Potential

Happy new year!!

Before we dive straight into 2017, I wanted to share my accomplished goals and my plans for the year ahead.

If you’re interested, I also wrote a post on the top 5 lessons I’ve learned from 2016.

2016 “resolutions” I achieved:

1. I joined Zumba again and although I don’t attend the classes regularly it has helped kick start my fitness lifestyle I now lead. 
2. I finally got a Kindle and read more books, more than my slightly embarrassing goal of 8.
3. I successfully maintained the balance and effectively worked and studied throughout my second year.
4. Since investing on a Fitbit Blaze, my sleeping habits have been great. I never miss 6 AM or see past 9 PM
5. I gained work experience over Easter and secured a year-long placement.
6. I bought my first camera – Sony A5000 and have used it to practice my photography.
7. I did get on the train, more than twice. I even got on a plane! 

Other things I’m proud of, outside of my resolutions:

I did some amazing work with Code First and Diva Creative that involved my favourite hobby (i.e. coding), during this time I enjoyed being flexible and exploring the opportunities available to me beyond my degree.

I also managed to bring in some amazing habits that are now part of my daily routine! They include:

• Taking my health seriously: I would not have thought back in January 2016 that I’d be saying I now exercise 5 times a week (6 on a good week) and eating more vegetables than takeaways and fast food. But I’ve managed to bring this habit into my life now and honestly, I feel so damn good mentally and physically.
• Taking my mental health seriously: For the past 4 or so years, I’ve been struggling with my mental health. It’s a topic I didn’t like talking about because of the stigma attached to it but last year, I decided to talk to professionals, family, and friends and looked into meditation rather than medication.

I think this proves that you don’t need the new year to do something new whether that’s starting a habit or setting yourself goals and achieving them.

2017 – Further growth, exploration, and discovery:

During the second half of 2016, I started writing monthly round-up posts where I set goals for myself every month. Sometimes these were the same goals as my year resolutions, sometimes they were completely different.

This system allowed me to not only gain a satisfying *beep* achievement unlocked every month which continuously kept me motivated and also reminded me of the importance in these goals I’ve set in contrast to forgetting why I set them in the first place. But I’d still like to set some ‘resolutions’ to look back throughout the year. They are:

Personal/lifestyle goals:

1. Give more – Giving in all forms (but especially donating blood) helps add value to other people’s lives, how awesome is that?
2. Don’t rush into things – Especially relationships. Sometimes I feel like all the relationships I’ve ever had, I have loved too hard, too fast which is clearly a recipe for disaster. I want to focus on taking things slow, loving myself first and enjoying the present moment rather than always planning ahead for a future with someone who may not be there then.
3. Let go – You’ve survived the past 5 months, you’re fine.
4. Continue meditation practice
5. Fully embrace minimalism 
6. Keep travelling even if it’s just an hour or so away.
7. Step out of my comfort zone, more often – I like to think that I have been pushing my boundaries over the past year and want to continue this. After meeting the amazing Matt Burman, President of HackSheffield, I’ve wanted to participate in a Hackathon and encourage more females to do so too! At first, it sounded a little daunting to me, especially as it’s usually male-dominated but Matt’s enthusiasm has perked up my curiosity. Hopefully, I’ll get to attend one this year! Interested in finding out more about Hackathons? Read more here.
8. Practice gratitude frequently – by telling people how awesome they are daily and start journalling again. Back in the summer, I started Bullet Journalling but failed to keep it a habit. Inspired by Matt’s post, I’m hoping to start journalling again using the 5-minute journal.
9. Keep eating clean, healthy, real food and learn how to cook better – Good thing I have awesome Chef-like friends who will help make this process easier (hopefully!)
10. Become stronger, lift heavier and become more flexible
    • I will be dedicating 2 sessions a week on yoga/pilates. I will be able to do the splits (one day) and will take steps to get there.
    • By the end of the year, I want to be able to say workout complete to FitnessBlender’s 1000 calorie workout at least three/four times.
    • After much thought and asking on Twitter, I decided to share my progress so far (below) For those interested, I’ve lost around 15lbs since the first photo but I’m expecting this will increase over the year as I focus more on strength training. Seeing how far I’ve come really motivates me and spreading this motivation is what I love doing
      What the photos don’t show is the amazing effects exercise has had on my mind – I feel healthier, happier, and stronger!

Blogging/website goals:

• Blog every week, if possible. I’ve set this a goal every month in 2016 and throughout September – December I did pretty well! I hope to keep this going.
• Be consistent with new blog columns and old ones too.
• Keep spreading the positive vibes and inspiring people with what I write! ✨

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Excited to see what the new year unfolds with the second half of my placement, personal growth, and opportunities ahead. Bring it on 2017! 

I’d like to end this post with easily one of my favorite quotes:

“We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives…not looking for flaws, but for potential.”
― Ellen Goodman

N.B: You may have also noticed the new look, it’s been a tradition since I opened up my blog to change up the website layout on New Years so I decided to make a new one (that and I was bored of the purple!) I’m really pleased with how it turned out. It’s inspired by my growing minimal mindset. I also updated a few pages and currently trying out WordPress and MailChimp together (for email notifications.) Let me know what you think ?