trying to either accomplish, use up, and/or move out of my collection!  It seems strange at first, but I'm someone who has an unimaginably long list of things to read, to watch, etc. so by picking 18 things I really want to take care of, I can feel as though I'm accomplishing something!  If you guys are interested, I can definitely do a separate post on more about what 18 in 2018 is and what my specific items are.

Space:
Keep a clean and organized living area. This is a vague goal, but it's something that I just want to see and remind myself.  Clean and organized reduces stress and anxiety for me, so it's important that everything in my home looks and feels nice. 


Develop and follow a cleaning routine. Last year I put together a cleaning list for myself and then I never followed through with it. I'd like to restart that again and actually use it this time! 


Read all stories in FF folder. Look familiar? That's because this was a goal last year of mine to accomplish!  I didn't complete it, as you can tell, but I did get pretty close!  It won't be super hard to finish up this year, it's just a matter of actually taking the time to do it.


Organize Pinterest.Pinterest is a source of entertainment and learning for me, and I want to make sure I have it organized to a way that is easily accessible and understandable to me.  This was another goal of mine last year that I did not accomplish, but I really feel like it's important to do this year. I've already been working on it, plus with Pinterest's new sections within boards, it'll be easier than ever!

Time: 
Become more aware of the time I have & the time I use. While this is a rather vague sounding goal, it's important for me nonetheless!  I have a beautiful planner that I'm using that has a daily page with the times listed on it.  I've decided that I will write out my schedule as per usual, but I will include my daily tasks as well as habits to be written in the schedule.  This will hold me accountable to actually doing the things on my list, so it's a win-win!  I also find this goal important because I tell myself I have no time to do anything, yet I find myself sitting around doing nothing productive more often than I care to admit.


Well, that's it!  I know it seems like a lot of stuff, and it really is, but it's all things that aren't super hard to implement but are so important to being happy with myself and my life. I can't wait to see what this year has to bring for me!

What are your new year's resolutions? Are any the same as mine? Let me know!