2016 Goals | Update

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. For today's post I've decided to do an update on how I'm getting on with my 2016 Goals. I can't believe it's already half way through the year; I seriously need to get crackin' with meeting my goals! I was inspired to write this post when facebook timehop showed me that it had been a year since I got my degree results! It made me realise how much time has flown by and think about what I'd done since I graduated. I'm so glad that I finally got the courage to make my blog in September 2015 and how much of an positive impact it's had on my life :) Thankyou to all my readers for supporting me and enjoying my posts! So, without further ado, here's are the goals that I've managed to achieve so far. 

 Go on holiday with a friend 

Last month, I was able to check this goal off my list as I went on holiday to Stockholm city in Sweden with my wonderful friend Aaron. We travelled over to Sweden to watch the Eurovision Song Contest and had an amazing time. Whilst there, we visited the ABBA Museum, had a nosey around Stockholm's Old Town and went to a zoo/museum called Skansen. I wrote a few posts about my little Swedish adventure, if you wanna check them out.

Get more involved & help people

This year, I wanted to get involved in more charity events and awareness days to do my little bit to help people. My health conditions mean that I can't get out and get as actively involved as I would like to at the moment so I'm doing anything I can to help in other ways. I took part in Time to Talk Day for the mental health charity Time to Change. I've also written some posts that may be helpful for my fellow spoonies, such as tips on travelling when you have a chronic illness. I'm hoping that I'll be able to find more ways to get involved with different events and causes throughout the rest of the year too :) 

Go to more gigs

  

I've been to three gigs already this year! That's the most gigs I've ever been to in a year before and I'm really happy that I've been able to experience more concerts. So far, I've been to see Bowling for Soup (and met the band members, omg it was awesome!), I've been to the Eurovision Song Contest and saw so many talented artists perform and I've seen Busted, finally! 10 years after I absolutely adored them ♥ I recently got tickets to see Melanie Martinez with my best friend in November and I can't wait! Who else has been to a gig this year?

Join in with twitter chats 

I have had so much fun joining in with twitter chats. It has really helped with my confidence talking to new people and sharing my opinions online. My anxiety makes it difficult for me to work up the courage to start conservations with people and usually my anxiety wins so I don't end up chatting to people even though I really want to (sorry guys!). Twitter chats have made it so that I can chat to lots of fellow bloggers and get to know you all better in way that doesn't make me quite so anxious. I've joined in with lots of different chats with a variety of themes and topics, which has been fantastic! One of the chats that has been most helpful to me is Spoonie Speak. It has given me a platform to talk about my health conditions with others who have the same or similar conditions to me, people who know what it's like to live with chronic pain and all the other symptoms that accompany it. Being able to share conservations about spoonie life has helped me cope with things so thankyou to everyone who joins in with the Spoonie Speak chat each week :)  

To be more open about my anxiety & depression 

This is something that I was really anxious about doing. Having grown up surrounded by a society that stigmatizes mental illness, I was pretty scared at the thought of telling those around me about my depression and anxiety. I was inspired by Time to Talk Day after reading about the experiences of others with mental health conditions to finally tell the people in my life what I had been struggling with. I posted a status on facebook telling everyone about my mental illnesses and I felt so relieved after doing this. I have been open with my close friends about how my anxiety affects my everyday life and I am a lot more comfortable discussing my anxiety with others. I was proud of myself for writing a post about how my anxiety impacts my blogging and explaining why CBT therapy didn't help me. Something that I still struggle to discuss is my depression but I am working on this. Thankyou to everyone who has been so supportive and has left me lovely comments, because they are been really encouraging for me. I am learning to feel more unashamed of my mental health conditions because they are part of who I am. 

I'm happy with what I've achieved so far this year and I'm excited for what I'm going to do over the next six months. 2016 has been filled with ups and downs, but overall it's been fun. I have done lots of great things with my friends and I have come a long way with my mental health. I may not be where I want to be yet, but I'm trying. Bring on the rest of the year! 

Thankyou for reading! 

♥

Did you set goals for this year? 

What have you achieved so far? What do you still have to do? 

 

 

2016 Goals

Happy New Year Everyone! May 2016 be filled with happiness & awesomeness for you! I hope you do everything you want to & have a fantastic time doing it! 

  

I always have a difficult time sticking to any of the New Years goals I set myself; I'll start off really well at the beginning of the year and just sort of forget about them for the rest of the year. Not this year! I'm determined to try really hard to stay focused on these goals and I've decided to finally do something that I've wanted to do for a few years now, which is make a scrapbook to look back on everything I've done at the end of the year. I think adding to the scrapbook throughout the year will keep me motivated and remind me of the progress I'm making :) 

My goals for 2016 

(1) Eat more healthily; I'm going to try and change my eating habits to see if it will have a positive effect on my mental & physical health. 

(2) Travel more around the UK; I want to visit some of the beautiful places that this country has to offer. Through postcrossing, I've talked to lots of people across the World who have actually visited more places in the UK than I have so I think it's about time I explored for myself. 

(3) Try more foods; I'm a very fussy eater and I often get bored of eating the same old meals all the time so I'd like to try and find new recipes using my favourite foods. In December, I tried a new fruit called a Pomelo and it made me think about all the fruit and vegetables out there that I've never eaten so I'm on a mission this year to try some. 

(4) Create a memory jar; I keep reading about these online and I'd love to have make one of my own. I think they are a great idea :) 

(5) Get more tattoos; at the moment I only have one tattoo and I have SO MANY ideas for what I want next so I need to get them. I keep putting it off because I'm not a fan of needles, in fact when it's clinical needles I am terrified, so I hate getting the tattoo done but once it's over, I'm so happy. I think tattoos are gorgeous. 

(6)  Go on holiday with a friend; this would be awesome and I really hope I can do this! 

(7) Improve my confidence; I want to try really hard this year not to let my social anxiety win and keep holding me back. 

(8) Dye my hair a bright colour; this is been a goal of mine for ages and I've been waiting for all of the black to grow out of my hair after years of dying it... my hair is very long so it has taken forever! I can't wait to have blue or green or purple hair.

(9) Get better at make-up & sort out a skincare routine; I have so much to learn and so many things to try. I'm excited. Reading everyone's posts on skincare has been constantly reminding me that I need to do this!

(10) Get involved more & help people; I want to do my bit to help others so this year I'm going to try to do something for charity, help out someone in need. I'd also love to get more involved with feminist causes and campaigns. 

(11) Go to more gigs; I've already bought tickets for Bowling For Soup & Busted! Yayy!

(12) Learn to bake more things; I love baking & I want to try out some new cake recipes and learn how make some desserts. 

(13) Join in with twitter chats; I'm very new to twitter and I'm still figuring out how to do things & learning about all the different twitter chats. It will be challenge for me because of my anxiety but I'd love to get involved and meet some lovely new people and get to know some of the bloggers behind the blogs I love to read.

(14) Complete my journals/art books; in 2015 I started my Wreck This Journal & my Anti Journal and as usual, I've completed lots of the pages but have never finished the books so I need to get them done!

(15) Get through my 'To Watch List'; I have a mass of sticky notes on my laptop desktop with lists of movies that I wanted to watch over the last year and due to all the challenges and tough times I faced in 2015 I didn't watch them all. I want to get this goal completed soon so I can make a new list for this year. 

(16) Start using my planner; I got a gorgeous domino filofax for my birthday and I can't wait to fill it. I admire of all the beautiful planner set-ups I've seen on instagram and pinterest so much and I'm looking forward to putting my own together. 

(17) Do more DIY projects; I want to get crafty this year and see if I can find myself another hobby. 

(18) Start writing again; When I was younger, I used to love writing. I'd write short stories all the time and read them to my best friend. Over the years, I got so preoccupied with life that I stopped and I want to give it another go. 

(19) Make an art journal; I've seen such beautiful journals that people make to help with their mental health and I really want to see if it will help me too :) 

(20) & Lastly, I want to be more open about my anxiety & depression; Starting my blog and being able to talk more openly about my personal experience of mental health has been really helpful for me and the thought that my posts could help someone else makes me happy. It's a scary thought but I want to try and be more open about it with the people around me, my friends and family and on my social media. 

Thankyou for reading!

 ♥

 What are your goals/resolutions for 2016?