Whilst brain-storming blog post ideas for January the other day, I was reeling through all the genetic, “goals for 2017” type posts when I remembered that I wrote a “goals for 2016” post on 9th December 2015 – to be precise – I sat at my laptop and wrote down on my blog, for the world to see – okay maybe not the world – the things I wanted to try and achieve in 2016. To be honest I had completely forgot about all of them so chances of me completing them were pretty slim but I decided to go through them and talk about what I did and mostly didn’t manage to do…
First of all, if you’d like to refer back to the original post, you can find that here but let me go through each point individually and tell you how much I failed at achieving it in 2016.
Make the most of things: I think I’ve done this on some occasions – definitely not every day and definitely not for everything but I’ve certainly learnt to make the most of things more and practiced doing so. I felt more equipped to be able to do that last year because for one, I’ve been much more in control of my anxiety in certain areas of my life so even if I’m anxious about a certain event or situation, I can manage it and not let it ruin the day for me. So all in all, I think I’m heading in the right direction with this one. This is definitely something I’d like to continue working on in 2017.
Look after myself more: Now, I’ve been much more aware of the notion of self-care this year. Whether that was because I desperately needed it or whether the blogosphere has been harping on about it more in 2016 (and for the right reasons), I don’t know but I think our generation as a whole has definitely realised that looking after ourselves more than anyone else is super duper important more so now than ever. Although I didn’t really achieve any of the specifics in that point (stop biting my nails: NOPE, take more pride in my appearance: NOPE, take better care of my skin: sort of) I’m definitely more in tune with the bigger picture here. So I guess for this one, it’s a bit half-and-half.
Exercise: I’m not even going to go there.
Cook more and experiment with food: Yes! Now this one I can quite successfully say I have managed to do. I’ve just been much more interested in food, making food, trying new food this year. I’ve experimented with different vegetarian options – just to clarify, I’m not a vegetarian but I have cut out meat on some days during the week and the alternatives I’ve had instead have been lovely. I also attempted to make a vegan cake, which went moderately well! I haven’t blogged about all the food related experiments I’ve tried but you can find all my food posts here.
Read more: Read more: Unfortunately, I haven’t done this. In fact, I think I’ve probably read even less than I did last year. Which I’m so sad about because this blog wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for reading and books. When times are tough, I find it so incredibly difficult to focus on books. Which is a shame because books are supposed to be there to be your escape when times are tough. That’s something I definitely need to work on – changing that mind set. I also wrote a post this year on how books and book blogging saved me, which is something I need to think about and remember much more often.