My 2014 Goals & Resolutions

Image created by me.

Hi All! I hope you all had a fantastic New Year's Eve and New Year's Day - I really can't believe we're now into 2014. Its madness! Now I promise I'll be back with my usual beauty posts soon but I thought it'd be nice to start the year by sharing some of the goals and resolutions I've set myself for the new year. A new year is always a good time to 'start a fresh' as people say and it always provides me with the motivation I need to get things done and set myself some goals for the year ahead. I don't like to set myself unrealistic goals so all of these resolutions are things I know I can do or at least consciously make a good effort to do.

1. Pass my driving test
My ultimate goal for 2014 is to finally pass my driving test. I originally planned to pass my test when I was 17 but as my birthday is in July, I had a few lessons but not enough to take my test before moving away to uni. I wish I'd carried on with my lessons when I moved away to uni but when you're moving to a new place, meeting new people and have barely any money to spend on anything other than books, food and alcohol, driving wasn't at the top of my priorities. I then started my lessons up again in 2012 but after having trouble with my job and getting really down in the dumps, I moved to Australia to live with my dad for five months and again, driving was ditched. With this being said, 2014 is the year that I must get it done. I don't like the idea of spending a fortune of lessons but I do have some Christmas money to put towards it and its a huge life skill I'm missing so it needs to be a priority. I'd be so proud of myself for passing my test and my boyfriend and I own our own car so he can take me out for lessons too and hopefully help me pass quickly. Watch this space, I'm determined this time around.

2. Get my dream job
As much as I enjoy my job in research and marketing, it isn't what I want to do forever and 2014 is the year I really want to try and progress my career and find a job I'm passionate about. That might mean moving away from Newcastle, who knows, but either way - it needs to happen. I'd ideally like to land myself a job in the beauty industry as that's where my passion lies so I best keep my eyes peeled.

3. Continue with counselling to improve my panic attacks & self-esteem
In 2013 I went through a seriously rough time with my panic attacks and at one point, I hit total rock bottom. I didn't want to leave the house and it was seriously affecting my relationships, social and work life. With this being said, I decided enough was enough and booked myself in to see a counsellor. I wasn't convinced it was going to work at first but it was the best decision I've ever made as I've improved dramatically since talking through my problems and working out ways in which I can deal with them. I'm still not 100% 'cured' and still have my 'wobbly' moments so I'm going to carry on seeing my counsellor until I feel I'm in a place where I can deal with things completely on my own. Fingers crossed 2014 will be that year!

4.Worry less
Following on from resolution number three, I'd really like 2014 to be the year that I worry less. I may have managed to get my panic attacks under control lately but I still worry excessively about things I shouldn't be worrying about. I want to live in the moment and enjoy the time spent with my loved ones instead of worrying about the future and what might happen. At the end of the day, life is unpredictable and nobody can garuntee what will happen in the future so what's the point in worrying about it? That's what I need to keep telling myself.

5. Lead a healthy lifestyle by eating healthily and exercising
Eating healthily and cooking fresh food is something that's really important to me as it makes me feel better about myself and if I eat well the majority of the time, I don't feel so guilty when I want to eat dominoes and drink wine. With this being said, I want to continue eating healthily and also get into a good exercise routine. I started exercising a bit more towards the end of 2013 by getting involved in Yoga and Bootcamp classes with work and I absolutely loved it. I always feel so much better about myself after exercising and it helps with my anxiety too so that's a big priority for me this year. Also, after all the over indulging I've done for the past few weeks, I'm actually looking forward to getting back to healthy eating and exercise. Who'd have thought it?

6. Learn some new recipes and experiment with more foods
Continuing on from the point above, I've decided that this year I want to experiment with more foods and more recipes. As I said above, I absolutely love cooking and using fresh ingredients but I often get stuck in a rut and end up making the same recipes on repeat, week in, week out. Its does get a bit boring eating the same foods all the time so this year I'm determined to learn some new recipes. I bought my boyfriend the Gino D'campo cook book for Christmas as he loves cooking too and his mum and dad bought me Mary Berry's so we really have no excuse not to make some yummy new food! I can't wait to start experimenting!

7. Continue to enjoy blogging
I couldn't write this post without including at least one blogging resolution but if I'm honest, there's nothing specific I'm aiming for with my blog. Of course I want to keep improving my content, my photography and hopefully grow my readership even further but I think everyone wants those things from their blog. I've decided I'm not going to set myself any specific goals as I think that will only lead to disappointment if I don't meet them. Instead I'm going to write about things I want to write about, continue to be passionate about it, continue to get to know fellow bloggers and generally just enjoy it. As long as that continues, I'm happy.

So there's a few of my goals and resolutions for 2014. I hope you enjoyed reading them and I'd love to read yours too so if you've done a post similar to this, leave your links below.

Here's to the new year - let's hope its a good one!

Lots of Love,

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2012 Overview & New Years Resolutions

Image: weheartit (Edited by me)

Hi Guys! I can't believe it's 2013! WOW, where did 2012 go? The past year has flown by but it's been a blooming brilliant one. Not only did I fly to the other side of the world alone to visit my family in Australia (huge deal for a nervous flyer like me!) but I spent an amazing five months there and had some of the best experiences of my life. I also landed myself a new job which so far I am really enjoying. 

I've also seen my blog go from strength to strength and still can't believe how far I have come in the space of a year. (proud moment right there!) My boyfriend and I also celebrated our five year anniversary which is a crazy long time as it only feels like yesterday we had our first date. (Aw!) I've also had some amazing times with my family and friends and overall had an amazing year!

As with every year, I like to set myself some resolutions as I think it's a great way to give myself motivation to get things I want to do, done. I'm going to try my best to stick to them and if I'm ever feeling unmotivated, I can look at this blog post to give me that little push in the right direction. I've broke my list of resolutions up in to three sections; Health, Blogging & Life. I hope you enjoy reading what I hope to achieve in the next twelve months ...

Health

- Join a gym and actually go three times a week (no ifs or buts!).

- Cut out fizzy drinks and drink lots of water instead.

- Only allow myself to eat takeaways on the weekend and make fresh meals during the week.

- Take homemade lunches to work, no ready meals.

- Stick to a strict skincare routine (no skipping bits because I'm tired).

Blogging

- Continue to enjoy and be passionate about my blog.

- Post at least three times a week, more if possible.

- Advance my photography and learn some new tricks with my DSLR camera.

- Film my first VIDEO!

- Do more 'looks' and tutorials.

- Go to at least one blogger meet up.

- Go to at least one blogger event.

- Buy a tripod and lighting.

- Continue to grow, develop and reach new milestones.

- Buy a bigger dressing table for storage, preferably white with lots of drawers.

- Make sure I comment on other blogs and reply to questions on mine. I usually try my best to do this but lack of time makes it difficult.

- Stop biting my nails - Pretty nails means more nail related blog posts.

Life

- Start driving lessons again.

- Pass my theory and driving test.

- Get Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to help deal with my anxiety attacks.

- Try to be more positive.

- Stop worrying about what other people think and grab every opportunity with both hands.

- Go somewhere exotic on holiday (I'm thinking Dubai).

- Go to a festival with friends.

- Stop spending unnecessarily.

- Set up a savings account - you never know when you might need some extra cash.

and as always ...

- Spend quality time with my family and friends.

So there we have it, my 2013 goals! I told you there was a lot and some people might think this is unrealistic but none of them are huge changes, just little tweaks and developments in my life that I think are very achieveable. My biggest aim is to get my anxiety under control and stop letting it control my life and my second is to pass my driving test. As well as continuing to grow and develop my blog, everything else will be a lovely bonus.

I hope you all had an amazing New Years Eve last night, I went to the comedy club which was a good laugh and then down to the Quayside for the firework display. They were absolutely amazing and it was a lovely way to bring in the new year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

What are your resolutions?

Lots of Love,