Thank you for everyone’s sweet wishes on my 9th Blogiversary on this weekend past. Words cannot express how much I appreciate all the out pouring of love I received on the blog and across social media. Thank you for making the past year an especially rememberable one in the blogosphere. Last week I shared How to do your 2014 Resolutions and today I want to share the ones I have made for myself this year.
My resolutions for the year seem to surround one of my most favourite words: authenticity. When I sat down to think more about this word and what I wanted most for 2014 similar ideas sprung to mind.
Genuineness | Simplicity I Realness | Unity | Dependability | Openness | Directness | Assertiveness
To me it is more about being just true to yourself and honest with others. It is about living a life that in all areas you can devote the same level of authenticity, heart, mind, and soul. I was born a passionate being who loves to jump in and give 100% of herself into what I am doing. It is so easy to be swept up into that sea of creativity, work, family, and all the other aspects of life and realise later that some areas are failing. 2013 was a growing year for me in blogging and I learned a lot about time management through the months. I give too much of myself and devote too much time to blogging, all that goes into preparing, writing, sharing a blog post, and the social media aspects (twitter, facebook, instagram, etc) then my family members get less of me and a less authentic version of myself and who I live to be. On the other side of things if I go ‘unplugged’ and spend days away from the blog (even with pre-published posts ready to go), the blogging work starts piling up and the connections with friends and followers starts to fall to the side. Which always brings more stress as I then have so much to catch back up on by way of catching up on social media interactions, answering messages, responding to comments, reading blogs, and commenting on blogs. It is not a pattern I wanted to continue or relearn in 2014.
(source: my 30 Day Photo Challenge from 2011)
Blogging. My resolutions for 2014 in regard to blogging is continue with being prepared, working to deadlines, and keeping to time requirements. I will be authentic as giving exactly how much of myself I have said I would give and not compare myself or my blog to others for those that may give more or less of themselves and their lives on their blogs. I see growth coming this year through keeping things simple. To continue to be be honest and authentic as I share my life as a Third Culture Kid, an Expat, and a photographer living in England.
Simplicity. Just as I want to focus on simplicity on ACR, I want to work at this through out all areas in my life to work toward living an Authentic life in 2014. In regards to my profession and the work I do outside my home. Simplicity to the relationships in my life of family and friends and to the work and activities that goes on in my house. I have the personality type where I like to do it all, jump in head first, and act out the biggest, creative, and grandest ideas that I can think up. That is a true part to my being and I do not want to stop embracing that energy. I just mean to focus myself towards a direction of keeping things simple. To let the things in my life that I love and spend time with to grow and flourish. To be as authentic as I mean to be without letting other things jeopardize or get in the way of the goal.
Authenticity. I do not claim to be the only one coming up with this goal for 2014. I have heard many people addressing their need to live more simple lives and to keep more focused on what matters most in their life. To embrace a more holistic approach to all aspects of living. This is how I want and will be moving forward this year.
- To simply all aspects of my life from home to work and beyond. I want to have the most time available for my husband and my children.
- To keep working towards a holistic life from what we eat, to exercise, and to health. To continue doing without shampoo and conditioner (read: no poo) as I am now 7 months going strong!
- To continue every month with scaling back and cleaning out things we do not need and help my kids learn to adopt the same principals.
- To work even harder this year with home education with my children. They both go to schools, but I feel it is important to continue their education outside of the classroom.
- To not let my love of photography take over my life by staying on top of backing up and organization of my personal photography from camera phone to cameras. To work towards getting past years photographs simplified from folders of files into presentable yearbooks and slideshows for our family to enjoy.
