How I did with my 18 aims for 2018

At the start of the year I made 18 aims for 2018 so I thought I should revisit them and see how I did. They were things for me to focus on, things about the way I am, the way I live life and the way I interact with people. So here is how I got on.

• My first point was to go to the gym and exercise more. I definitely did that this year as I spent quite a lot of the year exercising and going to the gym. I started running, made use of our David Lloyd membership and walked as much as possible. I’ve had a winter blip where I haven’t exercised officially for a couple of months but I know I’ll be back on it straight after Christmas.
• I also said I would manage my workload better and this has definitely happened. Each week I can make plans that aren’t work related and still fit in all my work commitments. I can go for a coffee if I want to or go for a run and know that I can fit work in the time I have left each day. I have a really good work/life balance.
• I don’t think I really managed to look after myself more this year – I haven’t really done my nails or any pampering this year and I still regularly go to bed after 11pm but I do also make an effort to have early nights when I can.
• I also haven’t really stopped working in the evenings as much but I am able to turn the laptop off once a week or so in the evening to watch a movie or play a game.
• I said that I wouldn’t be working weekends but I realised quite early in the year that if I worked weekends here and there it meant we would have more time together at other times. So, I’ve realised that a blogger week isn’t like a normal week, with weekdays and weekends. instead it’s really fluid. You work when you have work to do, you have fun when there is fun to be had and life flows quite nicely. I choose to now work on weekend evenings as it means I can switch off when the children are home from school during the week. It’s a good balance for everyone.

• I said I would like to eat better and this has definitely changed. I don’t eat junk much anymore – we don’t really have crisps and things in the house – and instead I snack on healthier things and I’ve realised that I can’t cope with three courses when we eat out anymore either.
• I aimed to drink more water but realised fairly quickly that I just don’t like drinking water. So instead I have carried on drinking loads of tea and upping my squash consumption too.
• I wanted to get to the point where I am happy with our home and I can safely say I have reached that point. After our extension and our garden work we were pretty done with house stuff. We finished the year doing up the lounge and decorating Little Man’s room and now I feel like job done. There are no more house plans in the pipeline.
• I wanted to get into meal planning again and I do plan meals although they are quite flexible and often certain means will be pushed to early the following week. We order a food shop every weekend and plan meals for the week at that point and it works well.
• I aimed to read two books a month and in the end I read 19 over the course of the year – so not quite where I wanted to be but I’m happy with the amount I read.
• I wanted us to go away at least once a month and we went away at least twice a month on average. We have had a great year for travelling.
• This year I wanted to help other people wherever I could, putting others before myself, giving to charity and the food bank, donating as much as possible and donating time too where I could and I definitely did this. I gave so much to charities and good causes during the year and gave lots of advice and information to other bloggers too.
• A big one for me was to give less shits generally. I actually managed this quite well. I now don’t get wound up as much, don’t dwell on things and just feel like so much is water off a duck’s back. It’s quite nice really.
• This year I wanted to do regular after school activities with the children and we’ve managed that. We bake one afternoon a week, do crafts on another, two other days are swimming and LP’s choir practice and Fridays we usually watch a movie and have pizza in front of the TV. We’ve got into a really nice routine.
• This year I wanted to be more creative and I’m not really sure what I was looking to achieve with that aspiration but my photography has definitely improved although I am still not very arty or crafty – although I did make yeti biscuits a couple of months ago.
• I feel like I have built on a lot of friendships this year and my social circles are lovely to be a part of. I am so lucky to have a really strong network of blogging friends and really close friends outside of the industry too.
• We managed to walk to school all year up until LP moved to the junior campus in September. At that point it was too far to walk in the time that we had so we’ve been driving. Boy do we all miss that walk.
• This year I wanted to start delegating in all aspects of life and to accept help when it’s offered. I still don’t think I am great at this but I have been enlisting help for work related things, giving Dave jobs to do around the house and even getting the children to help with basic chores. This one will always be a work in progress.

So, this year was a pretty good year for getting into a good routine with home, work and general life, for streamlining my life and for helping me be more positive too. My 18 aims for the year really made me think more about myself, my frame of mine and the people I surround myself with. It’s been a good year mostly. How has your 2018 been?