Goals for 2014

Firstly, I’d like to wish you all a Happy New Year! I’ve never really been one for making New Year’s resolutions – I’m of the opinion that if you want to change something in your life, you can do it any day of the year. On the 1^st of January, there’s too much pressure on making yourself perfect – eat healthy, exercise every day, be nice to everyone around you…sometimes the pressure to be perfect just ends up bringing you down because it’s not realistic.

So, this year, I’ve decided to try something a little different and set myself some goals for the next year. Rather than focussing on quite broad ideas, I’ve thought of some more concrete things I’d like to achieve this year, and I thought I’d share them with you.

Get a tattoo

I’ve been considering getting a tattoo for over a year now, but keep putting it off. I’ve got in mind what I’d like to get and had it done in henna over the summer to see what I thought of it. It gave me an idea of what it might look like and helped me decide that I’d like it a little smaller than the henna was. I want this year to be the year that I just go for it!

My henna tattoo developing

Go back to College

I seem to have spent most of my adult life drifting from one idea to another of what I’d eventually like to do, but never really feeling connected to my ideas and just doing things because I felt it was what I should be doing. But I’m now starting to feel like I know what I’d really like to do with my life, and it starts with going back to college in September to study for an Access to Higher Education Diploma. I’ve been accepted for a place, so my task for this year is to get myself in a better position to be able to attend college again.

Spend more time with friends old and new

There are quite a few people I met years ago, who I occasionally talk to on Facebook, but would really like to get back in touch with properly this year. We all live fairly close so I just need to find the time to reconnect with them, and organise some meet ups. I’d also like to spend more quality time with friends I already have – perhaps a couple of short breaks with various friends, but also just keeping in touch more regularly. And hopefully there will be opportunities to meet new people this year, and I’d like to be able to be less shy and isolated, and make the most of new opportunities.

Speak out more!

This year, I’d like to use all the difficult experiences I’ve had for something more positive. I want to focus on fundraising and raising awareness of M.E, Eating Disorders and Mental Illnesses such as Depression and BPD. I’m hoping I’ve already made a good start to achieving this – I’ll be featuring in Cosmopolitan in February, where they are doing an article on Eating Disorders, but particularly the EDNOS diagnosis. And at the end of February, my friend and I are organising a charity fundraising evening at our local golf club, with money raised being split between Beat and Fruition Youth. We’re hoping it will be an evening of live music, raffles and fun! Hopefully these exciting opportunities will just be the start of much more fundraising and awareness raising!

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions? Or do you have any goals for 2014?