The start of January signals new beginnings in our lives. New year, new me, as they say.

The beginning of January has come and gone, and clearly, I missed the boat. I listened to friends and family recite their New Year’s resolutions. Some were classics:

“Whole30 everywhere.”

“Dry January.”

“I’m going to the gym 3 times a week at least this year”

“Goodbye sugar.”

Others were a little more specific. A blogger friend I know wants to go to Coachella. Another is only using organic, cruelty-free skin care. With each resolution I heard, the more I thought about my own. Of course, I want to be healthier. Of course, I want to be more organized. But I have always wanted those things.

Somehow, despite all my resolutions from years past, I have never quite kicked my bad habits. I still leave my clothes on the floor like a child, and I still confuse my purse for a garbage bag.

I am not sure the correct formula for getting rid of old, bad habits. If I did, I’d be charging a lot more to read this, but what I do know is the best way to make a change is to have some type of accountability. By sharing my resolutions with all of you this year, I hope that my clothes start making it to their hangers instead of the floor.

2018 let’s do this.

1.Be the type of person who makes her bed.

If you skipped over the whole intro, here’s what you missed: I’m messy. Like really messy. My brother used to tell me that I would never get a boyfriend because I am so disgusting. The sad part is that his comment was warranted. Right now, I am the type of person to crawl into my heap of blankets and twist until I am covered enough to be comfortable. The whole slob thing worked for me when I was 4, but I decided that at 23, it just wasn’t cute anymore.

2. Give the Housewives a rest.

If you tune into my instastory, you know that I am a reality TV junkie. The Bachelor, Top Chef, Project Runway, all of the Housewives (especially New York), etc are a part of my regular tv rotation. Keeping up with all of these shows takes time which is something that I don’t have tons of. Every day, I think of things I want to get done, and after work, instead of devoting my time to actual productivity, I put on mindless television. Trust me, I love a good Teresa Guidice table flip, but it wouldn’t kill me if I saw a little less of it in 2018.

3. Actually workout.

Am I the only one who schedules a bunch of workouts for the coming week, but then never actually does the workout? Am I the only one who sees a photo from 5 years ago on Facebook and immediately starts doing crunches? Anyone? Back in the day when I had access to a gym (*sigh), I used to be pretty active, but now that my new budget has set in (*another sigh*), my workout schedule has taken a far back seat.

4. Use my phone for actual calls.

As you all know, I moved to New York permanently after I graduated college. I absolutely love living in the city, but when I moved here, I left many friends and family behind. I am originally from Chicago area, and I went to college in Grand Rapids, MI. Most all of my friends and family live in either of those two areas. I am not the best at keeping in touch with people. Even when relationships are important to me, it is easy to get caught up in the tasks of each day and forget to show those relationships the care that they need.

5. BLOG BLOG BLOG OH AND BLOG.

Living in this beautiful city of mine, I have had the privilege of getting to know a bunch of bloggers, some of whom are great friends of mine. I constantly inspired by their hustle and consistenty, despite having hectic schedules and/or full time jobs. Though my content has improved, I’m still not where I would like to be, and I hope this year, I can make some changes that I have been pondering about for far too long.

There you have it. My 5 big resolutions for 2018. Though I am sure the list could be much longer, I am unsure of my abilities to carry out more than 5. I’m a busy girl, okay?

See below for some of my favorite shoots from this past year.