18 for 2018

After the shit show that was 2017 I'm feeling pretty good for 2018 - I mean its not let me down yet, two days in and no panic attacks. So 2018 is being pretty good to me so far, all I've done is spend time with David and my lil pupper Daisy and eat all the food. I started to think whilst looking at what everyone had achieved in 2017 on Instagram, what did I want to achieve in 2018? So here we are, I'm currently sat cross legged on the bed with Daisy next to me really thinking about what 18 things I want to achieve this year. So here we go...


Take a course in Makeup

So something I've been wanting to do for absolute years is to do a make-up course. I was close to quitting uni a couple years back to do it full time in college but I'm stubborn and thought I'd maybe like my course if I gave it time. 5 years into my four year degree, and I'm only in 3rd year and despise my course.
Moral of this story, go with your gut and mine was telling me to quit and be a makeup artist, I didn't listen and now I hate education. I'm not wanting to do a full time course though as I need money and working full time is the only way I can afford life. So I'll have to look around and enquire to a few different places. 

Visit America
This is quite broad, but I've no set plans as to where I'm going to go. I might be going to Vegas in April, also the idea of Florida and/or New York was thrown around a bit too, so I'll wait and see where abouts I actually end up

Get a new car
I've had my wee fiat for a couple years now, and don't get me wrong I love it, but I think its time to upgrade to something a little bit bigger - all I get is people moaning that they cant fit in my car and although thats not something that effects me, I suppose it would be nice for those in the back seats to have a little bit of leg room. It would also be real nice to not have to literally floor the accelerator while going up a hill to move faster than 20mph. 

Blog regularly
I'm already on a bit of a roll tbh, I've got loads of posts lined up and so many ideas bouncing around that I'm pretty sure I could come up with no new ideas and I'd be fine until April. I'm also toying with the idea of starting my YouTube channel back up - I really enjoyed doing it, its just my time management was crap and I always felt it was too much effort. 

Read More
Last year I think I read two maybe three books. I used to read so much and now I literally only read while I'm on holiday... I've got a pile of books to start reading in my room and I'm determined that this year will be the year I read more. Shall we say I want to read 30 new books in the year? I'd like to think I could read more but we'll make it a semi easy target for now. 

Save
December 2016 I had a healthy savings account, then a series of unfortunate loaning of money to a certain person meant all my savings literally vanished over the space of a couple of weeks. Not even just my savings, the absolute mug that I am spent most of my wage and ever since I've been struggling to keep my finances in check. So this year I'd like to get my savings off to a good start, ideally I'd like to my the end of the year have at least £1500 saved away. 
I'm also wanting to pay off my Apple Finance Agreement and my credit card. My Apple Finance has killed me in its interest over the year, but I've been paying more into it the past couple of months, so I think I could get it paid off my February. My credit card however is more or less maxed out, so getting the £1400 paid off might take a few minutes longer. 

Talk to my PT about Competeing
I toyed with the idea of entering a Bikini competition last year when I first started seriously training. My PT competes and she thinks I'd be amazing at it, so I think I'll have the conversation with her about it soon and maybe even register for a event before the year is over. 

Cut out all dairy
I started to reduce the amount of dairy I was eating last year, but I now want to eliminate it from my diet completely. I find that I feel a bit sick after eating dairy, and after being so minimal with it for a few months I think I might have made myself more intolerant to it than before. I also don't want to eat/ drink dairy as I feel that the dairy industry treats the animals in such a horrific way and personally I just don't want to be a part of the problem

Minimise Meat
I quite like the idea of going Vegan, but I think I'd rather just be "plant based", I am not a huge meat eater, and I never cook it for myself as I cant stomach the smell of red meat cooking and always seem to over cook and dry out chicken, so its not going to be a huge loss for me to cut it out. My only issue is I'm really fussy so don't want to class myself as vegan as I'm not going to say I'll never eat meat again. 
The meat industry has a massive effect on the environment, and I think reducing the amount of meat we consume can only be a good thing. 

Reduce my personal waste
Goodbye plastic straws, goodbye buying unnecessary amounts of food that I'll just bin, goodbye buying bottled water (hello to a new snazzy reusable bottle). You get the idea right? Less waste = better for the environment (also for my bank account).  I'm also toying with the idea of tea leaves to reduce the need for tea bags. So tea leaves, reusable bottles, no using plastic straws, planning my meals for less food wasted. 


Find my style
I've not actually bought much in the way of clothes since losing weight at the start of last year. I think the only things I've bought was a rain coat from Topshop, a new pair of jeans as mine were holey and a new tshirt. I more or less live in the same few items of clothing, and my style is very much plain top and jeans. So shall we say no style? I keep seeing photos of outfits that I adore and would love to wear those outfits but I just need to find the pieces and build my wardrobe to how I'd like it to be.

Spend time on me
Last year was a bit of a roller coaster - from being at my lowest in confidence and happiness to being at my absolute happiest and healthiest (both mentally and physically) to finishing the year feeling a bit out of sorts, with very little confidence, and though I'm so happy with David and my friends and family, I just can't quite shake the feeling that somethings off. I just don't feel like me. So this year, I'm gonna journal, pamper myself and in general just take time for me. If I don't want to go somewhere with people then I just won't. At the end of the day your health - both physical and mental - should always come first over how other people may feel. 

See my friends more
Following on from spending time on me, I want to spend time with my friends more. I got so caught up with work, uni - and I'm not gonna lie - in David, that I've kind of neglected my friends. Not in 2018 though! I'm going to ensure that I see them at least once a month for catch ups and girls nights. I'm even planning a trip down south to see my babe Aileen. 

Mend Bridges
My relationship with my family is a bit shocking. I really haven't spoke to my dad properly in almost 2 years, and I've found my relationship with my mum is getting a bit rocky now too. So in 2018 I want to fix this. I'm going to plan my weeks and set aside time every week for family and friends, dedicating time to building good relationships with them. 

Migrate to Wordpress
I've been toying with the idea of moving to Wordpress for awhile now, and I think I'm going to take the plunge and do it soon! Nervous but excited to do it as I've never tried Wordpress before so it'll be an interesting experience. 

Start a bullet journal
I looooove seeing everyones bullet journals and I'd love to start one of my own, so I will. I'm planning on buying the note book soon for the journal, and have saved so many posts on Pinterest to give me some inspo - if you've any posts on bullet journals please let me know!

Learn something new
I'm not 100% set on what my new thing shall be, maybe I'll learn to knit, maybe to bake (cakes not faces), maybe I'll even learn a new language. I'd like to learn Italian - theres a boy in my work whos Italian so it would be easy to practice with him if I did chose to learn. 

Be Outdoors more
I spend an awful lot of my time inside. My time is really just split between my room, work and the gym. I don't really go outside much, which means I don't walk very far at all. So 2018 will be the year of being more outdoorsy. I'm going to try have David go for walks with me a couple times a week cause he could definitely do with the fresh air too. We actually love going to Aberfoyle - the amount of times we've sat in wildlife huts watching for red squirrels is actually unreal. We've now seen many a red squirrel and even seen a Pine Martin!

So there we have it, 18 things I'd like to achieve in 2018. I know I've already done a goals post but this is more like actual things to strive towards rather than just new years resolution type things. 

What would you like to achieve this year?