Something I try to do every year is reflect midway through the year on my New Year Goals. This year I know I have not been doing very well so I’m not exactly looking forward to reviewing these because I definitely have not looked at my goals since like January 20th when I moved back into school and I was supposed to hang them on my wall but I didn’t. So here is a wild stab at something that is probably going to make me very upset with myself.

1. Study abroad. One of my big goals for the year is to study abroad for the fall semester. I really hope this works out, I’ll keep you guys posted once I find out if it’ll work out or not. Well, I’m going to IRELAND. I’ve booked my ticket, I register for classes in about a month. This does seem to be working out.
2. Take care of self– mind and body. I need to start eating better and caring more of myself rather than just filling myself with crap. I don’t want to set a goal like lose ten pounds or anything, I just want to be a healthier person in general. Well I gave up fried food for a while and I felt good but that was for lent and then I stopped. I need to do it again. I don’t think I’ll do it as extreme but definitely cut a lot of it out. 
3. Get shit together. Sorry about the swearing, I just feel like I need to get my life organized in way that makes it more maintainable and less stressful. I would say I’ve been a lot more organized. I’m not waiting for answers, I’m getting answers. 
4. Do not take anyone’s crap. If someone is treating me badly my goal is not to take it. I can be a pushover sometimes and I don’t want that to happen anymore. I am standing up for myself. I’m not letting people take advantage of me. Okay that might not be fully true, but I am stopping a lot of it. 
5. Develop a plan of somesort. I don’t have a life plan, a five year plan, or even a one year plan. I want to have a plan that I can help guide me so that I feel like my life has some order to it, or at least feels that way. Still don’t have one of these. 
6. Be more creative. I want to inspire my own creativity, craft more, paint more, just create more. I would say that I have been. Being creative really helps me to relax so the more creative I am, the less stressed I am so I’m really trying to do this more and more.
7. Blog 3-5 times a week with good, strong posts. I don’t want my blog to slack like I feel like it has this year because I blogged everyday. While it had it’s advantages I don’t feel like I was very good at finding a post everyday that was strong, I hardly planned ahead and there were some days where my posts were just bad. I also want to spend the few days off organizing and elaborating more of the blog itself in addition to the content I produce. I don’t want to talk about this haha. I know that I have not done this. I know my blog is lacking my personality. It’s really making me ask myself a lot of questions about my blog. I am considering going back to daily blogging. It’s a very touchy subject for me that’s hard to find people who can relate with it because I feel like most bloggers are comfortable with 1-2 posts a week, maybe three. I don’t know. I need a schedule or something, so if anyone has any tips, I would be glad to take them. 
8. Positivity- I don’t have to be the most positive person but make an effort to be a positive person in people’s lives. I don’t need to be an optimist like I said before, I just want to be a positive influence in the lives of the people around me. I would like to think that I have been more of a positive influence on the people around me. I think it’s really important to be the positive light in someone’s day. You never know when all someone really needs is encouraging words.
9. Surround myself with people who truly care. I don’t want to waste my time with people who only want to be with me when I’m the backup option. I don’t have to be the first, but I don’t want someone to hangout with me because they don’t have anything better. Check, check, and check. I don’t think I have to add anything to this because I could hand you a list of names of people who I know care about me. 
10. Care more. I care about people a lot, probably to an annoying point where I always ask what they need or what I can do for them and I constantly make sure they’re okay because I worry but I need to care more about myself. I need to care more about what I do and how everything affects me long term. I do care about myself, but I think a lot of times I put other people’s needs above my own. I don’t want to say that’s a bad thing, because as a Christian, I think it’s very important to take care of the people around you before yourself, however I do think there’s a point where if you don’t take care of yourself you won’t be able to help anyone else. Every now and then I get to that point and I need to say “Okay, yes you should help your friend, but if you don’t do this, you won’t be able to do that.”
11. Develop a passion for something. I have a passion for my blog but nothing else. I want to have passion for something I can do long term and maybe for the rest of my life, more than just a hobby. I don’t know if this just comes down to something as simple as just not being a passionate person. I wish I was but I’m not the kind to just be passionate, I don’t know why.
12. Work and try harder. I do a lot of things very half-assed. I want to do things in a way where I give it my all. Everything I do should be my best efforts not my an attempt or a try it should be great. This semester definitely showed me that if I put forth my best effort in everything I do I can succeed and I really am trying and working harder. 
13. Don’t waste time. I feel like I waste so much time just laying around and doing nothing I should do something effective with that time. Ehhhhhhhhh…….. I don’t know what to say about this. 
14. Be more self-confident. I don’t want to look in a mirror and see things I don’t like about myself or want to change, I want to walk out the door confidently and happy with how I am. I mean after last nights blog post I would say that this answer is more complex. I am content with how I look but I am not confident enough not to care what other people might think when they see me. 
15. Be more receptive of compliments and criticism. I don’t take either of these really well, compliments tend to make me feel uncomfortable because I question the motives and how genuine the person giving them is. I tend not to take criticism well because I think I’m always right and that’s how I like to live life, but I need to take into account other people’s opinions when it comes to what I say and think. I’m trying. Like there are certain things that cause me to basically shut down and be unable to think  about anything else, but I’m still trying. 

So how are you guys doing with your goals and resolutions? Half way through 2015, isn’t that crazy?????