New Year, New You: Things you need to leave behind in 2018

New year new me, yes? YASSS.

That said, I know a lot of people don’t like doing New Year Resolutions, me included. But there’s just something absolutely wonderful in being given the chance to reset things. And I think that’s one of the lovely things we could do in January.

There are some things that you need to leave behind in order to move forward and further grow. Here are six of them. #selfgrowth #personaldevelopment

But if you’re like thirteen-year-old Kate and you’re deeply allergic to change, why don’t you try leaving things? Specifically, you need to leave behind the things that bummed you out last year? You know. People, mindset or stuff that did not make you happy in last year. Below is a handy list of things you can start with.

6 Things You Need to Leave Behind in 2018 so You Can Start 2019 on a Better Note

(featuring some awesome motivational tweets from awesome people)

1) Comparisonitis

 

One of the things you need to leave behind this year is this modern-day ‘sickness’ which does not bring anyone any good. And if anyone tells me otherwise, I’m challenging them.

Comparisonitis is real. We’ve all been there. We have done it. Compared our lives with our neighbours or our friends or even someone you only know through the Internet. And this problem definitely got bigger in this age because of social media and how it made other people’s highlight reels a mere click away. You don’t need that on 2019, yo.

Related: How to Turn The Comparison Game Around and Actually Help You

2) Compromising sleep and health

I love how has become more proactive. The hustle culture is an ever-growing one and I’m all for it! I love how everyone is ready to act on their dreams and goals. It is honestly so inspiring, and makes me want to do the same with mine.

But there’s also a flipside to this.

Sometimes, we are so focused on trying to achieve our dreams that we have disregarded other equally (if not more) important stuff like our health and wellbeing. You need to leave this behind, this unhealthy habit.

Friend, it’s good to hustle and work super hard for your dream life. But please don’t forget to take a break. Look after your body and wellbeing too. Make them a priority. It’s your main ship to get to where you want to go after all 🙂

Sometimes for you to improve and continue forward, you need to leave behind the things that slow you down or hinders you from your best self.

3) Negative Self-Talk

If there’s one thing I learned last year, it’s that I really am the only person standing between me and the great opportunities waiting for me. Negative self-talk is comparisonitis’s ugly cousin. You don’t need either in your life this year. Which is why we’re leaving both of them behind.

I made 2018 my year of saying yes. To new opportunities and new experiences and new friends. I’m so grateful for everything that had come to my life. I don’t think I’ll be able to experience any of it had I listened to my negative self-talk. And that did take lots of work, too. This year, I will continue challenging negative self-talk.

4) Bad or unhealthy habits

This one’s probably one of the hardest one to leave in this list. I know it is for me. And that’s saying something because, boy, are these things hard.

But it is necessary.

We all have them. A bad habit or five that’s preventing us to be the best person that we could be. Or at the very least, be a better person than you are now.

For instance, mine are picking on my chappy lips and procrastinating until the very last minute. Both are habits with long-term consequences that I know my future self don’t want to deal with. But it is so freaking hard to stop them too, you know???

Anyway, I will work on it this year. Hopefully, by the end of the year, I shall happily report less lip-picking and procrastinating.

5) Toxic people

I’m aware most people will say to cut off the toxic people in your life. And I support this. You don’t need to surround yourself with negative people who easily and constantly ruin your everyday life. But I also acknowledge that this could get tricky when that toxic person is a close relative or family. For some people, cutting things off with that toxic person may not even be an option.

 

6) Unhealthy and unnecessary perfectionist tendencies

Does this mean there are healthy and necessary perfectionist tendencies, Kate?

Why yes, there are.

Look. I’m a perfectionist. Does being one made life difficult for me? Yes. But do I still think there are great things that came out of my perfectionism? Absolutely.

See, if it weren’t for my perfectionist tendencies, I wouldn’t be able to deliver good work. I won’t make quality outputs in school, or during my internship or even here on my blog. It did help me in becoming detail-oriented and diligent. I do think perfectionism has some good sides to it. To a certain degree.

But like most things, too much of it is bad. One of the awful sides of perfectionism is the procrastination that happens when you have perfectionist tendencies — or perfection procrastination


I know that most of these things above aren’t easy to leave or cut off. They could be awfully complicated, depending on your specific situation. But I hope that you try working on a couple or three of them. In order to be better and live a happier life, I believe that you need to leave something in the past. And find something better to carry for the now and the future.

Besides, isn’t that what self-improvement is all about? 🙂

I WANNA HEAR FROM YOU!

What other things do you want to leave behind in 2018? Share them below!

xx Kate

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Wanna make 2019 better than last year? I hear you, friend. And I think, in order for you to move forward and be a better version of your 2018 self, you need to leave behind some things in 2018. Click on to read more.

Photos from Ivory Mix 

Comments

I’d definitely like to leave over thinking behind too. It really hindered me last year and so this year I’m trying to just say screw the fear, just do it!

Yes!! Go for it!!! Overthinking is definitely such a hindrance to doing what we want to do. Good luck!!

Kelly says:

OH MY GOSH, YOU FEATURED ME IN YOUR POST! Thank you so much

I’ve actually been talking to my boyfriend tonight about this kind of thing so this post is ringing so true for me right now. I can relate to all of the points you made. I’m especially awful at not getting enough sleep and compromising my health as a result. I’m constantly on the go and never give myself enough time to do everything. I’m looking to the future rather than being in the present. It’s definitely something I want to leave behind in 2018, although I’m not off to a great start

I’m really glad you mentioned that it’s not always easy to cut a toxic person out of your life, so thank you for that. I cut out toxic friends last year and that was hard but so much easier than cutting out my toxic family member, who I’m still unable to cut off entirely due to a few reasons. Sometimes I don’t think we need to. My aim this year is to reduce the amount of contact I have with the person. It’s not cutting them out but it is reducing the amount of time I spend disappointed and upset. It’s working so far so let’s hope it continues in 2019!

This is an absolutely fab post, Kate! Thank you for sharing
(Sorry for the essay haha)

Ohmigosh I so so appreciate essay comments!! Thank you 🙂

I feel like for a lot of people, health and sleep is the first thing put into the backburner. I know I’m one and I definitely need to work on it too.

Yes, I really have to put into light that there are certain people in our lives that isn’t so easy to cut off. It feels like some people make it sound like cutting toxic people off your life is the easy ultimate solution to your problem but it isn’t. I’m glad that you have spent less time with your toxic family or relative. Hoping it’ll continue for you this year! ❤

I definitely needed this post haha! I’m so pumped for 2019, and this post made me realize what I HAD to do to make this year great! I want to leave behind procrastination and worrying a lot in 2018! (Apparently, I like to make really unrealistic goals XD)

Ooh agree with worrying a lot! And yas for procrastination. We don’t need it for 2019. Hope you have a happy 2019 🙂

soyvirgo says:

Lovely post! I agree with all. I def need to incorporate some to my new self this year!! Thanks for sharing ‍♀️

♡ Kiki | soyvirgo.com

Suktara says:

Oh my god! Each of these points is ME! it was like a conversation with myself. So beautifully written this post touches on some basic insecurities that each of us might have and yet we are so oblivious to this simple fact. For me health is certainly a number one priority this year and so far I have been sticking to a plan so let’s see.

Oh I’m so glad you could relate to this, Suktara! ❤ We definitely forget the simple things sometimes. And yay for prioritizing your health! Best of luck 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts!

Elena says:

Number 2, YES! I think it is one of the parts of becoming an adult – realizing health is not a given and it needs to be taken care of. This year one of my resolutions was to prioritize my health, because it is so easy to postpone scheduling doctor’s appointment, spend money on more fun stuff that dental procedures, go to work feeling like zombie instead of just going to sleep at normal time… But if health is just not there, then all the other ‘important’ things become unachievable, so this year – health comes first!

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