Tag: Goals

2018 goals – end of the year

I missed my 9 month check in and now here we are almost at the end of the year.

One of the reasons that I haven’t managed to update here is that this has turned into one of the most productive and fulfilling years of my life. A lot of things that I’ve been working towards in the background for years have come to fruition. The most recent one of these (that has yet to be mentioned on here) is that I applied for and was offered a new job which I started at the beginning of October.

If I look back on my goals from January, I didn’t actually expect to get a new job this year but I was hoping to put some stuff in place to get me some of the way there. I actually found my plan in my passion planner where I had listed getting a job at the level I have as a goal for 3 years time (so January 2021), so it feels very good to have got there over 2 years ahead of schedule.

Since my last update I’ve had a holiday in Copenhagen with J and also had a few nights away in Liverpool with my Mum. Both of which were really fun trips and gave me a chance to soak up a new city and feel inspired.

I took part in Inktober for the first time and although I didn’t draw every day, I did manage to do most of them and really enjoyed sharing some of my sketches with friends on twitter.

I’ve also started accessing therapy for a long term issue that has been impacting on my life. It’s been a long time coming and it isn’t going to easy but I’m so grateful I have been given the opportunity.

Here’s my full list for this year, with notes on how I got on…

Creative
 Make at least 1 zine  – I didn’t manage this.
 Complete my sashiko placemats (2) – oops! also didn’t do this.
 Record 1 second everyday video – everyday! It will be fun to look back at 365 seconds of video at the end of the year – yup! I have pretty much stuck to this. There are a few days that I missed but overall this is done (I’ll post in another entry)
 Carry on with my drum lessons and organised at least 1 jam session with friends – I didn’t have a jam session but I have carried on with my lessons and I got to play with my teacher while he played guitar
 Do at least 1 workshop where I learn a new skill (creative or practical or both) – yup! I went on an embroidery workshop with my Mum

Home
 Move house to our own place – done! so happy about this one. We ended up with a place far beyond what I was hoping for in terms of how it looks and the location.
 Create my ideal study with space for all my things as well as to work and create in – this is in progress but I am mostly there. I have all the furniture I need, I just need to declutter some stuff and frame some more art work.
 Host some gatherings with friends – done! really enjoyed having various people over to hang out at the new house.

Travel
 Go abroad somewhere (Copenhagen or Japan?) – went to Copenhagen with J and really enjoyed it. We also managed to have a day trip to Malmo as well.
 Alpaca walking trip with my Mum – didn’t manage this one but I did go on a short holiday with her which meant we still had some quality time together.
 Make plans to visit friends in the UK at least 3 times – I don’t think I managed this one.  I saw friends in London twice I think and also visited Manchester but it was usually for gigs or other events.

Work
 Sign up for the mentoring scheme at work – I did this! I have a mentor as part of my new role
 Keep a record of small and large achievements I have had so I can record these on my annual review when it is time to do so – I’ve also been doing this

Miscellaneous
 Read 100 books (including at least 10 from the library and 10 I owned prior to 2018) I read over 100 books and I know at least 10 were from the library but I’m not 100% about 10 being from my list prior to this year.

Some of my favourites were –

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Elefant by Martinn Suter
I capture the castle by Dodie Smith
The rules of seeing by Joe Heap
The Lido by Libby Page
Puddin’ by Julie Murphy
The summer of Jordi Perez by Amy Spalding
Things are what you make of them – Adam J Kurtz
I was born for this by Alice Oseman
Little fires everywhere by Celeste Ng
Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli
Woman by Chloe Caldwell
The exact opposite of okay by Laura Steven
Juliet takes a breathe by Gabby Rivera
The travelling cat chronicles by Hiro Arikawa
The raw shark texts by Steve Hall
Radio silence by Alice Oseman

 Watch 12 (new to me) films – done!

My favouurites were –
Dumplin’
Nannette (does this count as a film?)
Shirkers
Alex Strangelove
Sierra Burgess is a loser
Love Simon
Big Hero 6
Your Name
The Big Sick

My 2019 goals will be to follow over the next few days

2018 goals – the halfway point

Oh wow. This year is getting away from me! I can’t believe I’m here at the halfway point already. So what have I been up to? I’m going to look at how I am getting on with the goals I sent myself back in January.

I’ve been playing around with some new crafts over the last few months – embroidery, shuttle tatting and zentangle. I went to an embroidery workshop at the Herbert Art Gallery so I’m checking that one off of my list.

  

I’m still having drum lessons and I’m really enjoying that. I’m working on learning to play Chekkov’s Hangnail by Martha. I also got my very own snare drum for my birthday so I’m one part closer to getting a kit to practice on!

So far I’ve read 67 books and watched 8 films. I was going to recap what my favorites are but I think I’ll leave that till the end of the year. Reading wise, I’ve already hit my goal of reading at least 10 books from the library so my next focus is on reading some of the books I’ve had unread on my physical or virtual bookshelves before this year started.

In all honesty, not much decluttering has happened over the last 3 months and we’ve brought some things for the new place but I’m ok with that. I think once it gets less hot, I’ll be ready to dig back into the decluttering again. My Mum visited at the end of May and planted some flowers and herbs for us and also gave us 3 tomato plants

We still need to buy garden furniture and some astroturf for the bare patch where the previous owner had putting practice putting hole but it’s looking pretty nice out there. I’ve been really enjoying having people to visit and being able to cook and entertain without feeling stressed out like I did in the old place.

Work-wise I haven’t yet signed up for the mentoring scheme but I have been reaching out to a lot of different people on a more casual basis to ask for their advice on different aspects of my career and progression. It’s out of my comfort zone in a lot of way but I’ve also been really touched by how willing people seem to be to help. I am aiming to finish my Microsoft certification by the end of the month so I can then decide what to focus on next.

I’m being fairly social over the next few weeks – off to London to see Fun Home at the Young Vic which I am very much looking forward to. It was over a year ago I booked the tickets so it feels like it has been a long time coming. I’m off on holiday to Copenhagen in September but I’ve also booked some other time off of work and can hopefully fit some UK adventures in too.

As for my word of the year – Resilience – that’s a work in progress. I just went through a fairly hard few months emotionally and I felt like my moods were all over the place. I don’t think I always managed to be the most resilient person in facing some of those issues either which is frustrating. That said, I’m starting to realise that I always need to start from the ground up and make sure my very basics are being met such as getting enough sleep, taking my meds and drinking water. Since moving house, I feel like I am in much better routines with all of these type of things so hopefully I’m building myself a stronger foundation and now I just need to look at what needs work next.

and on that note…

be strong, be resilient, be young, be fucking brilliant
– Grace Petrie

2018 goals – 3 months in

I can’t believe March is over – which means it’s time for me to reflect on how my goals for 2018 are going.

The big news is – WE BROUGHT A HOUSE! It finally happened. We moved at the end of February (yes, in that week with all of the snow) I love our new place – it has a few teething issues but overall I couldn’t be happier. It’s a little closer to town than where we lived before and in a much quieter area. We’ve been living here for just over a month now and it just feels right.

I did a lot of de-cluttering both in the run up to the move and while packing but I still have a lot more to go. In total, I’ve got rid of over 1,500 things since the start of this year which is a huge improvement on last year. The more I get rid of, the easier I find it to let go and the easier it is to see what I actually want to keep and why.

My Mum came to visit last weekend and we did a workshop on embroidery at the Herbert Art Gallery. You can see a little glimpse of what I did in my March 1 second everyday video. I’ve been working on setting out my new office and it’s really helping me to feel more inclined to create.

I’ve watched 4 films so far and read 32 books. I haven’t been so good at not buying more books tbh but that’s something for me to work on.

I’ve signed up for a new Microsoft course at work so that will be my focus over the next few months as it’s mainly self study (and we are about to enter another busy exam season)

I want to try and add more pictures to my blog posts so future ones wont just be big walls of text like this. Sorry!

2018 Goals

Hello 2018. It’s a few weeks in and I’ve been taking my time getting comfortable in this new year and trying to work out what my goals should be for it.

Creative
Make at least 1 zine
Complete my sashiko placemats (2)
Record 1 second everyday video – everyday! It will be fun to look back at 365 seconds of video at the end of the year
Carry on with my drum lessons and organised at least 1 jam session with friends
Do at least 1 workshop where I learn a new skill (creative or practical or both)

Home
Move house to our own place
Create my ideal study with space for all my things as well as to work and create in
Host some gatherings with friends

Travel
Go abroad somewhere (Copenhagen or Japan?)
Alpaca walking trip with my Mum
Make plans to visit friends in the UK at least 3 times

Work
Sign up for the mentoring scheme at work
Keep a record of small and large achievements I have had so I can record these on my annual review when it is time to do so

Miscellaneous
Read 100 books (including at least 10 from the library and 10 I owned prior to 2018)
Watch 12 (new to me) films

I’ve also thought of a word that I want to try and embody in 2018 and that word is Resilience. I mean this in the sense of feeling more able to find what I need by looking into myself and by trusting in my own skills, knowledge and abilities.

2017 goals – the end of the year

My yearly goals can be found here and I reflected on them after 3 months here, at the half way point here and three quarters of the way through here.

I would say that my goals were on average half successful this year. I read a lot more books than I planned and did some creative stuff like my embroidery but it wasn’t necessarily the creative stuff that I planned to do. I enjoyed doing the lino printing 1 day workshop and hope I can do more in 2018 at home.

I didn’t travel as much as I had hoped but I did enjoy my trip to Bristol and my Indietracks mini break.

My favourite thing that I did for myself this year was starting drum lessons. I’ve gone from not being able to play at all, to being able to read basic drum tab and play along with some songs which is a pretty big achievement for someone who has struggled to stick to anything musical.

Some things I would like to carry forward with me to 2018;

1 second everyday videos were a lot of fun to watch back at the end of each month where I did them so I would like to carry on with those
Less social media – especially FB. I deleted the app off of my phone around June and it has remained deleted. I don’t really miss it.
More decluttering especially as it looks like we may be moving in the early part of next year.

2017 goals – at the 3 quarters of the year point

My yearly goals can be found here and I reflected on them after 3 months here and then again at the half way point here.

Studying and Learning

After all my wittering last time about catching up with Wanikani, I once again didn’t keep up with it so I started again from level 1. I’m almost done with level 3 and it feels like it is sticking a bit better on the second time through. I’m not always managing to get through my revisions every day but I’m enjoying it.

Travel

Since I last updated I’ve visited Bristol as well as a very flying visit to Leicester for Glitterfest. I still hope to have a few days away with my Mum somewhere although realistically I’m not sure if money and time will get in the way now this year. I’ve also started saving for my next trip to Japan – no plans yet, but starting to put some money aside for it has helped me feel a bit more positive that it can and will happen.

Creating

I’ve started a new hobby – sashiko embroidery. So far I’ve almost completed the stitching on my first project and have another 2 lined up to do. I plan of sewing the finished pieces into quilted table mats.

I’ve also resumed joining together the squares for my crochet blanket now that its starting to get less warm. I’m also still carrying on with my drumming lessons (although life conspired to get in the way of these over the last month or so) I’m pretty happy with my progress though and hoping to get a kit once we (finally) move.

Other

I hit my Goodreads goal for 2017 at the end of July so I was pretty ahead of the curve on that one. I’ve carried on reading a lot specially since I discovered that my local library allows me to borrow e-books and had quite a few that were on my to read list. By the end of September I’d read a total of 101 books.

Here are the books I have enjoyed the most in the last 3 months;

Eleanor Oliphant is totally fine – Gail Honeyman
Fetch – Nicole Georges
Queens of Geek – Jen Wilde
Station Eleven – Emily St. John Mandel
The No Spend Year – Michelle Mcgagh
Moxie – Jennifer Mathieu

I’ve finally made some progress of the de-cluttering front. I’ve got rid of a lot of books, DVDs and clothes – either through donating to my local PDSA shop or selling via ziffit. Over the year, I’ve also found that I’ve been using social media much less especially in the evenings and I think it’s helped me a bit with not feeling like I compare myself and my life to others.

2017 goals – the halfway point

I think it is fair to say that in a lot of ways, I’m not where I wanted to be at this point in the year. I lost a member of my family in May and it hit me quite hard for a variety of reasons that feel a bit too raw to go into on such a public forum.

My yearly goals can be found here and I reflected on them after 3 months here.

Studying and Learning
This has actually been one where I have made some progress on all of the goals I set out to do. I let Wanikani practice slide over the last few months and I debated restarting at a lower level but then spent last weekend working through all my outstanding reviews and feel like I am getting back on track and am now finally making some progress towards completing level 5.

I went on a lino printing 1 day course in June at the Herbert Art Gallery where I made this print of a squirrel. I’m hoping to do some more printing at home (once inspiration strikes)

I’m still having drumming lessons and I’m about to go from having fortnightly lessons back to having weekly lessons which I’m looking forward to.

Travel

This is the area where I have made the least progress. So far, we haven’t booked any holiday or breaks away anywhere and the only cities I have visited are ones I’ve already been to.

Creating

I haven’t done much under this category. I’ve been working on bits and pieces of crochet but I haven’t really made progress of the blanket or jumper. I have done a few more pages in my sketchbook though so that’s something.

Other

I’m making great progress on my Goodreads target as I’ve currently read 54 books out of total goal of 70. I’m pretty confident that I’m going to hit this way before the end of the year as I’m finding reading it one of the few things I have been able to commit to at the moment. Plus kindle sales have meant I have plenty of things to read that take my fancy.

Here are the books that I have enjoyed most in the last 3 months;

 Infinity Net – Yayoi Kusama
 Becoming Betty – Eleanor Wood
 The Upside of Unrequited – Becky Albertalli
 Our Chemical Hearts – Krystal Sutherland
 Beartown – Fredrik Backman
 You and me and him – Kris Dinnison

I actually ended up deleting the FB app off of my phone during the lead up to the election which has had the bonus of cutting down my casual FB browsing time. I’m still using it (and twitter) but not as much I have been so that feels quite positive.

Going forward, I think I want to try and focus on building some positives for this year. I’m still looking for houses but I also want to make sure I have some other things to look forward to whether it’s more day courses, short breaks away or gigs. I’m heading to Manchester this weekend to see Martha play with Joyce Manor.

2017 goals – 3 months in

I thought it would be helpful for my own reflection and accountability for me to look at how I am doing with the yearly goals I’ve set myself at the end of each 3 month period.

The house hunt continues. Not at a particularly fast pace because there isn’t much on the market that suits what we are looking for and when we *do* find one – I don’t seem to have much luck at getting estate agents to return my calls. We’ve already lost out on two houses that we loved so far which has quite frustrating and hard but on the flip side, I am getting to learn a bit more about the process and how it all works.

I’ve started having drum lessons. I had a hour long introductory lesson and then have been following up it up with weekly half hour lessons as well as practicing basic rhythms at home by hitting cushions and other soft furnishings. As part of the lessons, I’ve been learning about drum notation and type of beats. I’m just really enjoying the whole experience and it has been fun to see the little improvements I am making each week.

I’ve booked myself onto a 1 day lino printing course at my local art gallery for June. It’s run by local artist Adie Blundell – whose work I have seen before (and been blown away by). I’m really looking forward to this as it falls in a busy time at work for me so it will be nice to take some time out to do this.

I’m now at level 5 on Wanikani. In fact I’ve only just started level 5 – level 4 took me quite a long time and at times I didn’t really push myself with it. I did find it useful to read about how Koichi – the founder of Wanikani studies himself. Him saying that even a small bit of study each day is more useful than cramming every now and then so that’s what I’m aiming for.

Book-wise I’ve ready 25 books so far and my goal for the year is 75 so I’m 1/3 of the way through. So far the ones I have enjoyed most this year are –

Flawed – Cecelia Ahern
One of us is lying – Karen M McManus
The Year of living Danishly – Helen Russell
Beautiful Music for Ugly – Kristin Cronn-Mills

Travel-wise I don’t have anything much booked although my Mum is coming to visit over the Easter weekend and we have plans to go visit some alpacas which I’m excited about.

In terms of everything else…I’m doing bits where I can but also trying to accept my own limitations and need for down time in which to relax from work.

Better late than never…

I haven’t written my goals for the year here yet – a combination of trying to decide where the line is between pushing myself and setting myself up to fail by setting goals that are too strict or too ambitious plus using the majority of my energy up with working and fighting off winter germs.

I’ve also been struggling about how much I want to share of my “real” life here. This is both in terms of how vulnerable to make myself when discussing issues like my physical and mental health, but also how much I want to make certain facts public about myself.

On the flip side of that, I don’t want to present too much of a sanitised view of my life. I focus on the positives quite a bit here and a lot of what I share is only about certain topics. I guess I don’t want to give the impression that I am wafting my life away in a polka dot haze of instagram filters, whimsy and laughter. I can be twee as fuck but I also live in a pretty messy house, I can be quite lazy and slobby at times and I go through periods where it’s all I can do to scrape myself out of bed in the morning.

Anyway, on with my goals. My caveat to all of this is that I plan to buy a house this year, so a lot of my goals will be written with the knowledge that I will have that going on in the background.

Studying & learning
 I want to carry on with my Japanese study and reach level 10 on Wanikani, as well as complete the Japanese for Busy people textbook and workbook. I’m currently about half way through level 3 which is the last free level. I’ve found it a bit hard to pitch a reasonable goal here as I have no idea how steep the learning curve will be once I start on the paid for levels.
 I would like to attend at least one evening or day class where I learn a new creative or practical skill.
 On top of this, I would like to take some drum lessons as I’ve really enjoyed drumming as part of the Wasp drummers in the last few months

Travel 
 I would like to go on one short break either in Europe or the UK with my Mum
 I would also like to go away somewhere with Joe for a few nights
 I would like to visit at least 3 cities or towns in the UK that I haven’t been before

Creating
 I would like to complete the colourful crochet blanket that I have been working on. The majority of te squares are made for this, I just need to join them together and then crochet a border on them.
 I would like to finish the o-w-l-s jumper which I recently re-started after leaving my previous version half finished for ages and being unable to work out where I was at on the pattern.
 I would also like to try more general creative “stuff” by keeping a sketchbook of sketches, doodles and collages

Other
 I’ve set myself the Goodreads goal of reading 70 books this year. For context, last year I read 98 (and my goal was 52)
 This isn’t very quantifiable – but I want to cut down on the amount of time I spend on social media, particularly facebook as I find it both a time suck and something that doesn’t really aid my mood a lot of the time
 Finally, I would like to work more towards having a space to live where I feel at home rather than just somewhere that all my stuff happens to be

So, 2016 then…

I wrote about my goals for 2016 just over a year ago on this blog. I thought I would write a little about how those worked out before writing about what my plans are for this year.

star Complete and pass my Japanese for beginners class – I finished my classes but I didn’t get the certificate as I struggled with the listening particularly. I’m still carrying on learning on my own though so it still feels like a positive
star Renew my passport and plan a trip to see my friend Lisa in Tokyo in October – I did this! I still haven’t written up my trip. I was also lucky enough to go to Luxembough for a break with J which I hadn’t originally planned.
star Grow my hair and get a fringe cut back in (I’ve tried to get away for it, but I always end up with fringe envy!) – Yup, my hair is slowly growing and I’m back to having a fringe (which is currently in need of a trim)
star Take a second silversmithing class (This is something that I’m almost sure will happen because my Mum generously paid for this as my Christmas gift) – This actually didn’t happen because I didn’t seek out one to do as I got caught up with both work and my travel plans.
star Have a massive overhaul of my possessions and our current house (ready for the next point) – I did this a bit but not as much as I wish I had (which means there is still a lot to do)
star Keep saving towards buying our own place – Yup! I did this every month bar November and December
star Carry on writing in this blog on a regular basis – ish! I mean, I didn’t write a lot but I did still post a few things here
star Write another perzine and another issue of Rebel, Rebel – I didn’t make any zines at all in 2016 aside from a tiny mini zine about stationery that I made just before Weirdo zine fest.
star Read at least 52 books (an average of 1 per week) – Yup! I read 98 books in the end

On reflection, I think I did ok. My year was personally a good one even though I felt upset, dejected and shaken at times by the state of the world and what seemed like a non-stop stream of bad news on a local, national and global scale.

Aside from getting to travel – I rediscovered a love for knitting socks, enjoyed watched iZombie, Crazy Ex-girlfriend and Gilmore Girls, drank a lot of coffee, got to hang out with friends at various events, went to a few gigs and also started walking a lot more.

2017 goals are currently brewing in my brain so I will write about those in the next few days