The other night I was scrolling through Pinterest, and saw a pretty inspiring pin. "6months from now you can be in a completely different space, mentally, spirituality and financially.

Keep working and believing in yourself."

While I didn't appreciate the lack of an Oxford comma, there was something to be said there.

I checked my phone calendar and from that moment "6months from now" would happen on June 28. I was pretty close to New Year's, and just in time to make a resolution.

If all went to plan I would have graduated two months prior, and I would be getting used to my first real job, or searching for one.

Here I am looking at Pinterest late at night on winter break, and six months from now I'll be in "the real world." Of course I'll be in a different space. I may be living in a different part of the country with roommates I haven't met yet, and working for people I haven't met yet either.

I have six months to get there. I have every hour and every day until then to get to June 28, and decisions to make about where my time goes. If I can work little by little there are some gifts I can give my June-28th self.

I can get rid of some bad habits for her and establish some positive one.

A skill I work on for half an hour will mean 91 hours of practice. Something I work on for an hour everyday will turn into 182 hours. These are significant numbers where a lot can be done in that time. Yet getting there isn't a huge disruption on the daily level.

It can be scary and abstract to look ahead to the future, and work on goals for "someday." It's intimidating to have New Year's resolutions be something you're in theory trapped doing forever. It just isn't motivating.

Yet "six months ahead" is much more manageable. That's a time you can compare and contrast with today and see what's better and what changes didn't improve your life.

Likewise it's pretty intimidating to have goals "by graduation" in May. It's a bit of an abstract concept at this point. And yet, two months after graduation is something easier to consider. Half a year from now I will be more settled. I will use the time in between to help me get there even easier.

I can drink more water so June-28th Kaydee is more hydrated and keeps the habit. I can get to bed earlier so June-28th Kaydee falls into a better sleep schedule. I can work on portfolio pieces little by little each day so post-graduate Kaydee will have one more thing taken care of on the job search. Today before the end of winter break Kaydee can organize her room at home so it's easier to move out of later on.

I encourage my readers instead of taking on intimidating and impossible-to-keep New Year's resolutions, to simply think of your early-July-2018 self and work little by little to make their life better.

There's less pressure and more reward, because gradual change can add up, whereas hurling yourself into big changes can backfire and become discouraging.

I wish you all the best of luck. Let's see how this all works out in six months.