2024 Life Update: Working on ourselves to be the best we can be

2024 is here and in full swing. A year full of opportunities and bettering ourselves every single day to become the person we want to be.

I know. It's a little bit of a delayed blog post, but as you all might imagine working an extensive assistantship, working on health issues, being a full-time graduate school, and living alone is a lot at once. But it’s never too late to revisit the commitments you made to yourself at the start of the year. 

I personally encourage you to look back at them every month. It’s a great chance to revisit, revise, and continue to improve. After all, you can’t expect yourself to make drastic life changes all at once. It’s small habits, it’s your mindset, it’s daily improvements that will all add up at the end. 

Expecting yourself to be perfect every single day is NOT attainable and I highly suggest you don’t put that pressure on yourself. I’ve had my good weeks, I’ve had my bad weeks, but I am identifying trends in those weeks that make differences. 

I deemed 2024 as the year I commit to myself because I am worth it. For me personally, I have dedicated myself to prioritizing my health, living life to the fullest, and continuing to experience personal growth professionally, academically, and mentally. 

My main goal this year is to show up as the person I want to be every single day and act like the job you want, not the job you have. 

I often feel like I let under fueling impact my ability to be productive, be attentive, and show up as my best-self. This year, I have been working hard at overturning that. While showing up as my best self looks different every single day, and I am certainly not perfect at it. There have been improvements made. 

I also recently identified a key trend in my life that on weeks I take more content such as Day in the Life videos or images, I have better mental health weeks. Learning this habit has me making it an intentional habit to continue with content creation. I think it helps encourage me to romanticize my life. I also use my social media as an encouragement to make nourishing meals, reframe my own thoughts, and leave a large impact on others! Treat yourself how you would treat others.

One habit I am being intentional about this year is learning to be on my own path. I can take myself out on dates, I can follow the plans I made for myself, I can understand what I need in my life is different from what someone else may need in their life. This stems from learning to build trust in myself and in my knowledge which will exude self-confidence. Something that I feel like I have lost in recent years.

I need to learn to not care about what others' think of me. I way overthink the idea that everyone hates me or judges me sometimes to be perfectly honestly.

Additionally, I’ll often wait around to see if others want to make plans or go out which will impact what I do throughout the day. I sometimes still fall into this habit, but I am learning to live my own life and not wait around for others. One thing I also have begun doing is initiating plans or informing others of what I am doing to see if they want to join. 

Sometimes, I feel like I missed out on so much in life and I just don’t want to do that again. As I often said no to things. I do still sometimes turn things down, but I am also becoming better at going out more. Identifying the need to take a break from work helps increase productivity later-on. I’ve been frequenting Georgia basketball games, Georgia gymnastic meets, and working on planning more lunch dates to break-up my day. I’m still not a night owl though. LOL. 

I’ve also been working on my health by working with an amazing dietitian. Highly recommend Katie Escobar, if you need the sweetest non-judgmental individual to be cheering you on. Her practice is virtual too, so anyone can have her amazing self.

We are working on increasing food and nutrition, which is mentally challenging for me, working on identifying any diagnoses, and working on gaining a cycle for future babies. 

Huge shoutout to some of my amazing friends for accountability and being there for me.

I am also acknowledging the importance of continuing to be aware of my own needs. I don’t need to fear judgment for going out to eat more, going grocery shopping often, or spending extra on high quality foods. As my friend Christa (my accountability bestie, an RD2be, & my Foodie Friday series partner), “Food is the one thing you are not allowed to be cheap on.”

 I’ve also been running around to a few different doctors’ appointments and getting bloodwork done which is not what I want to do with my already packed schedule, but health is the most important thing in life. This has also been challenging without a license and I hate that I can’t take myself places, but I did book a permit test. So, maybe three times is a charm??? I should probably start studying though LOL (I’ve gotten my permit twice, but they don’t renew after 2yrs).

I also acknowledge that I am doing hard things and balancing a lot all at once. It’s okay to be vulnerable. It’s okay to cry. It’s okay to be overwhelmed. BUT it’s also important to acknowledge that you are a Badass and making a difference every single day in the lives of others.

At the end of the day, I just want to be able to make a difference on someone else and leave an impact on them. 

Here’s to trusting yourself, having confidence, understand that you are on your OWN path, and committing to becoming a better person every day 🙌