New Year's Resolutions: Progress

Hello everyone! So recently I've had difficulty deciding what to write about on my blog because I haven't currently got anything to review and I haven't been making crafty things to tell you about, but I still wanted to write something. Therefore, today, I am going to review my progress on the New Year's Resolutions I made 7 months ago and see if I am achieving them so far. Then, at the end of 2014, I will create another blog post to explain if I completed the full year living by my New Year's Resolutions.

New Year's Resolutions:
1. Be more productive
2. Stop overthinking
3. Be happier

I know that they're not extravagant (like "go skydiving") or anything like that, but my resolutions are personal to me and will hopefully change me into a better version of myself. Hopefully, some of you can make resolutions which will develop you for the better too:)

Be More Productive
This is an issue I struggled with massively last year. I admit, I was a computer addict and would spend over 8 hours a day on the computer (the recommended daily limit is 4 hours). Obviously, this wasn't too healthy for me and quite clearly made me extremely unproductive. If my mum asked me to fetch something for her from the kitchen, I would FREAK OUT and go crazy because I didn't want to move from the computer. Eventually, this problem got so bad that I wouldn't do school work, I wouldn't go out to see friends, I wouldn't walk my dog, I wouldn't go on family outings. I couldn't be bothered to do anything. But this wasn't only because of the computer. Even when I wasn't on the computer, I still didn't do anything productive because I had no energy or motivation to do so.
Being more productive meant that I had to sacrifice many things that made me 'happy'. For example, I decided to stop going on Tumblr because that was the main cause for my computer addiction, I threw away some games I used to play, and I went outside more. I made sure I was more active by exercising every day, I studied for college every single day. Little by little, I made myself more productive by doing little things and limiting the amount of time I spent on the computer or being unproductive. I'm still not completely productive ALL THE TIME (I have my moments when I feel unenergetic and 'sloppy') but the majority of the time, I will actually do productive and beneficial things.

Stop Overthinking
I can guarantee that each and every single one of the problems I went through last year was caused because I created it in my mind. From the years 2011-2014 I suffered from depression (possible blog post maybe?) and it was extremely difficult to cope with, however I made my problems 100x worse by overthinking about them. When you're in a negative state of mind, it is easy to obsess over your problems and think they are worse than they actually are. Looking back now, I realise that my issues could've been easily fixable if I put in the effort, but I made it worse by thinking that there was no way I could help myself. 
I'm just going to be honest here and say: OVERTHINKING IS DUMB. So how did I fix my problems with overthinking and panicking about silly little things? Simple, I just calmed myself down and got some sleep. If you're lying awake at 3 in the morning, crying over some problems and making it worse for yourself, just simply run yourself a cold glass of water, wipe your tears away, and snuggle up in bed to get some sleep. I know it's difficult to stop thinking about a problem when it is constantly on your mind, but sometimes you just have to distract yourself. I discovered that reading helps a lot when trying to distract yourself from your mind. I still overthink sometimes, but I've found that it's a lot easier to be calm about situations when you're in a positive mind set.

Be Happier
This final resolution can only be reached by achieving my previous two resolutions. For some people, being happy is difficult to maintain. For others, happiness comes naturally. For me, I am generally happy with my life. I get those bad days when I feel like crap and I'm just sad. However, overall, I have found happiness in my life. It's hard to believe that this time last year, I hated my life. This proves that happiness can be found in just a few months, you just have to put in the effort to see the results.
Little things. Focus on the little things that make you happy. I lit candles every night in my room and drank a warm hot chocolate whilst reading my favourite book before going to sleep.That made me happy every night. I arranged to see my friends a lot more and make new memories with them. That made me happy every day. I spent a lot of time on my hair and makeup because little things like that made me happy. There are so many things to be grateful about in this world: walks, family time, relaxing baths, hobbies, passions. It sounds silly to say it, but only you can make yourself the happiest. How did I get myself to be happy about my life? I searched for the things that made me happy, and when I found them, I kept them. 
I can't give you any advice on how to be happy with your life, you have to discover that for yourself. But it is achievable if you try.

So far, I feel as though I am achieving my New Year's Resolutions. I set myself a goal in order to change my life into what I wanted, and if you want to develop your life too, motivate yourself into achieving goals which will make you a happier person.

I hope you enjoyed this different style of blog. Let me know if you enjoyed it and I'll be sure to consider more blog posts like this in the future.

-bunnydiver.