My New Year's Resolutions!

This year has been pretty tough for me & I think that it's pretty much been the same for everyone - I haven't talked to anyone who's said that this year has been a good year for them! I feel like come tomorrow 2016 should be "the year that shall not be spoken of!".

The dawn of a New Year is a great time to set yourself goals and aim to develop yourself as a person, and I think I've changed a lot this year but I have a huge amount of room to grow; so without further ado, here are my New Year's Resolutions for 2017:

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1. Be happier: Do more things I enjoy and spend more time with the people I care about; listen to my heart and use my head to follow my dreams.

> This year I found that a lot of the time I rely on other people for my happiness, so instead of doing things that make me happy, I do things for other people hoping they'll be caring towards me as a result. (FYI that gets you nowhere in life, so do things to make you happy, because if those people go, you're happiness is going to leave with them).

2. Be more confident: This year I've found that I'm afraid to let my guard down around people in case I get hurt, but I've also come to realise that if I don't let my guard down, people don't get to know the real me and can't get close to me. So this year I'm going to work on not being so afraid of other people's opinions and just be myself around people. I don't want to put on an act and try to be someone I'm not to please other people - if they don't like me for me then I shouldn't waste my time with them.

3. Be healthier: This year I lost two stone over the summer and have managed to keep it off! I'm at my goal weight now, but I need to exercise more and lead a healthier lifestyle; keep eating healthy, drink less caffeine, be more active and take care of myself more. I tend to eat poorly if I'm feeling down and become quite lazy, so I need to find a way of combating that in 2017 to be healthier than ever before.

4. Be motivated: This year has been a really hard one for me and has had lots of low points, so it's been difficult for me to keep myself motivated and achieve my goals. In 2017 I need to really knuckle down and get on top of things; I have ideas about what I want from life but I just never put them into action, so this coming year I really need to get my arse into gear and get on with it!

> Also, I haven't posted on this blog nowhere near as much as I wanted to (because 2016 has been a dick!), so in 2017 I'm hoping I'll be able to gather the inspiration and motivation to keep up with a blogging schedule!

5. Be-lieve in myself: I guess this goes hand-in-hand with all of the others, but I just need to stop doubting myself all the time.

> I can be incredibly anxious and it gets in the way of me doing what I want to do; it makes me less happy because I can shut myself away or not follow my dreams because I'm scared it won't work out; it makes me less confident because I'm always second-guessing myself and worrying about what others think of me, therefore not letting my guard down or letting people get to know me; it can make me comfort-eat (that's why the two stone I lost went on in the first place!), or stop me going to the gym because I feel embarrassed to work out around other people; and it can kill my motivation as I get in my own way and doubting myself only leads to me not doing things in case I do it wrong or someone judges poorly.

*Believing in yourself is important and although it's hard, you have to push yourself to do things you're afraid of doing (in case of failure) because you won't know if you'll succeed without trying!*

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What are your New Year's Resolutions?

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I hope that this year hasn't left you feeling down in the dumps & and I sincerely hope you have an amazing 2017!

See you in the New Year!

Laura xo