Reality Check: New Year, Same Me

Hello lovelies,

Before I return to my usual posts, I decided it wouldn’t be a January post if I didn’t start the year with some self-reflection.

2023 certainly wasn’t my worst year, but it wasn’t exactly my best. On the plus side, I learned A LOT about myself, mainly through my fortnightly therapy sessions, and this has had an ongoing positive impact. Still, the year wasn’t without its challenges and my battle with my mental health and what felt like the entire medical profession certainly took its toll. By the time December had rolled around, I was glad to have a couple of weeks off work.

The Fear Factor: Change vs Status Quo

I believe you can set and change your goals at any time throughout the year, but I always find January a good time to look at what you want out of life. Most people are optimistic about the blank page before them, which seems much more possible.

Change has been something that I usually try to avoid; the unknown is just plain scary sometimes, BUT if I don’t change, nothing else will change, and after the last few years, I am beginning to learn that change doesn’t have to be that way and a lot of the time it’s actually quite a positive – I just need to stop having a meltdown beforehand.

From New Year Resolutions to Year-Long Revolution

I just shared a post about the lessons I’ve picked up in the past few years. In the last year, I got to know my inner critic better – that negative voice in my head. I also learned many things about my body, inspiring me to make significant changes in 2024.

Usually, I go in all gung ho trying to change my entire life in the first week of January, and when I inevitably fail, I give it all up and end up agreeing with my inner critic when they call me a failure.

Let’s be real; life gets in the way; some days you want to sit and do sod all, some days you want to eat cake (ok, that’s every day) but some days that willpower just isn’t there. A shitty night’s sleep, an unplanned night out, or those poxy hormones which play so much havoc with everything can throw chaos on are well-meaning plans.

This time, I am setting goals for the year, not the week.

Jar of Joy

My goals this year are ongoing from last year. I’ll be checking in with myself regularly to see how I am doing, what’s working and what’s not working, and to decide what is a priority to me at that time.

There are two new things I am trying out this year: to write something I want to leave in 2023 down on a scrap of paper and then tear it up into tiny pieces and throw it away.

The other is at the end of each week, I am going to write down a note of something that went well that week, put the note in the jar and then read those notes on New Year’s Eve; I may even write a post about it at the end of the year.

Pressure Free Pledge

I stopped sharing my intentions on this page last year because I felt like I was setting myself up for failure, and my inner critic loved it. Sharing weekly goals felt like extra pressure.

Now, I’ve decided to reflect monthly – looking at what I did, what I didn’t, what worked, and how I can improve. I will share all that with you; you can be my accountability gang.