At the beginning of 2020, a lot of people set their new year resolutions, with hope and the belief that this year will be different. And some are probably still successfully following this resolution, while others will have failed already.
Instead of new year resolutions, I always set goals to work on throughout the year. I’ve just realised I’ve been doing this for 17 years (wow!).
Setting goals means that I’m not restricted or forced to think of something at the end of the year to tackle straight away. As long as it’s near the beginning of the year, then it doesn’t matter as it’s goals you can work on throughout the year, not straight away.
So taking the first month of 2020, I have come up with the goals for this year:
Goal 1 – Improve my mental health
This is probably the biggest and most important goal for 2020. And the one that I want to achieve the most out of all of them.
It’s fair to say that mentally, 2019 was not my year. This resulted in a few breakdowns and panic attacks. Seeking help from my GP and being placed on the happy pills.
At the beginning of this year, I realised that they weren’t working, so my dosage has been increased.
For 2020, I want to seek the professional help required to resolve the underlying issues; there are a few. My friends and family have been fully supportive and I thank them for it. It’s very difficult to talk about because I don’t fully understand, or have the ability to articulate, what I want without it raising more questions. And I don’t know what the answers are…yet!
I’d also like to be in a position where I am able to come off the happy pills.
Goal 2 – Organise my photos
This has been on my radar for a while now, and I’ve made some small (very small progress with it). However, I really need to get my ass into gear and sort this out!
To give you an idea of how I organise my photos, there are categorised into year folders and then categorised into events within that folder. This is something that I have failed to do for the last 3 years, and if I don’t tackle it now, that would be another year and this scares the bejesus out of me! I mean last year, I took nearly 1½ thousand photos that I need to sort out alone.
Realistically, if I could tackle at least two of the years, I’d be happy. But I would love to get it all sorted!
Goal 3 – Learn Spanish
This is something that I have wanted to do for a long time. In fact, it was actually one of my failed goals from 2015!
As we have holidayed a lot in Spain, it’s a language that I would like to learn as I feel ignorant for expecting them to speak English for me.
I’m not expecting to be fluent, I just want to be more knowledgable about the language.
Plus, I can start using the Spanish course that has been collecting dust on my shelves!
Goal 4 – A ‘new’ hobby
While speaking to a counsellor (in relation to goal one), they suggested that I look at starting a new hobby to help with how I am feeling.
I have my CrossFit, and although I enjoy it, it’s been lacklustre of late. I’ve hardly been this year as mentally I have struggled to face it.
So I’d also like to do something else as well. I’m not looking for it to take over my life, just something to do every once in a while.
At the moment, I am leaning towards photography. It’s something that I have played with previously and I enjoyed it. I’m not looking at being a professional and knowing all the jargon or skills. To be fair, it’ll probably just be me using my phone as I don’t have the money to fork out for all the equipment.