Happy New Year!

Hello!

I trust my wonderful readers made it across the time-borders of 2013/2014 safely. Well let me take this opportunity to say "Welcome to the New Year" from Phase Rant!

This year I have some big plans and goals that I want to achieve personally and professionally. As always I want to take you along with me but this time things are about to get a little more serious and hopefully a lot more interesting. My goal for Phase Rant this year is to have my readers (though you are few and far between) get to know a bit more about me through my 'work'.

As you must know from my bio I'm current a journalism and communications student. To God's great glory I am now in my final year of undergrad and although I won't be lunging straight into professional journalism when I finish, I would like to flex my writing muscles a bit more in that sense. I plan to do this through a series of interviews that will posted on this blog.

The plan is simple. 12 interviews with 12 people I know (either vaguely or personally) who I find inspirational, over the 12 months of 2014. The first is coming next week in the form of a young gospel rapper so stay tuned. Also in the pipelines is a Valentine's day blogpost collaboration with Museboxxe who has left the nest of Blogspot for the wilderness of Tumblr and Wordpress.

Be rest assured that my irregular Rants will still be featured on the blog. I'll also try to classify things in a way that'll be easier for you all to navigate.

Well it seems that I have my work cut out for me! I hope you come along for the ride.

See you soon! 

We are at the end...or perhaps the beginning?

Well this year has been hard work! They don't tell you this when you're grazing your knees or eating sand but the older you get the tougher the years become. 

8 days into 2013 I surprised myself by making a list of "resolutions". I have to say looking back at that list fills me with gratitude and pride. God has definitely been good to me this year. Could I have done better? Most definitely! Was I as bad at keeping the resolutions as I thought I would be? Not even remotely. So perhaps it is safe to say that I have changed my mind somewhat about resolutions...

TIPS 

What I will say about resolutions is be vague. I'm not saying be complete obscure just don't get bogged down in the specifics. At least that worked for me. If you say to yourself I want to lose exactly 12.39kg this year and I wont be happy otherwise it becomes a little more difficult to maintain, not to mention unrealistic. However if you say I'd like to be healthier this year, you'll able to achieve the same thing without beating yourself up about it or worse still hurting yourself in the process. 

Which brings me to my second point - don't pressure yourself. Yes it is good to set goals you want to achieve but no it is not okay to make yourself feel awful if you miss the mark. Missing the mark is practically human nature so cut yourself some slack. 

Thirdly tell someone about it. This advice was given to me in my second year of university and I have seen it in action more than once this year. If you share a goal you are trying to achieve you are more inclined to stick with it because not only would you disappoint yourself if you don't, you run the risk of disappoint those you've told. So tell someone, preferably someone who will hold you accountable or who you wouldn't want to let down. And even if you end up not sticking to it to begin with, there is added motivation to get back on track.

And finally have fun with it. There is no reason why your New Year's Resolution can't be you indulging yourself a bit more. We often see them as an excuse to break bad habits and perhaps that's what put me off to begin with. You can break a bad habit at any point during the year. If your liver was failing you wouldn't put off your no-alcohol diet till the New Year. So make it something light hearted, for your own enjoyment. 

I hope you guys have a safe, blissful and exciting entry into the New Year. God bless and keep you. See you on the other side!

P.S. 

I still don't know what to do for the holiday and I have 2 days off work! Any ideas? Also what will you guys be up to?

Happy New Year!!

Our generation has done it again!! We survived the end of the world. We are nothing if not persistent viral infections.

Anyway, all that aside I am happy about this New Year. Although we are only 8 days in and these 8 days haven't been complete and utter perfection, it feels dangerously close. I'm just happy for no reason and every reason.

Even as a young girl I didn't take New Year's resolutions seriously; I had a habit of breaking them all by day two. It almost felt like tradition!! This year however I have resolved a few things I plan to take seriously.

1. I've resolved to be me, regardless of what ANYONE (family, friends or otherwise. in fact anyone short of God or His mouthpiece) has to say about it.
2. I've resolved to be closer to God no matter how hard the year makes it for me.
3. I've resolved to take a closer look at my future and make more solid plans regarding a number of things, i.e. what I want to do, where I want to do it et al.
4. I've resolved to stay out of all manners of conflict.
5. I've resolved to cut off all negative energy from my life in the forms of people or things/activities that have proven to be without benefit.
6. And finally I've resolved to be happy and thankful through all of it.

all these have put quite  a smile on my face and i publicise them thus as a point of reference, so whenever I feel like my year isn't going as I think it should I can come back here.

Oh and I started reading The Songs of Songs or The Songs of Solomon from the Bible recently, and all I have to say is wow!! Poetry at it's very best. 

PS

I was in Nigeria for 2 weeks recently so when I sort myself out I should have pictures and stories to share. 

Stay Tuned!!