How To Make New (School) Year Resolutions And Stick With Them
Sunday, September 04, 2016
These past few weeks have been super busy but I am happy to begin blogging again. Please stay tuned for some fun posts coming up soon, I will make an effort to post every week. After surviving my first school week, it's surprisingly nice to be back on a schedule. Before I get ahead of myself, let me give a quick recap of these past 2 weeks.
I packed my bags about two Sundays ago and moved into my dorm for this school year. I will be living in the all Greek dorm again which I am excited about. Campus was quiet when we drove up which made move in super easy. I was fortunate enough to move in early because I was a leader for a freshmen orientation service project day. That Tuesday and Wednesday consisted of a few hours of training and Thursday was the day when we completed the project. I led a group of 4 freshmen who all had different personalities. Despite their differences, everything (and everyone) came together and the end result was cool to witness. Our project was to do some yard work for an assisted living home and while the job was far from glamorous, it was a rewarding and unique experience. You can read more about it here!
Setting up my dorm wasn't too stressful. Being the neat freak I am, I made it my goal at the end of the day to organize my entire room. From arranging my gallery wall (action shot below courtesy of my mom) to hanging up my clothes by nighttime I had pretty much everything in it's place.
The rest of my week went pretty quickly. Campus started to feel more like home as more of my friends began to move in. But soon I began to question at if moving in early was even worth it. I never imagined that home sickness would be something I would deal with (especially since I live less than an hour away from my home) but one night that feeling kicked in pretty badly.
I have the tendency to question, a lot. I began to wonder how this semester (and entire school year, quite frankly) would be. Coming back to school, I was already setting very high expectations for myself and became overwhelmed at the though of it all to the point where I reached a breaking point. Perfection is something I strive for a lot. It's what makes me happy and feel good about myself. But fear and doubt is often what holds me back from being happy- a major flaw to my personality. And overcoming that flaw is something that I struggle with most days.
However, it then occurred to me that I was stressing about the future- months that have not even happened yet and would not happen if I let myself continue to feel the way I do.
Time is something we take for granted. It can flash before our eyes and before we realize it, we've missed it and all the opportunities that came along with it. Mapping out my time is an exercise I've found to be very relaxing. It really helps take away any fear or doubt in my brain and allows me to focus on the present.
During an hour in between classes, I went to the library and brainstormed on how I make goals for myself and stick with them. I thus decided to create resolutions for myself by month to make this year seem a lot less intimidating. During a recent chapter council for my sorority we ironically enough did something very similar where we had to set goals for ourselves for the month of the September and entire semester.
On Microsoft Word, I created a sheet that listed each month with it's own theme and little reminders on how to achieve them. These resolutions (or goals) were based on what I found to be important that month and focused on my physical and mental health.
Creating a document like this is a lot easier than it looks. I created a two columns in which I wrote the month, theme and statements that would help me prep for that month. I was able to fit 8 months of resolutions a regular 8.5 x 11 inch paper and printed it out. You can save the document as a PDF on your computer and keep it for reference OR you can print and cut each month out. You can keep them on your bulletin board or carry them with you in your planner. Whatever works best for you, do it!
By dividing the months up by several themes, I think it makes goal setting a lot more manageable and less stressful. It puts the entire year into perspective and makes reaching your goals more realistic. Setting these goals made my first week back go very smoothly and definitely gave me the confidence I needed to take on my junior year.
Are you feeling overwhelmed? How will you keep up with your resolutions for this school year?
x.
C
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