Helpful Links for YOUR New Year's Resolutions

Hey, everyone!

I hope you guys had a good New Year's celebration; I wanted to write a blog entry about it but alas, my battle with insomnia and sleeping in continues. ::g::

School's started for me and has forced me to adapt to a more regulated sleeping schedule; I woke up this morning quite invigorated, I'm proud to say. ^_^ I don't feel like a new year has dawned upon us but as mentioned in the previous posts, I have become quite insensitive to specific holidays and the like. However, I have mentally continued the tradition of New Year's resolutions even though I already constantly make goals for myself throughout the year. :)

Right now, I don't have super-important life changing goals for myself other than the ones still in progress. Though I've come a long way as a social being, I still want to improve my social skills. I still want to learn new hobbies and learn about new fields of interest. I want to maintain my good grades. I plan on expanding my business. I want to meet new people. Nothing new, really.

Lately, I've been helping out a couple of my friends with their social anxiety issues. I feel that I can help them out-- that I should help them out-- because I know exactly what they are going through. I've suffered social anxiety throughout most of my life and it's only been a recent development of mine to be more extraverted. I found that helping other people with this problem really makes me feel ... incredible. Suddenly, my experience and growth has not only benefited me but is now benefiting others as well. In fact, I was thinking about setting up a social anxiety group, free of charge, and just meet at different places and helping others this way. I really want to do it but I need to stabilize some other forces in my life to make sure I can even commit to something like this. But I'm extrememly excited about it. :)



So I don't have a great, big post on my resolutions this year. But perhaps instead of focusing on myself, I should offer help to others out there who may have resolutions of their own. 2007 was a big year for me, even bigger, I'd say, than the year I graduated high school and started college. 2007 was a year of hardcore relationship trial and tribulation, self-reflection, personality makeovers, and shifting social life. It was hard, but overcoming it brought amazing rewards. Consequently, I have gathered MANY resources that have helped me and I want to share them with everyone else.



To become a more social and extroverted person:

Succeedsocially.com is an intensive collection of articles that target people who have a lot of trouble approaching people, adapting to groups, and hanging out with people. It gives very practical, in-depth advice and touches on so many aspects of interacting with other people, even issues like how to MEET new people.

Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" is another classic that you should look into as well. See a comprehensive summary online.

Gretchen from The Happiness Project wrote an article last year on breaking away from tedious small talk. I still use these tips today and have stumbled upon some very intriguing conversations with strangers. :)

To slim down & be healthier:

ZenHabits' Best Soup Ever always fills me up and is absolutely delicious. I do variations based on this recipe as well and it doesn't have to be expensive at all. I try to eat more soups because they fill me up fast. :)

ZenHabit's Health Section is an overall good resource for not just excersie tips but how to STAY motivated.

One thing that keeps me motivated as well is to visit your local bookstore and peruse the fitness magazines and read the success stories. Usually, these stories are dramatic cases about people who've overcome severe obesity; it always inspires me instantly. :) Another way I keep myself motivated is to pick up a new physical activity. I plan on taking some rock climbing lessons soon and they should prove more thrilling than blindly running on the treadmill. ;)

To pick up or learn new hobbies:

Discover New Hobbies has resources to get you started in, well, new hobbies.

Instructables is a community-based collection of step-by-step instructions on anything from building a bookshelf to screenprinting and more.

5Min Life Videopedia also has a good how-to collection as well. :)

For you artists, how to improve your skills:

ChaosShattered has compiled a huge list of helpful tutorials on Deviantart and covers lots of different areas.

I plan on making up some tutorials of my own so look out for those too. :)

How to save more money:

The Simple Dollar is constantly updated with advice on living more frugally and making wiser financial decisions.

Also, the book How to Invest $50-$5000 seems to be an excellent resources for those who want to invest but do not know where to start.

How to Venture into your own business idea:

There are so many resources out there that I don't even know how to start. A few that I can come up with are:

Start Breaking Free, MindPetals, FreelanceSwitch, and Retire at 21 are sites I HIGHLY, highly recommend looking over.

Or discover blogging and its profitable potential at ProBlogger.

How to improve your study skills:

Cal Newport, author of "How to Win At College," aslo runs a blog on optimizing your study skills. REALLY great advice and breaks out of the conventional and ineffective study habits that plagues many students.

He also has compiled a list of 25 articles every student should read.

Scott H. Young's 50 tricks is an article I suggest you refer to as well. VERY nice tips there.

For overall positivity and productivity:

Lifehacks is the blog that started it all for me. :) Though I'm still working on it, it has been the most effective force in eliminating procrastination and other unproductive habits.

And you just can't be productive if you aren't positive. Build your optimist habit with The Positivity Blog and The Happiness Project.

Whew!

I hope that's going to help SOMEONE out there. :x Good luck and hope 2008 is a great one for all of you guys.