6 Things I Want To Achieve In The Rest Of 2018
Yesterday was the Summer Solstice which means we're now halfway through 2018. I'm not sure how we seemed to get here so fast when January seemingly lasted for about 4 months and now the rest of the year is passing us by at lightning speed. Anyway, as usual, when we get to the middle of the year I start to not only look back at the goals that I set myself at the beginning of the year but start setting myself new ones to try and reach within the next six months too and here they are.
KEEP RUNNING
This month I rekindled my love for running and it's made me so unbelievably happy and made such a big difference to my mental health, like I knew it would. I didn't stop running because I no longer found the joy in it, I stopped because I couldn't do it anymore due to an injury and it broke my heart. It was one of the only things that really made a big difference in my mental state, it was such a release of pressure for my brain and I need that. And this time, I've been running with my beloved pup Josie which has made the entire thing so much better. Not only does it keep my mental health in check but it's so amazing for us to spend time together just the two of us. Since we got Edie it's been pretty full on so it just gives us that time to bond even more as well as training her to run by my side. I often find it quite difficult to make sure I'm making time for myself but I know I need to make it a priority for my mental health.
EAT LESS CHEESE
I've been vegetarian for a whole two years now and it's undoubtedly been the best decision that I've ever made. I feel really comfortable eating a vegetarian diet now and never feel like I'm missing out. If anything it's made my eating habits better as I no longer have the ease and convenience of eating meat at my disposal. And whilst I feel completely comfortable in my diet, something that I really want to tackle is my addiction to cheese. Dairy is a big part of a vegetarian diet [I don't drink cows milk] and I find it even harder to work at implementing other things in as my body cannot handle a lot of fibre which makes eating more plant-based very difficult. But there are so many dairy alternatives out there that I know I like, the Tesco's coconut milk version of cheddar is particularly good so it's just pushing myself to ditch the dairy.
TAKE MORE BREAKS WITH WORK
Earlier in the year, I took the biggest break from creating content that I'd ever taken and it felt fantastic. For once, I actually felt refreshed and ready to go back to work and that is something I need to feel more often. Working for yourself and being a one girl band means it's all too easy to slip into bad work patterns and become burnt out within a matter of days let alone weeks. And it's one of the worst ways to feel as there is no way to make it better other than taking a proper break. Of course, there are financial pressures tied to work and we all have those but taking away the unnecessary pressures is something I want to do in order to make sure I keep on feeling my best and create things that I'm truly proud of.
FIND THE JOY WITH INSTAGRAM
I know it's a topic of conversation that is probably getting really old for people who don't care for Instagram but for anybody who used to adore the platform seeing it change so much [not always for the best], makes it hard to handle. I've really struggled this year to find the joy in using Instagram and it's become a place of anxiety and worry for me and I don't want it to be that way. I want to be able to post photographs I love without worry and I'm trying really hard to work on that. Weirdly something that has rekindled my love for the platform has been setting up an account for the dogs. Which I never expected to happen and it's been such a good feeling to enjoy logging onto that account and not have to worry.
READ
Something that I love more than most things in life is reading, yet I struggle to manage my time well enough to actually do it. And that's something that completely falls on me, it's no-one else's job to make sure I'm actually reading the books that I buy. It seems so easy to fall into the trap of getting in bed and just scrolling through social media aimlessly but I know it doesn't do my mind any good. It's not easy to pick up and get stuck into a good book when the dogs are zooming around me at lightning speed. But once they're calm and cuddling up to each other than I need to make the most of that downtime if I've got all my work done for the day.
sell all of the things that I've decluttered
I don't mean to sound arrogant but something that I'm quite frankly excellent at is decluttering. But something that I'm not so good with is actually selling all of the things that I've neatly put into a corner to part with. Of course, I give a lot to charity but there are some things that are worthy of selling. Soon I just need to set aside an entire day and make that my mission, I'm going to probably list the items on the likes of eBay and Depo as they seem like the easiest way to get the mammoth job done. Now I just need to find the motivation to do so, I'm guessing that will probably be in the form of a good podcast or five.
