Hey daydreamers! This is the first official post of 2021, which is kinda crazy?! I feel like 2020 was both a super long and short year at the same time? After last year, I’m going into 2021 with fairly low expectations, but I’m definitely ready for a fresh start!

This week’s post is a collab with Arabella from Sparks of Ara! She reached out to me about a New Year’s-themed collab, and we decided we would both do a post sharing our resolutions for 2021 as well as some tips on how you can keep yours! Don’t forget to check out Arabella’s post here.

my resolutions!

I decided to separate mine into three categories: faith, finance, and fitness. 🙂

Faith: Read the whole Bible in 2021

After going on a winter retreat, I realized that I was seriously neglecting my nightly quiet time with God. I was getting distracted by books I wanted to read or getting home late from dance, and putting other things before spending time with God’s word. After the retreat I’ve been reading a little bit of my Bible and a devotional every day, and it’s already helped my relationship with Him and grown my faith! I thought that this year I could try to read the whole Bible in 2021, although reading the whole Bible isn’t my main focus, it’s more trying to read my Bible often.

To try and achieve this goal, I’m going to follow a 365-day Bible plan and read my Bible as part of my night routine. This is probably my most important resolution, and I’m hoping I’ll accomplish it!

Finance: Earn money as a babysitter

I’m finally old enough to babysit, so I thought that 2021 could be the perfect year to start earning some money as a sitter! I’ve done two jobs watching our neighbor’s son and my mom’s friend’s son, but after COVID happened I haven’t really been able to do anything. Until COVID is relatively under control and people will allow me to watch their kids, I’m going to try to take an online Red Cross babysitting course and get certified! I’ll also start by watching my little sister, neighbors, and mom’s friends. This one is under finance since it’ll be nice to earn a little extra money to help pay for pointe shoes and save up for things.

Fitness: Get a needle

It’s been a dream of mine for awhile to have a contortion pose called a needle, where you basically reach your arms overhead to grab your leg and straighten it all the way! This advanced pose requires a lot of back, leg, and shoulder flexibility, so I’ve been slowly working towards it for awhile. In 2021, I’m going to try to incorporate stretching into my morning & after school routines to work on it consistently. I also am a huge fan of Anna McNulty, so I’ll definitely follow along to her videos and stretch challenges to help get it!

and now, 4 tips on how to set (and actually keep) yours!

tip #1: don’t be *too* ambitious

Try not to set ten goals for the new year – I would do up to four or five at most. You’ll get overwhelmed and lose track of what you’re trying to accomplish. When I was younger, I always set crazy goals like “Write three books! Start a shop! Be a famous singer!” Seriously, I remember setting monthly goals like “Make an album” or “Be famous” (back when I wanted to be Taylor Swift when I was six, lol). Even though those are great goals to have in the long run, it’s really hard to accomplish all of that in just one year.

Take another look at your resolutions and break them down a little bit – “Plan and write a first draft of a story”, “Come up with a great business idea and make prototypes”, or “Take voice lessons”. These things put you on the path towards those big goals, but won’t leave you feeling overwhelmed and eventually forgetting about them. 😉

tip #2: create categories

If you aren’t sure what goals to set, you can create categories to separate your life into specific areas like I did above! I chose faith, fitness, and finance (I’m quite proud of my alliteration lol), but you could also try school, family, self care, blogging, hobbies, etc. Once you’ve picked a few categories (just a few, according to #1 😉), then you can figure out how you want to improve in those areas.

tip #3: make actionable steps

I think the biggest reason why it’s so hard to keep resolutions (besides forgetting about them) is that it’s hard to figure out how to accomplish them. Now that you’ve set a goal, how do you get there? This year, I tried listing some ideas on how I could achieve that goal. For example, if you want to drink more water, you could establish a habit of drinking one water bottle every day. To do that, you could buy a cute waterbottle that encourages you to drink more. Creating specific steps will help your goals not seem so big and hard to reach!

tip #4: stick them somewhere you’ll see them everyday

Honestly, the main reason why I’m awful at resolutions? I forget about them by February! My friend always writes her goals on a note card and tapes it to her bathroom mirror, where she’ll see them everyday as she’s getting ready, brushing her teeth, etc. Write down your resolutions and place them somewhere you’ll see everyday, like your nightstand, by the coffee maker, on your mirror, your phone background, etc.

This collab was so fun! I hope that y’all enjoyed seeing my resolutions and the tips helped you with your own! If you haven’t yet, don’t forget to head on over to Arabella’s blog to check out her post. I’ll see you next week, and happy New Year!!