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“My New Year’s resolution is to stop lying to myself about making lifestyle changes”

It’s that time of year again when we all lie to ourselves about the amazing things we are going to change when the new year rolls round. I know my list last year had a lot of things I haven’t even touched the surface of. I think the best plan of action, before I even consider informing the world about my ‘Grand Plans’, is to dissect what I wanted to accomplish last year and see what went wrong.

I wouldn’t say I failed this year to complete any of the things I said I wanted to. I’ve read 30 books out of my suggested 50, and that’s only because I have the attention span of a child – if I’m loving something, it will have my full attention. That is until something more entertaining, or shiny comes along and then I’m distracted. I finally managed to renew my passport and have gone on two holidays since the end of 2017. I also now have 2 tattoos, one on my wrist in memory of my cat and the other on my thigh. Before anyone asks, its of a snake and three peonies. 

The were some notable ‘goals’ that weren’t complete and utter write-offs. The fact I dedicated a whole post to the inevitability of stopping my degree for a third or fourth time, I still smoke like a chimney, and in this current climate with my spending habits, I’ll still be living with my parents until they run me out. I even chuckle at the thought of me attempting to blog at least twice a week, simply because prior to this post and the one before, I was blogging so intermittently that I forgot my password.

There was some goals I mentioned, which I now realise, weren’t the ones you could track with a number; goals like smile more or find ways to de-stress better, were fine for a day or two when I was in one of my up moods. But if I had a long day at work, or something really shitty happened, I would be in a foul mood for days, and anything I had noted that could cheer me up didn’t work. I will be honest, this year has been a year of self-doubt, anger, resentment, and just general frustration.

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Now before this becomes a savage exploration of my inability to complete goals, I will talk you through some of the things I have tasked myself with this year. I have organised them into clusters and will have a physical copy on the side of my desk, so that everyday I can wake up and go to bed with the vision starring me in the face. This list will be called ‘Somewhat Achievable Things 2.0: The Logical Edition’. I know it isn’t a creative and unique name, but its plausible.

Life Things

• Clean room and dust once every 3/4 weeks
• De-clutter clothing once every 4 months. For someone who wear the same few outfits, I have obtained vast amounts of clothing. The plan is to be very strict with myself and things I don’t wear, or can’t wear, gotta go.
• Get more room plants
• Remember to water said room plants. I have a really bad habit of forgetting to water my plants, like a really bad habit. I’m working on an indoor garden in my room and set constant reminders on my phone to remember to keep them alive. I do firmly believe that the plant that died, was going to anyway, whether I watered it or not.
• Use all perfumes before buying more
• Be in less debt. There is a common thread with some of my goals regarding spending money, or more aptly spending less money. I will explore this point a lot more in a separate post discussing my plans to do this. Because I guess the only way to be held accountable is to tell people that this is your aim.

Keep Organised

• Utilise journal. I’m very lucky with this one as I have an amazing work colleague, who I do consider a very good friend now, who is embarking on the same journey into journaling efficiently and I know she will keep me motivated with this one. Maybe I’ll share it with you one day.
• Organise stationary and notebooks
• Stop buying more notebooks.
• Keep desk, computer chair and bean bag clear. I get really lazy sometimes, and I tend to just dump and pile things in these locations. Which in turn I believe leads me to being slack on certain activities because I generally cant be arsed to move anything.

Fun Things

• Get a third tattoo
• Go on 3 trips. This doesn’t even have to be abroad, I just want to get out for small breaks to keep me sane. I’ve been told I don’t take enough time for myself, so this is my attempt at trying to be selfish with my time.
• Read 60 books. I don’t feel like this will be a stretch for me this year. I have banned myself from buying new books until I have completed the piles of books I have acquired of the past few years. 
• See 10 films at the cinema
• Complete Persona 5. I basically rage quit the game a while ago because I was stuck on a level, but I have a new pen pal who has completed the game and told me to push on from this hiatus.

It’s not a difficult list, nor is it an easy one. The reason I called 2019 the year of development, is because I want to improve me as a person. I’m going to end this post here as I feel like it is long enough without me rambling on. I hope everyone has an amazing new year and accomplishes things they never thought they could.