Hello 2022. I hope you had a wonderful and relaxing break, found some moments of joy and got to spend some of it with those you love. We did a whole lot of not very much and, yet, so very much – slow paced family time – what a treat.
The final day of the break was spent at Troon beach, my son’s choice, where it blowing a hoolie and barely more than zero degrees. It was fresh… or perhaps ‘bracing’ is more accurate. We had to carry Summer back to the car because the headwind was so strong – meanwhile Hunter struggled to come to terms with leaving his sandcastle on the beach. My little beach bear trotted along oblivious, periodically rolling his fur in a blanket of seaweed and his lopsided arthritic legs dancing in the shallows. It was beautiful.
And so we start this new year refreshed and whole.
I do not believe in resolutions (I wrote about that last January here and recommend you take a look if you are a serial resolutioneer). Positive goals for the coming months, however, I can get on board with.
WHY IS A GOAL DIFFERENT FROM A RESOLUTION?
A goal is something to strive for, something you can put wheels in motion to achieve but if those wheels wobble, or come off entirely, it is not a failure. There is no straight road to a goal, rather an intention. A resolution, on the other hand, is all or nothing and that, in part, is why I do not believe they are healthy to subscribe to. Goals allow for detours, for the human element, they allow us our hopes and dreams and they do not crumble with a sidestep.
Scroll down for my 2022 goals…
MY PERSONAL GOALS FOR 2022
SAVE MONEY
We truly hope to turn our extension dreams into reality this year and, from what I gather, that is going to cost a bit more than initially anticipated due to material and labour costs skyrocketing. Whilst we accept, perhaps even relish, the challenge of getting stuck in ourselves, we also have a savings target to meet.
TRY NEW RECIPES
I love to cook and I love to eat good food… the tinies not so much. It can be easy to fall into a rut of cooking the same things because I know they like them (looking at you fish finger tacos) but I want to persevere in broadening their palettes and finding new things they might enjoy. We almost always eat together as a family but, just now and again, we can feed them pasta, put them to bed and I can cook literally whatever I desire for a grown up dinner. My own recipes can be found here if you want to browse and, for me, Pinterest continues to be a huge source of inspiration and I am attempting to organise my saves better in categories like ‘healthy dinner ideas’ (have a peruse here) so I can find, at a glance, new recipes to try when planning the weekly meals. I also opened this book on Christmas day and I am so inspired by Athena’s beautiful plates.
MINIMISE MY WARDROBE
The goals here are two fold – clear space in the third bedroom to give Summer a proper bedroom rather than a nursery/guest room/wardrobe AND streamline my clothes to focus on smart investments. I spoke about how to shop smart in this feature ‘How to set (& stick to) a clothing budget’ and stand by everything I said. My life and needs have evolved and it is time to let go of the pieces that no longer fit. I will donate or sell the surplus which should help a little with the ‘save money’ goal.
SLEEP MORE
Rereading this and rewatching this – I want those eight hours.
GET STRONGER
If 2020 was my year of inline skating, 2021 was my year of tennis. I set quite a few personal goals along the way and this year I want to get stronger, hit the ball harder and be the best I can be on the court. I have to tell you, it is really nice to have a fitness goal that directly relates to achieving something else.
DO MORE DIY
See above re. saving money. Also see above re. giving Summer a proper bedroom (I have a built in bunkbeds dream). One more thing – a hot shower would be nice, perhaps a bath without a hole covered with duct tape, clean grout and a toilet that flushes – ok, a new bathroom. This time last year we had zero DIY experience but, after spending three months building the patio, I am feeling slightly more confident… and I have learnt that there is a YouTube video for everything.
Scroll down for my professional goals…
MY PROFESSIONAL GOALS FOR 2022
GET TO KNOW PINTEREST
I find Pinterest to be such a great resource. I use it for recipe inspiration, travel research, home and interior ideas… and yet I am pretty lax at using it from a business perspective. Pinterest is basically like an aesthetically pleasing version of Google and, in spite of listening to the podcasts, reading the articles and setting up the software, I have yet to take the leap and use it to its full potential for my own business. Even if I set aside one hour a month to schedule some useful pins it could help me share the content I spend so many hours creating with some new readers.
USE INSTAGRAM MINDFULLY
Instagram and mindfulness do not exactly go hand in hand. Hear me out though… rather than endlessly scrolling I will aim to engage. Hey, it takes a lot of time to share those posts and stories and every comment and question counts so one of my goals is to connect with and encourage the accounts I follow more.
CONTINUE THE SIDE HUSTLE
Last year I put it out there that I have a side hustle on the go and it has been on my to do list for months to create a deck with pricing and a small portfolio ready to send out in response to my enquiries. That work was some of my all time favourite last year and it is definitely something I am keen to develop further this year.
MAKE MORE MONEY
See ‘save money’ in personal goals… See also ‘continue the side hustle’ above… and see ‘minimise my wardrobe’ and sell on what I can. Re. the site and my social channels, I work very hard and I like to see the rewards – as with most people in most jobs, I aim for my revenue to be higher than the year before. I want to forge more ongoing partnerships with brands as it is such a great way for me to work but also a great way for brands to work and see most return.
CREATE GREAT CONTENT
Forever my number one professional goal. I truly believe that if I can create great content then everything else falls into place. Writing, styling, photography – they are my passions.
I would so love to know if you have any goals for the year – they do not need to be big, or even new, but write them down – somehow putting pen to paper or putting them out there cements the motivation to achieve them. Wishing you all the happiness for 2022.
This feature contains affiliate links and pr products
OUTFIT DETAILS
appleton sherpa – Varley
adkisson long sleeve fleece top – Varley
New Balance thermal leggings – M&M Direct (ON SALE)
caribou boots – Sorel
cresta rib beanie – Varley
aviators – Ray-Ban
