In 2016 I decided resolutions were out and themes were in. I spent the year full of now (theme 1) and doing (theme 2), being present and saying yes! I let opportunity find me, let new places teach me, and old fears challenge me. I want to try the same thing this year and challenge myself (and you!) to a new theme; to spend this year practicing the idea of less. I want to physically, mentally, and emotionally minimize.

With the holidays being over the urge to stuff my face has slowly started to dwindle meaning I’m eating less junk and drinking fewer calories. Considering I spent most of my break boozing it up with my hometown honeys, consuming less doesn’t sound like a bad idea. And spending less in 2017 doesn’t sound like a bad idea either. Not just on Starbucks, but on everything that’s unnecessary. I’ll be the first to admit that the beautiful gold cocktail set I bought months ago still looks amazing, but by now I’m so desensitized to its presence it won’t be long until the urge to buy something else as a replacement hits. This year I’m spending less on what I don’t really need...but sometimes I really, really do need a Starbucks.

In addition to physically doing less, I want to mentally do less. Being the chatty and social woman I am, I can get wrapped up in the drama and scandal of people’s lives. It’s not very fabulous and this year I’m making it a priority to stop. Healthy minds don’t speak ill of others and do you know what else they don't do? They don't waste their time worrying and complaining. Worrying has never solved any problems so far in my life. I've worried about passing classes, graduating, finding a job, whether I’ve given enough attention to friendships, if my thighs look huge in these jeans and the funny thing is, the more I worry the more nothing changes. This year: think less, do more! Get out of my head and spend more time creating, growing, appreciating and celebrating.

Here's the big one for me this year, to give in less, an emotional cleanse. This can be translated differently, but here’s what I mean: Remove people that I feel like I settle for. Unfortunately, and I’m sure most of you can say the same, I’ve had people in my life who don’t always treat me with highest regard. They don’t bring me down, but they don’t necessarily bring me up either. Letting them go feels hard, not because I’m holding on to the hopes that they’ll change, but because I don’t want to be mean. I don’t want to hurt their feelings or make them feel uncomfortable so I allow them to keep coming in and out of my life as they choose. It’s not wrong to see the best in people and give them the benefit of the doubt, but the more people in your life who are just okay, just not bad, just sometimes disrespectful, the less room there is for people who are totally kick ass. So starting with social media (Snapchat included), I went through and unfollowed, unfriended, and removed. Then I went through my contacts and deleted, deleted, deleted. And the best part is that I don’t need a reason for why I decided to give someone the boot. Sometimes it’s nothing more than a time and a feeling.

Basically, it’s all about more of less in 2017.

Peace, love, and I hope your day is better than Mariah Carey’s NYE performance.

Xox
Andrea