A New Year Without Resolutions

Welcome to the New Year! This is the time when we leave everything behind and start fresh. We make resolutions and promises to be a better person. We hold high expectations for ourselves and even life itself. But more often than not, nothing really changes. We hold ourselves to unrealistic goals and when we try to reach them, we fall short. 
I know that I have personally fantasized about achieving goals for the new year in the past and as soon as January 1st comes, I feel awful. I feel so much pressure to have a plan and to be ready. Then the next few weeks are spent criticizing myself- why can't I just do this one thing? 
It's hard to let people down but it feels even worse when you let yourself down. This year I don't want to pretend that 2016 is going to hold all the answers. I don't know what is in the cards for me. 

Instead of making a whole list of goals that I want to achieve for the next year, I just want to apply the lessons that I learned from last year.

• Trust in yourself.
• Don't forget to enjoy the little things.
• Accept that there are things that are beyond your control.
• If you don't like someone, don't pretend to be their friend.
• Don't judge people for their choices when they don't affect you.
• Call your grandparents without notice- they love it.
• Most arguments are not worth the time or effort.
• Don't be afraid to be yourself.

These are some hard lessons that I had to learn. I spent too much of last year being upset over things that I couldn't control. I refuse to let another year consume me with stress and sadness. 

It's cheesy but I found this Mark Twain quote to be very fitting for me.

My favorite part about this is "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did." I would rather make memories than look back and say that I played it safe. Every day we should be trying to live our lives to the fullest. Not promise to and then become discouraged because we didn't get the promotion or lose 50 pounds. Enjoy the experiences. Enjoy the memories. 
Now on to the fun stuff. Things we should all be looking forward to in 2016:

• Deadpool
• Zoolander 2
• The Forest
• Allegiant
• Kung Fu Panda 3
• Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
• The Jungle Book
• Alice Through the Looking Glass
• The Secret Life of Pets
• Finding Dory

Okay these are just movies but that is what I am looking forward to the most...

I am still going to do the 52 Week Book Challenge. From January 1st to the 9th I will be reading Cinder by Marrissa Meyer. Then every Sunday I will start a new book and review the one I just read. From January 10th-16th I will read 11/22/63 by Stephen King. Not sure why I thought reading 864 pages in 7 days would be fun, but oh well.

I wish you all the best for 2016!