2017 Resolutions, Goals and Challenges


I can't believe the year is almost over. Like, how? Personally, 2016 has been a pretty good year. My anxiety has been pretty good, at the moment it's not too great but it's not as severe as it once was so it's okay. I've made some friends, started a new hobby, moved to a beautiful place and made some wonderful memories. I've also read 70+ books which I'm SO PROUD OF. I'm super excited for the new year, I always feel super motivated and I'm hoping I can keep that up for the majority of 2017.

I love setting goals and resolutions for myself in the new year and as I get older, I'm getting better at sticking to them! So, without further adieu, my goals for 2017:

#goals (sorry, I had to):
1. Be a better Christian
I want to be closer to God. I want to read my bible more, I want to go to church and I want to live a life that will make God proud. I definitely feel as if my life is being more consumed by friends/blogging/school and not Jesus, and that definitely needs to change. 

2. Get As/A* on my exams
This is one of my most important goals. I'm doing my AS levels next year and I need to get high grades in order to study astrophysics at university. My reading and blogging will probably fall to the wayside because studying but I hope that won't be the case!

3. Improve my anxiety
I've definitely been challenging myself more and it's been hard, hence why my anxiety has been slightly worse lately as I'm trying to break out of my comfort zone, but I definitely want to do more to improve it - perhaps see a CBT person, as I've heard that's incredibly helpful.

Resolutions:
1. Eat less sugar
Guys, I eat way too much chocolate. In the new year, I want to limit my chocolate intake dramatically. Perhaps only eat it on the weekend or if I eat it during the week, only have one or two blocks instead of half the slab, like I usually do.😂


2. Get back into my pilates
I GOT A PINK PILATE'S MAT FOR CHRISTMAS AND I'M SO HAPPY. I love doing pilate's but I've been sick on and off since October so I haven't been doing as much as usual, but I'm definitely going to get back into in the new year! 

3. Meditate
I definitely found meditation helped my anxiety but I'm so slack at it. THIS WILL CHANGE YAS.

4. Get to sleep earlier
Literally since the day I was born I've struggled to go to sleep early. Sleep just ain't my forte.

5. Create a blogging schedule and stick to it
I haven't had a blogging schedule in like, four years. But I'd like to try it again so I can feel organised  to see if it'll work better for me than the sporadic posting I tend to do.

Reading Challenges:
You know, ever since I started book blogging I've always failed at reading challenges as I forget which ones I've signed up for as the months go by but this year I'm determined to stick to it! There is one challenge (not counting the Goodreads one) that I'll be participating in: Beat the backlist challenge hosted by Novelknight. I have so many unread books on my shelf from when I first started blogging and I desperately want to reduce that number. I was shocked to realise that this year I've only read five books I've bought. However, I read 44 review copies which I'm incredibly proud of! Next year I want to read as many of my own books as possible. I read a lot of library books and I'd quite like to reduce the amount of borrowed books I read in the new year and whittle my TBR down to a much smaller number...I'm not sure if I'll succeed, though.

I'll try to read 40 backlist books. Yes, you're right, I'm being stupidly optimistic but if I lock my library card away and don't walk into any bookstore ever I might manage this.

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What are your goals and resolutions for the new year? Are you participating in any reading challenges? Let me know!