NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS???

[Guest_3072]

Hey everyone,

What do you guys think of new year's resolutions?

Do you guys have any for 2017?

...I need ideas lol

Gabby

[girl_interrupted]

Hi Dottie! You have some great goals! Maintaining a high score for a degree - not an easy task! I'm sure if you've managed so far, you can do it! I need to find the motivation (and courage) to achieve more than a pass on my degree lol. But we can do it!
Work experience - great idea. You could even sign up for some volunteer work. Community work is a wonderful way of meeting new people and gaining a new skill. There's so many different fields you can get into. I'm not a shower hog, but I hear you. Hot showers are awsome! (and cold ones in summer). A timer is a great idea - hey how about investing in one of those shower radio/bluetooth things - you could set it, or listen to one song and time's up.

Travel overseas sounds like a great goal. Maybe set it for a realistic time - how long it will take you to save etc and ways to reach that. Yeah reality sux sometimes lol.

I especially liked your idea of stretching the goals out - not limited to just the new year but to focus on an ongoing change. And finally your comment about following your principles and beliefs. A very important one! 🙂

[Guest_322]

Hi girl_interrupted,

I'm touched that you have responded personally to each poster on this thread. That's very thoughtful and I appreciate all the tips and encouragement. Thank you.

Ah, it's great that you're studying too. Yeah, maintaining grades can be super stressful. Thanks, I believe you can do it! What are you studying (if you don't mind me asking)?

Just as well that you're not a shower hog (the environment thanks you, less so me ha, ha).

Great suggestion re: volunteer work. I have been doing some volunteer work for a couple of years now but it's always good to broaden work/volunteer experiences 😊

Yeah, I love NY resolutions but I also have ongoing goals too that aren't limited to NY. Best of both worlds!

I might reply to your post about your own NY resolutions in a separate post.

Thanks again,

Dottie x

[Guest_322]

Hi again girl_interrupted,

I think it's great that you're on this personal health journey. Mental and physical health- I like your approach. The meetup group that you've joined sounds fantastic. Hopefully you'll attend your first meeting when you feel ready as it would be great to have the regular support.

I also like the idea of us online posters encouraging each other to achieve our goals, make progress, etc- good one!

Wow, so many goals but that's a good thing as you're clearly wanting to work on so many aspects of yourself and your life. I particularly like your one about kindness.

About your thankfulness goal, Mrs. Dools actually has a thread called "Three things to be thankful for" in the Staying Well forum so you could consider posting your daily gratitude lists there (and draw from others' lists for inspirations).

Dottie x

[Gruffudd]

I haven't lived in France, just holidays, although one of the benefits of being a european citizen is that I could... depending on what the UK does next I guess.

I like the idea of having a resolve and new year seems reason enough to think on such things. What would it take to be more mindful, consider others a little more, do those things that make you feel good that fall away with business?

I'm considering a Duolingo related goal.

[Janey123]

Love the idea of a fresh start in the new year!

I seriously need to start exercising again, so as unpleasant and unexciting as it is, that is my number one resolution, to lose some of the weight I've stacked on over the last six months comfort eating.

Next would be to slow down and pay closer attention to my unhelpful thoughts.. I am going to complete a 40 day course book called May Cause Miracles.

I wish everyone luck!

[girl_interrupted]

A fresh start is good. What better way to start than to be kinder to ourselves and eat better, exercise more and start to feel more energy that has been depleted through stress, over eating/comfort eating and just generally the way we live these days with such busy lifestyles, everything so rushed it's no surprise that we neglect the most important areas of our lives - our body and mind. The 40 day course sounds interesting - would love to hear more about it as you progress through it. Ah yes, the unwanted, unnecessary, uncalled for, unhelpful and under-estimated thoughts that we all have from time to time that impact on our everyday lives. Wouldn't it be nice to just switch them off? But paying closer attention to them - a much better idea. Mindfulness is a wonderful tool. One I'm yet to master. Good luck and let us know how it goes 🙂

[girl_interrupted]

Thank you for such kind words Dottie. I'm so glad I've reconnected on here - so many wonderful people, very supportive with such open hearts and minds. In response to your previous post, I am studying nursing. Any sort of study is hard. I've never been good at self motivation or time management, so it's extra challenging. I also have a hard time being kind to myself, something else I'm working on. I will definitely return to Mrs D's gratitude thread. Thanks again for your lovely comments and support. Keep us updated with your progress too 🙂

[CompulsiveLiar]

Hi.

My new years resolutions are

eat more vegetables

drink more water

eat less junk

talk to my family more

continue to cut back on all the bad habits i have going on

keep doing my best to be a nicer person

Thanks

Panther

[Guest_322]

Hi girl_interrupted,

It's wonderful to hear back from you 😊

Yeah, I agree with you that there's some incredibly supportive people here on BB. I like visiting the forums too to connect.

Wow, I think it's fantastic that you're studying nursing! I always gush when I learn that people are either nurses or studying nursing. I've mentioned it on another thread that I have enormous respect for the nursing profession. It's such a meaningful career that is definitely not for the fainthearted!

Time management and organisation can be challenging indeed. I have personally found that study habits are a bit like habit formation. I'm not sure if this is helpful but I do the following to aid studying:

- turn off social media and my phone (or put it on flight safe mode) as I get easily distracted ha, ha.

- use a reward system for completing a study task e.g. go for walk after you familiarise yourself with lecture no. 8 content, watch a YouTube video after you've completed a practice exam paper, etc.

- regular study breaks to minimise fatigue. Some people like to have 5-10min break every 1 hour. Others- like me- prefer longer breaks so I might study for 4 hours then take a 1 hour break.

- writing multiple study schedules to break down your time e.g. daily, weekly and monthly. Daily gives you an idea what you need to do on any given day, weekly gives you a bigger picture and monthly gives you an even bigger one. It also helps to have the flexibility to amend schedules if things happen and/or if you're finding that the schedules aren't realistic.

- switching up your study environment to reduce boredom (i.e. don't always study at the same location). E.g. I might go to a cafe, local library, uni library, park, etc.

- study multiple subjects on any given day (rather than allocating 1 subject/unit to each day) to counteract boredom and stay motivated.

- ask friends/family member/significant other/housemates/etc to remind you to study.

- group study dates with classmates. If you end up finding that they're too distracting then maybe meet up at an agreed time then split up to study (e.g. meet at the local library but you all find separate desks- away from each other- then later meet for a break).

- experiment with study methods till you find what works for you e.g. notes, no notes, mindmaps, etc.

Self kindness can be very tricky too. I hear you there as I'm not the best at it either.

All the best with it all and I hope we hear from you again 😊

Dottie x

[girl_interrupted]

Hey Panther, thanks for your post.

Some really great resolutions you've listed - I think I could highlight all of those on my priority list too lol. It's hard to be nice to people sometimes isn't it? I mean, when it takes all our energy just to get up in the morning and put on a fake smile (or facial stretch as I like to call it, coz it's such a foreign thing for me lol). Eating well/better is definitely a good start. It's so hard to break bad habits tho! I hope we can keep motivating each other here to stick to our goals and keep going. I'm feeling much more positive about 2017. I think it's gonna be a good year! Family is a tough one isn't it. Do you have someone you can spend some time with over xmas? (or afterwards if it's too much for you or you prefer to be on your own) You mentioned being nicer to others: well you're doing that already by contributing - feels good doesn't it? Cheers 🙂