Although I still think of my blog as new, it is four months shy of a year. In the beginning, I thought I would have my blog-stuff together by now, and be a writing whiz, along with having super cool picture-taking skills. It has not turned out quite like that, to say the least. Now don't get me wrong, I am pretty proud of the work I have done so far, because it took a lot of courage for me to put my thoughts and ideas out on to the internet, which is far from the safe and nonjudgmental place that is my mind. However, I am someone that believes that there can always be room for improvement and so this year I am setting a few goals for this blog! 

1. Learn how to make a blog button.

2. Reach 60 Bloglovin' followers by the one year anniversary of Me as Meghan.

3. Go on adventures/try new things in order to gain experiences that I can turn into interesting and thoughtful posts 

4. Post at least three times a week

5. Sponsor another blog

6. Host a giveaway

7. Tell my friends about this blog

8. Have a better blog schedule, where I plan out my posts a few weeks in advance

I hope these resolution posts aren't getting old to read, because I really love sharing my goals on here. Knowing that I have shared my goals with others is great motivation for pushing myself to work towards these resolutions. As an example, I wrote last week about how I wanted to get into better shape and feed myself well, among other things. This past week I have worked out 6 out of 7 days and I feel amazing (but sore)! I feel a whole new sense of inspiration growing in me and I am starting to feel like I can conquer anything this year. It is a feeling that I wish I could bottle up and share with you all, but we have yet to discover how to capture and send emotion in bottles, so I will just have to stick to sharing it with you through words! 

Happy Monday, and I hope you all have a great week! 

What are some of your blogging goals for 2015?

New Year's Resoution #2: Building a Better Me

Here is resolution #2 in my Monday series on what I am doing differently this year! If you missed last week's resolution, click here!

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Last semester really kicked my butt. I was burning the candle at both ends. I ate whatever I wanted when I wanted (hello, pumpkin muffins from Dunkin Donuts!). I was studying all the time so I was sedentary for what felt like 95% of my day. I was guilty of negative self-talk. I just wasn't focused on taking care of myself whatsoever. While I was really successful in school, I was limiting my own physical well-being. In my nursing classes, we are always talking about how major disease processes are brought on by poor diet, sedentary lifestyles, stress and other negative influences. I don't want to find myself falling into these diseases and I need to instill better lifestyle habits in my routine. Here are some additions to my routine that I will be working on this year: 

1. Eating better. Pizza for lunch and trips to the all you can eat dining hall will be minimized this year, for sure. More time and money will be spent on food that will make my body feel energized and healthy. I got a crock-pot last week and I have been obsessively looking up healthy recipes that I can make in it!

2. Drinking more water. More water = better skin, more energy, cleaner body!

3. Exercise. I want to be able to run with my mom this summer! She is an avid runner and I would like to work up to her speed. Right now, I am doing T25 to get back in a bit of shape all over before I start to run in the spring! I have heard a few good reviews about the Couch to 5K app...has anyone used it before, and if so, what did you think?

4. More sleep. Nothing good comes out of not getting a good nights rest. If I don't get much sleep, the next day I am exhausted, cranky, craving carbs, and unfocused. I would ideally like to get between 7.5 and 8 hours a night! 

5. Cleaner space. I have a tendency to be a bit messy, but I am hoping that if I follow the "organized space, organized mind" saying, I might be more successful in keeping my space tidy. I feel as though a disorganization space probably contributes to stress, so anything I can do to get rid of stress is a good thing!

6. Dedication to skin care routine. My skin is extremely temperamental...If I go one day without scrubbing/cleansing/moisturizing in the morning and at night, I break out all over my face for days. During the last few weeks of Fall semester, I found that my stress level and lack of adherence to my skin routine left me with horrible breakouts that took until the end of winter break to clear up. Must stuck to routine...no excuses!

7. Positive self-talk. I don't care if you are making resolutions or not, I think everyone needs to work on being self-encouraging! While scrolling through Twitter/Facebook throughout the day, I find that people can be so negative about themselves and their lives. I hate when I let myself fall into the traps of negative self-talk! This year I will encourage myself and say "I can"!

Did you have any resolutions similar to these? Let me know how they are going!

New Year's Resolution #1: Saying Yes

Happy New Year! 

To kick off blogging in 2015, I thought I would do a little Monday series on resolutions for the month of January. I know that making grand resolutions might be a typical blogger thing, but I haven't really made resolutions in the past for fear of letting myself down when I inevitably don't succeed. I know that sounds harsh and I hate that I never gave myself more credit before. However, 2014 really changed my perspective and my self-esteem. I accomplished a year of nursing school, I learned a ton at my summer job in a hospital, and I started this blog, just to name a few things that I didn't fail at. 2014 allowed a new confidence to blossom within me and taught me that failure is not always inevitable. I hadn't a single expectation for 2014, and I am surprised to have seen where I have been in the past year. I want to continue this path in 2015, but with expectations and goals so I can remain driven and focused. 

Along these lines, I want saying yes to be my first resolution shared. I have a bad tendency to shy away from new opportunities as I am worried about failing or even of what others might think of me. I don't know why this fear has always lived inside of me, but I think it is time for it to be squashed. I have realized that I don't like saying no all the time and I want to see/do more, and to do that, I need to say yes more. Now I am not planning on pulling a Jim Carrey in Yes Man by saying yes to every single thing that comes my way, but you get the picture.
Not only do I want to say yes to the opportunities that come my way, but I want to take it a step further and create those opportunities for myself. This is going to be a big year for me as I will graduate in December, and it will come with many massive life changes and transitions and I need to be well-prepared to handle those. I need to study hard and eventually job seek, while cherishing time with friends who I won't see all the time after graduation. I resolve to making more time to go on that coffee date with that friend and to enjoy the college time that I have left. I resolve to balance that time with preparing for the future and what ever it may bring to me.

I resolve to YES.

Are you making any resolutions this year?