IN 2015, WE SHOULD…

You see, I could sit here and write New Years Resolutions like I did last year, and the year before that, but let’s be honest here – I’m completely bored of professing that this is the year that I start doing some form of exercise other than walking to the fridge and up and down Oxford street. Or the year that I start to eat healthily, take more time off of work to make sure I’m not always so stressed etc. I’ve been there, I’ve said I’m going to change, and I…well, I haven’t done those things. So instead of churning out sentimental, motivational shit crap, I thought I’d take you for a stroll around London, and tell you some things I think not just me, but you should do – or at least think about – this year. That sound like a plan to you? Sounds like a plan to me…

Stop thinking about when you’re going to reach your next Bloglovin milestone (having just reached one myself, I know how hard this is to do), write what you want to write and let it happen organically. There’s more to life than numbers, if you’re in blogging for the right reasons – because you love to write, you love photography, you love to express yourself (as opposed to doing it for the followers and freebies etc.) whatever the reason may be – then let the fact that you’ve put the effort in and hit the publish button be enough.

*Warning* this is one of those ‘motivational/positive/soppy/cheesy’ ones that you’ll probably agree with along side puking at the same time 😉 And that is to chase your dreams, and don’t be scared to fail. Yep, the cringe-factor will be continuing in 2015 ladies, you lucky, lucky things! Have a dream job in mind that you’ll go for eventually? Seen a job ad that would be perfect for you but you’re not sure if you have enough experience, you don’t think you’ll even be considered? Go for it. Just do it! I can not express enough just how short life is and if there’s any time to push for what you want to do, it’s now. I myself have just left a pretty successful, well thought of job as a TV Producer because my passion is in writing. And in particular, this blog. So for the foreseeable future, I will be doing exactly that… alongside producing the odd shoot and filming parts of films here and there to go towards my Indian takeaway and Clothes shopping funds. Is it secure? Definitely not. Will I be earning a comfortable, steady wage? Probably not. But I’m waking up and enjoying every single day… and that in itself, is completely priceless. (Hi, I’m Ellie, and I am the cheesiest person to have ever walked this planet!)

I will not compare myself to others. Apologies for writing that as if I’m doing some kind of punishment lines, or reading the 10 commandments. But I think this is such an important thing that I’ll never be able to do to focus on in 2015. I am constantly comparing myself to others and if I’m being honest? in the process of doing so, feeling completely inadequate. As a blogger, this is incredibly easy to do and yet so detrimental to your way of thinking. “They have more followers than me, they get more comments than I do, their photography’s better than mine”. But do you know what? I realised what the solution to this is. To get the f**k over myself! Who cares if someone has more followers than you? Who cares if someone has a designer bag that you’d love, but would have to sell your Nan in order to be able to afford it? Nobody. Nobody does apart from you. Without getting all Oprah Winfrey on your arse’s – life is so ridiculously short to compare yourself to other people. Focus on what you are doing, because nobody is perfect (I am not sponsored by Jessie J), nobody leads a perfect life no matter what it looks like from the outside. Do what makes you happy, and remember that happiness is found when you stop comparing yourself to other people!

Travel. This is one of the biggest resolutions aims for 2015 for me. Last year I managed to holiday briefly in Dubai and Cyprus, but I want – and need – to see so much more of the world. Comment down below to let me know of any places you’d recommend visiting/love to go to yourself, I’m always up for adding more places to my bucket list 🙂

Just say yes! You’ve probably seen/heard that sentence many times over the blogosphere*, so apologies for sounding like an annoying twat a broken record. But when looking back over 2014, I realised that there were so many opportunities that I could’ve taken advantage of… and I just didn’t, and I’m not even totally sure why. Lack of confidence probably being one of the biggest culprits. Being shy when I first meet people and feeling like nobody would notice if I were there or not would probably play a part too. Whether it’s a blogging event, a job opportunity or just going “out, out” (which is easy to turn down when Homeland, an electric blanket and hot chocolate is an alternative), I will be saying yes to everything (easy tiger!) so much more. I’ve actually already RSVP’d Yes to 3 blogging events in January alone, go me. Well, it was about time I actually practised what I preach wasn’t it…

*Again, for the millionth time on this blog, feel free to punch me in the face for using ‘blogosphere’ in this post.