A new year always involves making new plans and reminiscing on the previous year. normally I get myself somewhat depressed when I think about all the things that I set out to do, but didn't quite accomplish, which is why this year I have decided to set different goals for 2019.
In previous years, I've always been pretty specific about resolutions I have for the year ahead. For example, I regularly set out to lose a certain amount of weight, I planned to save a certain amount of money and my goals were very time and ability restricted which if I'm honest had me feeling defeated by the time january ends. For 2019 I have decided to set some goals which are not necessarily things that can be achieved, however are things that will benefit my life and improve both my physical and mental well-being.
The first thing I aim to do is to improve my health in general by being more mindful both physically and mentally. by that I mean I will mindfully eat, I will mindfully exercise, I will mindfully enjoy my life without constantly thinking about what is next. As someone who is generally an anxious person, I regularly feel the need to plan whatever is coming next in my life. for me being in control of my life and the decisions I make is very important, which is why I also want to be mindful and present in my life as it happens instead of preparing for every eventuality. Yes, being prepared for everything that might happen has definitely protected me from some hard times but it has also robbed me of some amazing times because I forget to enjoy the moment. Being mindful is something that I touched on a couple of years ago but i fell back into my old habits. It's something that I can do that has no deadline or failure, its something I will work on for the rest of my life. If anyone knows of any books, blogs, apps or videos that help with mindfulness then please let me know!
Next up on the list is to work hard without the distractions of everyday life. As someone who works from home and who needs to spend a lot of time on social media, it is easy to get distracted. There are times when I head onto Twitter to schedule a tweet or to reply to someone and before I know it I'm checking out what the cast of Made In Chelsea think of the beef between Mark Francis and Ollie Locke (wtf is going on there!?). For 2019 I'm aiming to focus without getting sucked into the twitterverse.
Another thing I hope to do is to laugh more. during 2018 I found i was taking myself way too seriously and quite frankly life is too short, which is why this year I really want to laugh more and let stressful things go over my head as much as I can. Everyone always says that you can't live your life laughing like a hyena, but why not? I once asked my 84 year old nana what advice she would give to young people and she said "find the humor in everything you possibly can. No one wants to be miserable". If its good enough for nana, its good enough for me!
Lastly, I vow not to sweat the small stuff. Like I mentioned before, I'm a big worrier and because of that I often find myself getting stressed about things that really aren't a huge deal. I remember losing my cool because a bus time was changed and I had plans to meet someone at a certain time. I complained to the bus company, was almost in tears and apologised to my friend for being 10 minutes late at least 10 times. All that stress because my bus time was changed to 10 minutes later due to roadworks? Was it really worth it? Of course it wasn't! It was nothing more than a toddler throwing its toys out of the pram. Stress is a huge factor in how I cope in my life which is why I'm really going to focus more on what is important rather than sweating the small things.
So there are the things I plan on working on in 2019. Hello 2019! Please be kind to us!
H x
