2018 goals

As I wrote in my newsletter a few weeks ago, goals are a funny one.

A year is a long time, and what might be a huge priority to you at the beginning of January might mean nothing to you by the end of March.

For example, one of my goals for 2017 was to sort out my blog layout. I've had this layout for several year and it looks crap on mobile and at the start of this year, I was blogging a lot, getting back into the habit of promoting my blog and scheduling tweets and writing regularly, so this made sense to maximise my hard work.

But then once March rolled around and my coursework deadlines were getting closer, and then I had an exam, and almost straight away I had to start working on another piece of coursework, blogging slipped down the pecking order. I had loads of ideas and was fizzing with inspiration, but it was hard for me to find the time to articulate them. So instead, in June, I started a newsletter.

Like I said in my 2017 Best Bits post, my newsletter is now something I write every single week and I love so much more than my blog. So while I didn't achieve my goal of working on my blog layout, I found a similar creative pursuit that I enjoy more.

Similarly, one of my goals was to get a half marathon PB. Now, as you might know I got injured in the summer, just as I was about to start training for my second half marathon of the year, after being a few seconds off a PB in May thanks to a more challenging course. So I had to cut back my training quite a bit to avoid exacerbating my injury (which I managed to do anyway!) and instead, we started to do British Military Fitness every week. Again, this is something that still fits into my fitness goals but is something I had no idea I would start to do at the beginning of the year!

So here are my goals. Some I may achieve, some I won't, some I might do an adapted version of. I can be way too goal orientated at times and this is at odds with one of my goals to take care of myself a little more this year, so if I finish the year happy and healthy and in a good mental health place, I think that's worth not achieving any of my other goals!

Goals for 2018

• Run two half marathons
• Get a half marathon PB
• Run 5 races
• Read 40 books
• Start reading my "should have read by now" books
• Finish decorating our living room
• Start a new hobby
• Practice yoga more often
• Do one good thing for my mental health every day (especially if it's been a good mental health day!) - yoga, meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, gratitude list, morning pages, worry journal etc. and try to find what works best for me
• Finish the year knowing what works for my mental health
• Buy more from bookshops 
• Start learning Spanish again
• Cook more without recipes and grow in confidence in the kitchen
• Keep using the Forest app to focus on reading more instead of mindless scrolling on my phone
• Stop feeling guilty about spending money on experiences
• Take care of myself a bit better - practice regular self care (that's actually good for my brain, not just the fluffy "paint my nails" that brands are always trying to push) and stop focusing on what I "should" do, and ask myself constantly "do I have to?"

Some of these goals are a bit hard to measure (the same can be said of some of my goals last year, and it's hard to decide whether I achieved some of them!) but I'm hoping they can keep me focused in 2018.

Happy New Year, and I hope you have a wonderful 2018!

Charlotte x