Two Thousand And Seventeen

Happy New Year!

As always, my intention to blog got sidetracked this Christmas period...

I managed the few odd days but I didn't post everything I wanted to, leaving me with things overhanging into the New Year.

I've literally just been texting my friend about setting goals for the year.

We've both already set our Goodreads one (mine's set for 50 books this year) and I've also just set my running one - 180 miles. That's more than double what I did this year but I'm feeling optimistic.

All that's left really are the standard New Year resolutions.

Now, I haven't thoroughly thought these through but I may come back and add to them if I can think of any more!

Here they are:

✽ To be kinder. I'm not sure why exactly, but I don't feel like I've been a very nice person of late so this year I'd like to stop, take a moment, and think before I open my mouth.

✽To move out of this house. It's been mentioned numerous times on my behalf but I'm determined that that was the last New Years in this house.

✽To visit at least three countries whether that be alone or with someone. I want to break out of my comfort zone and start exploring. Maybe my love for photography will also come back if I don't have any teacher-set boundaries.

✽To spend a bit more time offline. Now that I'm working in an office, I realise I spend the majority of my time looking at a screen of some sort and quite frankly I'm worried I'm wasting my life watching TV or scrolling aimlessly through blogs. It's time to log off a bit more.

✽I hate myself for this one but I would like to eat less sugar. I have a real sweet tooth but I'm worried with the amount I consume. It may not be pretty for my moods for the first little while but I noticed a big difference in my energy levels when I started to eat more fruit and veg and maybe my skin will clear up with less sugar in my diet!

✽To get out more. To Adeel's annoyance I've suddenly always got ants in my pants in the fact that I always want to get out at a weekend and actually do something. I'm tired of sitting in all the time, watching TV. I want to go out for breakfast, I want to go to the top of the Shard (I work right next to it for God's sake!), I want to go on spontaneous road trips whether that be a half hour drive away or an eight hour drive away, I even want to go out in the evenings to a bar maybe or whatever people my age tend to do - I may not like it but at least I can say I've tried it again. This also includes more date-like activities. We did a little better this year but a lot of stuff kept getting in the way. I want time for us to be together.

✽To finish my darn book! I have got to stop writing this as a goal and actually do it. I'm quite close to be fair but I still think it needs a lot of work and I'm terrified of actually handing it over to a publishing company which is probably why I keep putting off finishing it...

✽To stop hoarding. I have so much stuff that I have absolutely no room in this one bedroom I rent. Unless I absolutely love a book or a piece of clothing or an object, I want to give it away. Others are in need of things and I feel awful for having all this stuff that probably goes to waste. I have already started to give my old clothes away but I want to continue.

✽Improve. I've decided this is going to be my word of the year. I constantly want to be improving in myself, my work, my art, my experiences, my relationships, my goals.

Wishing you all the best for the year to come.



∞

What I Want To Do In The Next 6 Months

I just sat opposite a man on the tube who had the hairiest chest and, equally, hairy mole right on his chin. I honestly thought he had a goatee at first... Whoops.

Anyways, as my countdown app kindly reminded me this morning, it's just six months to Christmas (as I write this post) and that brings me to look back on my resolutions from January. 

I haven't quite achieved many of them as of yet, but I've created another similar list of goals in this post of what I would like to have achieved in the next 6 months.

I don't know how much I can actually accomplish with my ever dwindling motivation, but maybe this will get my butt into gear. So here goes:

1. To visit home/friends/my dad more

2. To book my trip to Venice

3. To buy a sketch book and start drawing again

4. To finish the second draft of my novel

5. To travel more, even if just in England

6. To do a writing retreat and lock myself in a hotel away from home and get a substantial amount of writing done

7. To find more inspiration. Create mood boards if I have to in order for my motivation to return

8. To meet some more of Adeel's family

9. And to equally not worry so much about it and what people think

10. To celebrate Adeel's new job (when he gets one)

11. To donate money and the rest of my unwanted clothes to charity

12. To have a clear out and a tidy up of my room

13. To take more photos in photo booths or more photos in general

14. To decide when I want to return to Dubai and visit my mum and Neil

15. To run 96 more miles

16. To increase the percentage of my wages going in to my pension

17. To stop buying cheap clothes that always seem to fray or break easily, buy something expensive and durable

18. To find a new home, one that we can start calling our own with new furniture and everything

19. To give away or sell all my old textbooks

20. To spend more time offline



✌