At the beginning of 2017 I set myself some goals to help me move my life along the route I have long been wanting. There were some that I was successful in (getting a job in the field I was interested in, getting my weight down to a healthy amount, and blogging on a weekly basis), but there were a few I failed on (getting off sugar and eating a healthier diet).
Looking back on the year and the goals that failed I know that I took on too many goals in one go and didn't really break them up into do-able smaller goals to help me move forward. I also didn't let anyone know about my goals which took away the accountability side of things. So this year I'm going to shake it up a little and set my goals on this blog (with a break down), with regular updates to keep me accountable. I'm also going to reduce the number of goals I set to make them easier to achieve. So here we go:
Minimising.
I know minimalism is fashionable at the moment and I'm not wanting to jump on that bandwagon. But changes in my life recently made me realise just how much stuff I have (and don't use) and how difficult is was having to move it all quickly. All my furniture (except a kitchen table that has been in the family for generations) is already gone and I will be going through a number of the boxes and bags now at my parents. I'm not intending on going to the extreme, but I do want to greatly reduce the amount I own, either using the products up through project pans or through decluttering, and stop buying more. Products I do buy I will buy intentionally, only getting what I actually need. That number isn't going to be particularly big.
Healthy Eating.
Every year I plan to eat healthier and get off sugar, and it's especially important as I have PCOS, but it always falls to one side. I had been doing well getting off sugar, but the end of last year was stressful and my self control disappeared a little. There was a lot of sugar consumption in the last few months.
So, the small goals are - the first three months will be spent getting off artificial sugars, including chocolate, fizzy juice, biscuits, etc. April to June will be spent getting off processed food and getting back to making all my own meals again. The rest of the year will be moving my diet towards a vegan diet, which should be easier once I've removed all the other problems.
Finances.
I've never been a big spender and, apart from my student loan, I have no real debt. In fact my credit card is at zero and last year I managed to put aside some money for emergencies. But I want to take this further and become a lot more financially stable. I'm also 35 now and I really need to get my pension in order. So the palm this year is to form a budget, keep to it, sort out my pension, and start paying off my student loan.
Like my healthy eating I'm going to break this down into quarterly blocks. The first three months will be spent on budgeting, helping me to reduce my unnecessary spending and working out how much money I will have for my pension and paying off my student debt. This should also show me where I can make changes to live more frugally and therefore have more to put towards debt reduction. April to June will be spent researching what I need to do with my pension and who I should be trusting my pension money to. And then giving them my pension money. During the July to September period I'm going to be looking at any sidelines I can do along side my job (by then I should know how much spare time I will have) to help move this goal along further. The rest of the year will be spent telling my money where to go and working out where I could make more savings.
Basically I want to be at the point where living in the small home pictured at the beginning of this blog would be a real possibility and I will, of course, be keeping up with pushing my career into path construction and my continuing goal of blogging once a week and I will be doing quarterly updates here to keep myself on track. I've decided to just have these three goals this year. They are already pretty big goals and adding anymore will definitely reduce the chance of me even completing these.
So here's my first blog of 2018. 😁
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