January goals: How did I do?

We couldn’t believe that 2017 had been and gone and here we are already, at the end of January. Can you Adam and Eve it? I really do hope that you have had a positive start to the New Year, made some positive changes, done some fun things and are enthusiastic for the rest of the year ahead. I love January – even the cold weather, if you know me at all you’ll already know that I adore the cold! I love stepping into a New Year with the “anything can happen, it’s a brand new start” mindset and although that’s totally cliché and you certainly don’t need a new year in order to make changes in your life, for me, it helps and I always feel inspired and positive at this time of the year. So… Let’s see how well I put that into practice and how I did with my January goals!

1. Read 4 books: Done, done and done! I read some amazing books in January and was really on it with my reading. You can find a more detailed post of all the books I read this month, here. Or you can add me as a friend on Goodreads and see all the books I read on there too!

2. Donate some money to an animal charity: Done! Although I didn’t think this one through an awful lot and completely forgot I need to knuckle down with my savings as I have a lot of money coming out for various things this month, I still managed to donate £10 to Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.

3. Eat a vegetarian diet 2 days a week for the month (or 8 days overall): I quickly realised at about 2 and a half weeks into the month that the way I’ve gone about this goal was not working for me. As someone who’s experience a lot of disordered eating in the past, the fact I was so consciously limiting myself felt really unnatural and difficult for me. I still managed a fair few meat free days but in future, no food-limiting goals for me. I still enjoy vegetarian food, I still prefer it over a meat-based meal a fair amount of the time and I still want to continue to cut it out. But just in a less restrictive and strict way.

I don’t feel at all guilty about essentially scrapping this goal half-way through because I know I’ve learnt something from it, something which will benefit me throughout the rest of the year. No guilt here, folks!

4. Blog every day in January: So actually, by mid-November, I tweaked this goal slightly to “blog every week day in January” cos I figured it’s not strictly necessary for me to post every day and I will inevitably want some down time. I just didn’t change it on my original ‘goals‘ post at the beginning of the month because I’m lazy. But I did complete my “blog every week day” goal.

5. Save a certain amount of money: I actually hit my original target for this on 1st December so it’s safe to say I completed this one!

6. Hit 8.3k on Twitter: I hit this goal on Christmas Day in fact (an added little Christmas present, yay!) so although again it was achieved before January, I can safely tick this one of the list.

7. Sort out my YouTube: Oh gosh… This didn’t really work. Although I managed to get through some of my ‘watch later’, over 200 videos just wasn’t doable as I don’t have the time!

8. Go for a massage: Smashed it! Just 3 days into the year and I treated myself to a well needed massage which was absolutely glorious.

All in all, not a bad month goals wise for me! I’m proud of the things I did manage to achieve and don’t feel guilty about the few I didn’t. How did you do with any goals you set yourself this January? I’d love to hear about anything you’ve achieved as a positive way to end the month!