A Year in Review #wwwBlogs

A Year in Review

At this time of year, it’s hard not to reflect on the past twelve months. However, it can be too easy to dwell on the negatives and forget about all the positive things that might have happened - births, marriages, new friendships, events, laughter, and love.

Before I shuffle off to enjoy a mince pie or two, I thought it would be nice to round off 2016 by doing a blog post dedicated to a review of my year. As many of my regular readers know, I do love to set goals and challenges, and I equally enjoy sharing the highs and lows with all of you. Why not do your own year in review? Feel free to add a brief summary in the comments below, or jot it in your journal. It’s a fun exercise to try.

Books I’ve Read: 50

Every year I set myself a Goodreads reading challenge. For the past couple of years, I’ve aimed to read 50 books and managed to achieve this. Some of my book blogger friends have read 200+ books this year. I think I’ll stick with my lower target of 50 for 2017! 

Here is a selection of the books I’ve read and enjoyed this year.

What Blogging Taught Me About Myself

As we start a New Year the smell of possibility and new challenges are in the air.  It’s amazing to think that three years ago, I wrote my first blog post.  A post that was to be the beginning of a new chapter in my life and one that would be the catalyst for a life-changing experience.

I have learned so much over the past three years, not just about how to blog, but about myself and who I want to be, and it all began with a list of New Year Resolutions.

What is a resolution? 

The English Oxford Dictionary describes it as, 'a firm decision and the quality of being determined.'

It was on New Year's Eve 2012 when I set myself a challenge; sick of setting resolutions and breaking them before the mince pies ran out, I decided to set a better example and so I wrote a list of twelve resolutions - one for each month of the year.

This list included the usual suspects - lose weight, get fit, iron less and laugh more but I also wanted to challenge myself.  I included things like, 'do something new', 'give up alcohol', 'give up Facebook (that one was tough!) and many more.

Having never blogged before I thought it would be a fun way to keep me motivated.  It also forced me to be accountable for my actions – a bit like having a diet buddy.  But I knew that I wanted to keep it real and blog the lows as well as the highs throughout the year.  

Does a Tee-Total Life Mean No More Fun?

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve reinvented myself.  I’m like a brunette version of Madonna but with less muscle, droopier boobs and a non-existent toy boy.

Reinvention is not always a bad thing.  We may wish to alter our health and wellbeing following an illness.  Perhaps a change in career direction may become necessary due to redundancy, or we might want to grow into a more mature mentality after hitting a respectable age.

As I look back over my life and its many trials and tribulations I realise that instead of reinventing myself I should have been happy with who I was.  I had an insane belief that I needed to bend my character to fit other people.  Maybe I was a chameleon in another life?  Whatever the reason, I’ve spent the last ten years trying to find out who I truly am.

Making Weekly Intentions Will Help You Achieve Your Goals

Last week we looked at the advantages of including a ‘Daily Practice’ into our routine to help us achieve our goals.  You can read that post here.  Today I’m talking about ‘Weekly Intentions’.

We used 'running a marathon' as our example for last week so this week we'll look at another type of goal.  I know so many people who wanted to 'learn something new' as part of their resolution list.  It’s an admirable goal!  Keeping our brain active has huge benefits for our mind, body and soul.

So where do we start?  Let’s ask ourselves those all important questions:

1.      Why am I doing this?

2.      When am I doing this?

3.      What do I need to do to achieve success?

How to Stay on Track with Your Goals by Using a Daily Practice.

The majority of our New Year Resolutions, goals and aspirations fail because of a number of reasons; a lack of planning, not being fully committed or setting ourselves unattainable challenges.

It’s like we purposefully set ourselves up for a fall.  We don’t have to operate in this way.  Setting a challenge that may test us can be liberating and life changing.  Writing my book, How I Changed My Life in a Year taught me that.

Yes, we all scribble down a list of changes we want to make each year, and yes, be the end of the third week many of us have abandoned them.  I heard on the news this morning that today is the day our weight loss ambitions are discarded and we attack the biscuit tin!  If we looked at that list for a moment, we might see the reason:

Sink or Swim? How to Handle the New Year.

At this time of year I feel like Kate Winslet's character from the movie, Titanic.  It's that moment when Rose and Jack are clinging to the railing of the doomed ship, with seconds to reflect, before being sucked into the icy depths.

The New Year feels similar.  I'm clinging on to the old year, full of its adventures, loves and losses and wondering if I'll survive what's to come.

Just like Rose, I hold my breath and kick like crazy for the surface.  What I find each year never fails to amaze me.  I learn new lessons, meet new mentors and discover a little bit more about myself with each passing moment.

To be able to cling on so hard to the back of my ship I need to add a little structure into my life.  Writing my book, How I Changed My Life in a Year taught me the importance of planning.  Nothing changes unless you make it happen, and to do this you need to sort through your thoughts and catalogue them in the best way for you.

Every new year I ask myself two questions:

Finding Your Feet in the Blogging World

Friends come in all kinds of shapes and sizes.  Some are small and perfectly formed; some are tall and can help you pop the star on top of your Christmas tree.  Other friends are a collage of pixels crammed into a postage stamp sized photograph – yes, I’m talking about our online friends.  Tweeters, bloggers and our Facebook friends are just as important as our face to face contacts.

This blog will celebrate its second birthday on the 1^st January 2015, and its success is thanks to a mixture of people.  My holistic health spa clients who enjoy my ramblings, my family who gets to find out what I’ve been up to and my friends who support me in everything I do.  Then there are my fellow bloggers; the army of online buddies I have made along my journey.  A ‘like’ here, a ‘comment’ there, a re-blog, a Facebook share and a tweet.  The blogging community is one of the most supportive groups I have ever had the privilege to be a part of.  If you were contemplating starting a blog as a New Year Resolution – don’t think, just do!