I'm not one for New Years Resolutions. I never really have been. I figure if you really want to change something in your life, you shouldn't wait until January 1st to do it. I also find that New Years Resolutions are far too steeped in the idea of perfecting yourself to societies standards, what with so many people vowing to lose weight, get fit, and generally not stemmed on by a true desire to change, but rather a feeling of forced desire through so much advertising of weight loss plans and the like around New Years.
However, these last few weeks since New Years Day I've found myself with more and more things I want to accomplish throughout this year, so rather than resolutions, I have some goals which I think I should work towards.
The first of these is trying to take more pride and notice of my accomplishments. I feel it is a very Kiwi attitude to achieve something and dumb it down - we grow up being taught not to boast, not to praise ourselves too highly; you achieve something, you are told well done, and that is supposed to be the end of it. And to that I say no! If you achieve something, no matter how big or small, you should feel able to shout it from the rooftops for weeks if not months afterwards! Taking pride in ones own achievements is so important to self acceptance and happiness, it shouldn't be something seen as prideful or boastful. In leu of that, here is one major accomplishment for me that happened last year/will properly happen this year:
I COMPLETED MY BACHELORS DEGREE MAJORING IN ENGLISH AND MINORING IN CLASSICS
And do you know what? That's awesome! That's something I truly worked hard on, and that I never thought I'd actually achieve. Through a combination of mental health issues, I dropped out of uni for a whole year at one point, and even when I got back into it I found it hard to get to class on time, I found it hard to sit in a room full of 90+ people, and I found it extremely hard to sit in silence for 3 hours (this makes exams really hard). But I pushed through it, and I achieved something amazing. I finished my papers in November, found out in December that I'd passed everything, and I apply to graduate in February, with graduation in April.
So this year, I am going to get better at praising myself and recognising my achievements, no matter how big or small they are.
Another thing I want to try and achieve is a Graduate Diploma, as an addition to my degree. While a degree does get you farther, one in English and Classics has somewhat limited uses. Yes, it proves you can work hard, yes it proves you have excellent command of the English language, and yes it shows you can read and process large volumes of information, however it doesn't really have a specific skill set. That's where the Graduate Diploma would come in. It's a Graduate Diploma in Information Design, which is only open to students who already have a bachelors degree. In general it looks at how certain informations are written, it's kinda like marketing, journalism, management and English all rolled into one. If I don't end up doing the full diploma, I can also do a short course called Professional Writing and Editing, which is a component of the Graduate Diploma. In the end though, I think the full diploma would be a great help, and while I hadn't intended to have another year or more of study, it will help me get jobs, and when I do get one it will likely pay better than if I didn't have the diploma. So that's one thing I want to do this year, enroll for that diploma. Intake is in July, so I have some time to spare for getting my head back into a learning space, which is also really good.
And one final thing, which I never thought I'd say, but I'd rather like to learn to drive. Due to a bad experience when I first tried to learn when I was at highschool, I haven't put much thought to it since then. But considering I turn 24 this year, and am considering moving away from Christchurch where there is a semi-reasonable public transport system, the ability to drive if I need to is something I think would be helpful. That's probably the least likely thing to happen on this list, but might as well put it there in case!
So, are you a resolutions person, or are you more of a generalised goals person?
No comments:
Post a Comment