How To Make 2017 Your Best Year Ever

I’m the first one to admit 2016 did not go as planned for me. I had this idea in my head that as my first year as a “real adult” working and making my own money I would feel vastly independent, cool and have my life figured out. However, for majority of this year all I really felt was stress, drama and massive amounts of student loan debt.

I think so many of us give ourselves such high (almost unrealistic) exceptions for each new year, I blame the silly tradition of “new year’s resolutions” that make us feel unsuccessful if things don’t turn out the way we planned. So instead this year I am going to start making more realistic steps to a better year.

I am not going to pick just one thing I MUST do. I am going to start doing a few things that I think will improve my life in the next year.

Most importantly this year, I am going to put myself first. This is something that we all should be doing no matter what but (we all know) we rarely do. As I’m getting older though I’m realizing that no matter how backwards I may bend for other people I will not always please everyone, especially this past year, so I might as well do something that is going to make me happy. I’ve learned that the right people in your life will be happy as long as you’re happy. The right people will stay in your life if they are meant to be there.

In the new year in order to start thinking more about myself and less on what everyone is doing online, I am going on a social media cleanse. In a generation that is social media obsessed, you’re probably lying if you say you don’t check your social media accounts at least once a day (probably multiple times a day). Whether people like to admit it or not, it’s a huge part of everyday life now and a huge communication tool for all of us. This is why I often find myself questioning why I’m constantly seeing people I don’t know on my timelines. Or even worse seeing people I can’t stand along with their posts that do nothing but get under my skin. Therefore I’m making sure I clean out my social media accounts and follow only people I actually care about seeing their posts and deleting/blocking those I no longer want to see. I wish it would be that easy to delete the negative people from your real life but this will have to do for now.

I always feel better about myself when I am organized, especially my work space. The time around the holidays/new year at work are usually a slow time because people are going away and using up the remainder of their vacation time and holidays. So with some of my down time at work I am going to take advantage of cleaning out my desk space and hopefully keep it that way each week afterwards. Things can get cluttered and disorganized from the chaos of everyday so cleaning it out will give me a fresh start for when the office gets busy again in the beginning of the new year. And if I’m feeling really ambitious maybe I’ll work on reorganizing my closet and room at home too.

As an avid shopping addict saving money for the future is something that has never come easy to me. But now that I have had an actual adult paying job for over a year it’s time for me to start planning ahead. I have big dreams of moving out soon, taking vacation trips with my friends, getting a dog all while going out and still maintaining my social life. I am really going to have to crack down and budget my money because along with the real life paychecks come the real life bills, like car payments and student loans. I have to start prioritizing and picking and choosing what is most important to me and right now that is saving money to move out sooner rather than later even if that means having to skip a few bar nights out and a couple trips to the mall.

I know I will be happier in the long run when I have my own place and I earned it on my own (hopefully in 2017).

So here’s to 2017 and trying to make it the best year yet (or at least better than 2016).