Last week, I wrote about 18 things that I want to do in 2018. As 2018 has officially begun, I am excited to start on those 18 things that I want to work on. However, those are kind of bucket list type things, and I have more meaningful type of things that kind of can’t be measured that I want to achieve.

The biggest and most important thing that I want to achieve is a greater happiness and growth as a person. In 2017, I had a lot of happy moments, but there were a lot of melancholy moments as well, and when I had the happy moments I didn’t fully cherish them. This year, I ultimately want to cherish those moments more and here’s how.

Growth as a person is something that I value. I believe that we as people never stop growing, and that we as people can constantly better ourselves. I wear a necklace with a tree on it every single day, and hopefully this growth will lead to achieving this greater happiness that I so desire.

I want to stop cursing. I am someone that likes to curse out of frustration, and I don’t want that potty mouth anymore. Hopefully, I can grow as a person with my diction, and not need to have such vulgarity in my vocabulary

I want to surround myself with genuinely good and fun people. In 2017, I kind of had a hard time finding those people. With transitioning into college, and leaving everything I know, it was harder than usual to find that.

In 2018, my goal is to let loose and have fun. I believe part of getting that is surrounding myself with people that are like that and make me want to be a better person. In 2017, I found some of those people, but they were a rarity. I want to change that this year.

One part of growing is acknowledging your weaknesses, and understanding how you can turn those into strengths. There are lots of ways to do this, but I have a few things that I would like to improve upon myself.

Something that I am going to put a lot of time and effort into improving is how easily annoyed I can get. My brother can attest to this, I can get annoyed easily on some days, and I don’t want that to be the case. I want a thicker skin, and I don’t want to get annoyed every time my brother opens his mouth. It will be hard to improve on not getting annoyed, but it’s something that will make me a significantly better person in the long run,

I want to get better control of my anxiety. My anxiety has been an excuse for years as a reason why I don’t do certain things. I don’t want to be limited this year, and my anxiety is a limiting factor that I don’t want to have any more; this year will be the year where I learn how to control my anxiety more.

Part of me wanting to control my anxiety comes with me being a control freak and needing to be in constant control of the situation. Life doesn’t work like that, and I want to improve myself on that.

How?

A big thing that I want to do this year is to relinquish control more. As I’ve grown up, I’ve realized that I have a type A personality and that I need to be in constant control. If I am not in control, my anxiety takes over and I freak out; I don’t want that to be the case for 2018.

How will I do this? I will try new things and things that will force me to lose control. I don’t know what those things are, but for me, 2018 will be about getting stronger and trying new things.

I know this will require a lot of hard work, but the best thing in the world would be in December writing that I’ve done all of these things. If I can do that, I would be overjoyed.

In 2018, I plan to do the 18 things that I want to do and to even go beyond that list and try more things. Those are measurable, and hopefully, with those things, I will be a stronger person (emotionally and physically,) I will grow and be happier as a result.

I hate this phrase, but 2018 is a new year and hopefully, there will be a new me out of it. 2018 is the year for Katie DeBois and it will be a great year.

I hope.