I make New Year’s Resolutions every year.
It just gives me that new chapter feeling like when you open a new diary or planner with fresh white pages ready to fill with the details of your life. Or that day when you pack the Christmas decorations away and give the living room a bit of a clean, ready for a new season. It makes me feel ready to start a new year and like I’m moving forwards in my life.
But not everyone is keen on them and I completely understand why…
Sometimes these resolutions can be unrealistic or overly ambitious and set you up to fail. I mean I’d love to learn Spanish or know how to play the piano, but I know myself. Realistically I know these are goals that I’m not going to achieve, at least at this point in my life. I want the outcome but don’t care enough to work for it, y’know?
Sometimes you can make goals just because everyone else is. Like the cliché ones – exercise more, lose weight, save money, blah blah blah. Or you see your favourite Instagrammers talking about their goals and think yeah, I might try being vegan this year too. Or yeah, I want to go plastic-free too in 2019. It’s those things that are almost ‘trendy’. Don’t get me wrong, these are great goals if you’re passionate about them. But if you’re not and just kinda like the sound of them, you’re probably not going to achieve them.
Personally, I think the key to creating goals for the year is to think about what themes you want to bring into the New Year. Rather than very specific ones.
So y’know, the opposite to what you’re meant to do lol. You always get told at work/uni to make SMART goals that you can measure and tick off. But actually, I think it’s less pressure to just set some overall intentions for the year. And that’s exactly what I’ve done.
Themes for 2019
Motherhood
I’m going into the New Year 39 weeks pregnant. So naturally, motherhood is going to be a big theme for me in 2019.
I know it’s an area that can be hard to navigate and I don’t want to put myself under pressure to ‘do it all’ or ‘snap back’ or any of those awful catchphrases that make new mums feel like shit.
But I’m excited to settle into being a mother and work out how to keep a miniture human alive in 2019.
Self Care
Ugh, I hate saying ‘self care’, it’s another one of those Instagram buzzwords isn’t it? But the thing is, most years I give myself some kind of ‘start looking after’ myself goal, and don’t really do anything about it.
In 2018 however, I feel like I really made progress. I introduced an actual skincare regime into my life, which as a gal who barely took makeup off before bed for all of her twenties, is a big deal. Then when I fell pregnant, I started making an effort to apply various lotions and potions, and I feel like I started to take the whole self care thing a bit more seriously.
So in 2019 I want to continue this theme. I think the whole pregnancy thing in general has made me appreciate my body more and I want to prioritise looking after it.
Family Travel
Just because I’m becoming a mum in 2019 doesn’t mean I want to give up on pursuing my passions. So I still very much want to incorporate travel into the next year.
But travelling with a baby is something I know absolutely nothing about! Like where are some family-friendly destinations that don’t suck? How much do you need to pack for a baby?
I’m going to find out in 2019, lads. Watch this space.
Writing For Fun
The second half of 2018 has been a bit of a race to get blog content out there on time. With pregnancy being pretty tough and having zero energy, I feel like I was just doing the bare minimum and only because I had to, y’know? I was just covering trips I’d taken rather than coming up with original content that I would like to read.
In 2019 I want to get back to that. I want to start writing for fun again, whether it’s travel or lifestyle or whatever. This is my personal corner of the internet and I want it to be somewhere where I can be creative.
Budgeting
Josh and I are currently saving money for our first house. It’s going to be difficult to continue to save whilst I’m on maternity pay in 2019, so I don’t want to give myself an unrealistic “save £xxx by xxx” goal. But I want to make sure that we both remember what we want, and make some kind of budget in the New Year.
Otherwise I’m certain I’m going to get carried away booking family holidays and buying baby clothes…
Ok, they are my themes for 2019, lads! There’s nothing really out there, no crazy ambitious goals. But I just want the next year to be about our new arrival and learning the ropes of life as a mama.
What themes are you bringing to 2019?
Let me know below or head over to my Twitter and Instagram pages for regular updates on my travels, my pregnancy and life in general.
