The problem with New Year's Resolutions.

New Year's Resolutions: we all make them at one time or another, very few of us continue them throughout the whole year to reach December 31st thinking "I'm sure glad I stuck to those resolutions!" Most of us are usually trying to figure out how the next time around we're going to make it work. Except that it's not going to work the next time around, not unless you figure out what's not working. 

The problem with New Year's Resolutions is that New Year's Resolutions are only intentions. 

When we say "I want to be healthy" or "I want to work out more" or "I want to be more productive this year" all we're actually doing is setting an intention. That's what we're hoping to gain from the year - and then what? Intentions are great as they orient you in the general direction of where you want to go, but setting this intention doesn't tell you how to get there. Saying "I want to eat less chocolate" and not saying how much less you want to eat, why and how you're going to do that is the equivalent of standing in your bedroom and saying "I want to go to Cannes." That's very nice, but how exactly do you plan on getting there? And actually, why do you want to go to Cannes?

When we make our New Year's Resolutions, we often forget to clarify why we're making the resolutions - what is your overall intention of the year? 

I've read articles that argue that resolutions don't work because we set too many - I'd argue they don't work because they're not tied together with a common purpose. For example, if your overall intention for the year is to graduate in the summer with honours and spend the rest of the year interning in preparation for landing your dream job, your resolutions will be something along the line of:

• I want to study regularly and get started on my assignments ahead of time
• I want to be healthy so that I never miss a day of classes or work when I'm interning
• I want to work out more so I look good and feel comfortable and confident on graduation day and in office clothes

Alternatively, you can set a word for the year that will shape your year. My word for the year is "persistence" so I know that I need to be persistent in everything I choose to do and see it to the end, but this is very little use to me unless I have goals I want to achieve. 

Most New Year's Resolutions also fail because they're never turned into goals. 

Once you've set your New Year's Resolutions - your specific intentions which contribute to your overall intention for the year - it's time to turn them into goals. This is where that little S.M.A.R.T. acronym comes in helpful, because once you have your resolution, which is your intention, you have to turn it into something that is Specific - Measurable - Attainable - Relevant - Time-specific. For example the intention "I want to work out more" becomes "I want to practice 20 minutes of yoga on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays until the 31 March".

Now you have a specific goal and a date in mind that you can thrive towards. I personally prefer to break down my goals into three months chunks, especially as my theme is persistence, because thinking about putting in work every day for 90 or so days feels a lot less overwhelming than thinking about the 300+ days still to go until the new year. It also gives me a date at which I can review what I've done and decide what's working, what isn't and what I can do to stay on track for the next three months. 

So if you're struggling with New Year's Resolutions, double-check that:

• you know what your overall intention for the year is;
• that your resolutions/intentions are orientated towards this overall aim;
• and that you've set S.M.A.R.T. goals towards achieving them. 

Do you set New Year's Resolutions for yourself? What is one challenge you're facing in sticking to them?

One Lovely Blog Award.

I was surprised to find that I had been nominated for another award: Thank you Ladreena J of Heartdreenie for nominating me for the One Lovely Blog Award! 

The guidelines are: 

• Thank the person who nominated you for the award.
• Add the One Lovely Blog Award logo to your post and/or blog.
• Share 7 facts about yourself.
• Nominate 15 bloggers you admire and inform nominees by commenting on their blog. 

So, seven facts about me:

I | I grew up in South East London but am currently live in a village in TheMiddleOfNowhere, Belgium. I'm slowly plotting my return to civilisation. 

II| I bought my first concealer last year because until the Maybelline Fit Me Concealer came out, I'd never really seen affordable drugstore concealers in my shade. 

III | I am, and shall forever be, a massive Harry Potter fan. 

IV | The first blog I ever fell in love with and made me think 'that's what I want to do' was Susie Bubble of Style Bubble It was around the first time magazines began taking fashion bloggers seriously, and I love how much she, and the entire blogosphere, has grown over the years.

V | I love tea. And by "I love tea" I mean that on average I need to have ten different types of tea in the house or I am more than likely going to stare into the kitchen cupboards and say "we've run out of tea". 

VI | I hope to one day write for a living. I haven't figured out whether this will be because I'm a full-time blogger, a freelance content writer or a novelist (or all of the above) but I'm enjoying the journey towards figuring that out.

VII | In the meantime, I'm a law student. Whilst I don't think law is the career for me, I'd love to use the skills I've learnt to eventually help others by volunteering at a Citizen's Advice Bureau or helping immigrants and refugees understand their rights. 

I nominate:

HannieMC 

Wildhearts + Green Tea 

Maddy's Moon 

The Beauty Monologue 

blush parade 

Beauty, Books, and babble... 

Soda Berries 

Voguescent: Beauty, Life and Style 

Jasmine Harding Make Up 

Life of Briony 

Laura Kathren 

K Nel 

Anna Jane 

Emily-Jane 

Rebekah Mary 

Definitely check out Ladreena who nominated me and the other blogs I nominated. If these awards have made me realise anything it's that I don't spend enough time finding new blogs to read. 

Are there any blogs you think I should check out? How do you keep up with your blog reading? 

Liebster Award.

Thank you Hannah from Hanniemc for nominating me to participate in the Liebster Award! 

The rules are as follows:

-Thank the person who nominated you and link their blog

-Answer the questions given by the nominator

-Nominate 11 other bloggers who have less than 200 followers and link them

-Notify all the bloggers you nominate

-Create 11 new questions for your nominees to answer

The basics of a skincare routine

Skincare is something that has been important to me since about the age fifteen, and my face was breaking out in all its hormonal teenage glory, and my mum got me some anti-bacterial face wash and face cream and said "put this on every day. It doesn't matter if you don't see a difference at first, just keep using it until it's finished, then we'll get you a new product." I thought this was odd advice, and in the beginning was frustrated by the fact that I was putting in all this effort, washing and moisturising my face day and night without seeing results, until one day - when I was about 3/4 through the products, I woke up and my face was the clearest I had seen in a long time. 

I doubt that this drastic improvements was due to a miracle product but rather that I had gone from desperately buying whatever new product a television advert promised to help with my skin and then discarding it when it didn't produce immediate results, to having a regular consistent skincare routine, however spartan it was. As I've grown older, I've slowly added elements to my skincare routine, and these are the five products I need to keep my skin looking relatively clear and healthy.

Cleanser

A clean face is a happy face, and I have found that the best way to get there is to have one cleanser that can both remove your make up and clean your skin without leaving it feeling stripped. Recently I have fallen in love with the Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser which does a wonderful job of breaking down the make up in the first wash, and then leaving skin soft and thoroughly clean on the second was. Most face cleansers don't stand much of against waterproof mascara and stubborn lipstains though, so I'd recommend a such as the Elizabeth Arden All Gone Eye and Lip Remover. You could also use two different cleansers or a micellar water, but I prefer just having the one product. 

Toner

Personally I like to use natural-based toners, and am currently using the Evoluderm Rosewater Toner. Rosewater is said to have a whole host of benefits such as soothing irritated skin, balancing out the skin oils, adding moisture and bringing a glow to the face all the while getting rid of the last bit of dirt that your cleanser might not have gotten to, and I'm inclined to believe it. I definitely find non-natural toners harsher on my skin now. Camomile-based toners are also a godsend to calming down inflammed or irritated skin. 

Serum

I don't think serums are necessarily essential, but they are a great way of targeting a problem area. For example, my Yves Rocher Sebo-Vegetal Pore-Minimizing Serum is really good for when my skin is on the oilier, spot-prone side, keeping my skin matte and breakouts under control, but when the weather is harsher and my skin grows dryer, nothing restores moisture and softness like The Body Shop Vitamin E Overnight Serum-in-Oil. 

Moisturiser

The importance of moisturiser cannot be overstated, especially for those with oilier skins. I have learnt the hard way that the drier my skin becomes the oilier it is, and so will use something as rich as the The Body Shop Vitamin E Moisture Cream in the winter months, balancing out any unwanted shine with a decent primer and fixing powder. If I want to use a more mattifying face cream, I'll use a cream-based cleanser instead, or switch serums to make sure that my routine always has a moisturising element. 

Face mask or scrub 

Once or twice a week it is good to use a mask or a scrub to really give the skin a deep cleanse, ridding it of impurities and dead skin cells. Whilst I have shied away from scrubs, and have yet to try chemical exfoliation, I do love a good face mask. The Body Shop Warming Mineral Mask is one of my favourites: it feels amazing, smells delicious and really keeps excess oil at bay without stripping my skin. 

What are your skincare routine basics? Does your skincare routine look like mine? 

Dear Diary | How I'm journalling this year

I've always loved diaries. I never quite managed to write in them consistently, but throughout my teenage years, every year I bought a new blank notebook to regularly scribble down my thoughts about my day, the things that were bothering me and to contemplate the likelihood of the boy on the bus I had a crush on knowing my existence and one day acknowledging it. As I grew older, and the academic deadlines increased, I felt like I just didn't have time to journal, though I would always end up finding some sort of outlet for my thoughts. In short, keeping some sort of diary or journal has always been, and I suspect will always be, important to me.

This year, I'm using these two beautiful goodies from kikki.K: the Reflection Journal and the 365 Days Journal. At the end of each day, usually a little later than I'd like (though I'm working on this) I sit down and write in these two. At the beginning, I thought that I wouldn't have time to keep up two journals, but it usually takes me about 30 minutes, and they serve two different purposes.

The Reflection Journal  allows me to just do that - to reflect on the day by filling out a premade form that allows me to note what I am grateful for, the highlight of the day, the overall feeling of the day and what kind of moments I experienced, to determine what area of my life my actions impacted on and to jot down what I learnt from the day. I really like that there's only room for one or two sentences, especially on days when I feel didn't go particularly well; since I only need to write one thing, I can usually find it, and makes me realise that even on the worst of days, there's something good in it. I find that it's a great way to stay mindful of the present and grateful for what you have, whilst also being able to see areas that you can improve in a positive light.

The 365 Day Journal I use to expand on the day, or how I'm feeling. I initially wanted to use it as a sort of scrapbook, collecting bits and pieces from my day but realised that this wasn't feasible for every day, so I just keep it as a daily journal for my thoughts. I don't always journal every day, but since I'm used to skipping entire months in diaries I've previously kept, I don't worry about skipping a few days: I just fill them in with quotes, song lyrics and wishlists. 

What's most important to me this year is doing journaly consistently as I've noticed that staying mindful and also dumping all my thoughts on a page before I go to bed really helps to keep my mind clear and just that little more positive. 

Do you journal?