So Far, So Good

If you read my other blog, Sounds Like Chelsea's Life , you have probably seen this post, My Plausible Resolutions . In that post, I explain that instead of using my resolutions to completely change something about myself or a certain behavior, I am just going to try to do more of what makes me happy.

We are currently 9 days into 2014 and I just have to say that as far as resolutions are concerned, so far, so good. I'm not perfect but I have made a serious effort so far, which is what's important, right? The effort?

Number 1 on my list of 3 resolutions was to blog more. I would love to be the type of blogger that posts at least 3 to 5 times a week but I'm just not there yet. The passion and the desire to make my blog better and share my writing with the world is still there but sometimes I'm uninspired. I don't want to drag my blog's quality down because I force myself to write content that isn't good or worth sharing just for the sake of posting. So this resolution, I am still working on but I'm cutting myself some slack since it's still the beginning of the year and I've been doing great on my other resolutions.

Number 2 was to write more. A few months back, I wrote a post called "Don't Break the Chain". It was inspired by Mr. Alex Day, one of my favorite YouTubers. He is a musician and said that he used to only write songs when he was inspired but he quickly realized that if you do that, you can go weeks or months without creating any new content. So the idea is to set aside 30 minutes to an hour of each day to dedicate solely to writing songs, or in my case, novels. I started my own "chain" the day that I wrote that post but after a few weeks, I realized that my ideas were going nowhere and I hate to admit that... I broke the chain. However, a few weeks ago, I came up with another story idea and have been writing over an hour each day for over a week now. (The first few weeks after I came up with the idea were spent outlining to story, the characters, etc.) So I can very proudly say that I've kept to this resolution so far and I'm pretty proud of myself.

This is Alex's YouTube video for anyone that would like to watch it. (X is the letter that he uses to talk about not breaking the chain.)

And last but not least, number 3 was read more. I am a colossal bookworm but this year, for the first time, I have set a goal for how many books that I'd like to read. So far, I have read 4 books: Divergent, Matched, Uglies and Last Night at Chateau Marmont. I am currently just over 100 pages into Delirium and the sequel to Matched, which is called Crossed, just arrived in the mail yesterday. I am so excited to read that one! Reading is my escape from reality, it helps broaden my mind to new ideas, it helps me support the industry that I want to work in, it keeps my mind sharp, it helps shape my imagination and is just all around fun and relaxing. I have enjoyed every second of keeping to this resolution, although I didn't care for Uglies as much as I thought I would. But it was worth the read.

So that is a quick update on my 3 resolutions. I'd love to know if you've kept to yours so far or if you're making progress. Any progress is good progress!

-Chelsea

Don't Break the Chain

Yesterday, my mother accidentally woke me up really early and I just couldn't fall back to sleep. So, instead of doing what I normally do, slowly sipping coffee while perusing Pinterest, I decided that I was going to workout.

Now, if you know me in real life or you've read my previous blog posts on Sounds Like Chelsea's Life, then you'd know that I have terrible shoulder issues. So I can't play all of the sports that I used to and it makes working out really painful. Unfortunately, that means that I normally just end up putting it off, which I hate doing because I love athletics. So yesterday, I was determined not to let anything stop me from going through with it.

I was really proud of myself for doing this on a Friday because most people that I know wait until Monday to make any sort of lifestyle change because they want to be able to do it through the weekend. I told myself that it wasn't a good enough excuse and decided to go down to the pool and do my laps anyway.

I live in a gated community, so the pool isn't private, unfortunately. Imagine my pleasure when I saw that, because it was early, nobody was there! I was able to get through my laps and felt so proud of myself for actually not talking myself out of it this time. Then I decided to stay there to tan, relax, read and start "Don't Break the Chain."

For those of you who have never heard of "Don't Break the Chain", I got the idea from one of my favorite YouTubers, Alex Day. Basically, the idea is that you work on a project or do something productive every single day for 30 minutes and eventually, you'll get something really great out of it. For him, he used it to write songs and I've decide to use it for writing my novels.

I usually only write when I'm inspired because I felt like I got more out of it and it was less forced but I loved focusing all of my energy on writing yesterday and it went by extremely fast! I am definitely going to continue doing this if it warrants such great results!

I ended up feeling really productive for the rest of the day and did household chores, homework, my online quizzes and ended up going out on a Friday night, which isn't something that I do often. It felt so great to be tired at the end of my day and know that I got a lot done! So because I know how great it feels to have this feeling, I'm going to "not break the chain" and work really hard every day to be productive! Happy weekend everybody!

Laying out by the pool isn't complete without my Mickey Mouse bag full of stuff and my Minnie Mouse cup full of my favorite thing, iced tea! :)

Pre-Swim

Post-Swim! I felt so accomplished!

Math homework. :(

Feeling nostalgic, so I had on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody while I was doing my chores. :)

Went out to the docks with Mom before dinner!