New year's resolutions 2014!

Boop!
First of all, sorry I haven't been around much, my christmas has been so stressful. I haven't really had time to do anything, but I'm back now. I hope you all had an amazing christmas with your families and a fantastic new year with the people you love!

As the title reveals, I will talk about new year's resolutions for a moment. Mainly because I do have a few myself, but also because I want to share my view on how to make a "proper" new year's resolution. If this was a youtube video, I'd make a jump cut right here.

Making a new year's resolution
Let's be honest for a moment. How many people manage to actually keep the classic resolutions? Lose weight, quit smoking, floss daily, the list goes on.
I've had so many of these classic new year's resolutions, and to be honest, I never actually kept them. When I started high school in 2011, I realised that I'd been doing the resolutions all wrong. I had to make new year's resolutions that I knew I could keep instead of making things that I should do.
To make a good new year's resolution, think about this:

* Will you be able to keep it?
* Is it simple?
* Is it too optimistic (i.e. "quit smoking")
* How will you do it?


New year's resolutions through the years
In 2011, my new year's resolution was to be more thankful. I hadn't been very good at thanking people and showing gratitude, but I decided that enough was enough and made it my new year's resolution. That was the first year I kept a new year's resolution, so I was really proud. This was when I decided to do this properly.
In 2012 my new year's resolution was to cut down self harming. I didn't want to force myself to stop completely, because I knew that wouldn't happen, but for christmas 2012, I hadn't self harmed for about a month.
In 2013, my new year's resolution was to be happier. I know this is one of the cliché ones, but it made sense. When I reached September, my psychologist told me that I would be off citalopram for christmas, if everything remained the same. It did, so I'm partially med-free now.

In 2013 my friend and I agreed that when we celebrate new year 2014, we should both have a boyfriend. That's not really my new year's resolution though. For 2014, my new year's resolution is to make my mum proud. I know she'll be proud of me when I get my graduation cap after finishing my last exam this summer, so that's what I'm aiming for.

Do you have any new year's resolutions? Tell me about it!