I’m rubbish at New Year’s Resolutions and goal setting generally. I’ve done it, this space is littered with my attempts. I work better under external pressure, than I am at internal pressure but the weird thing is that over the last few years, without setting big goals, I’ve stuck to my general aims better.

This is because I changed my attitude to my goals and aims. Working towards them became a gift to my future self, so doing them was a good thing, while not doing them wasn’t proof that I was lazy and weak willed, I assigned no morality to failure.

This year is the year I turn 50 so there are some things I want to work towards this year and rather than set massive goals, I’m going to list some small things every month that I’d like to do. It has to be monthly because I may not be able to do continue to do all the things in February as at least the first two weeks of that month are going to be full on as I move to my mum’s and the flat gets a make over! So small things, that will help me feel saner, calmer and more in control of my life!

So in January, I want to try and do these things each day:

Stretching and Yoga

In 2015, I had a scarf and akin osteotomy on my left foot. At the appointment to sign me off and send me back to work, I asked the surgeon if there was anything I could do to prevent the bunion coming back and help the one on the right foot for getting worse. He told me that I should learn to walk on my hands because my feet weren’t that good for walking on! All that to say that the mechanics of my feet, legs, hips and back aren’t great. I’ve noticed recently that my hips and back are tight and sore, admittedly some of this is age and weight but I know that yoga and regular stretching help me and reduce pain, so rather than do them when everything really hurts, I’d like to make it a daily thing, to see if it helps.

Walk more

I work from home 2-3 days a month and that means I can go a whole day without leaving the house, while there have been days when I haven’t left the house and have done 6k steps (according the the fitbit) it’s rare. So I want to set an intention of getting 70k steps a week. The fitbit records it and if the weather is filthy, then I can do a walking workout.

Sleep and Golden Hour

December has done a number on my bedtime routine, I need to get back to it because over Christmas, I got more sleep and it’s been lovely. So more ensuring that I get to bed relaxed and in good time for a decent amount of sleep.

Low Spend Janauary

I don’t need to do this, but it’s good practice after the excess of Christmas and the shock of £300 on varifocal glasses (my glasses are always expensive and varifocal’s make it more expensive – getting old sucks). I also need to run the freezer down this month before the kitchen renovation starts, so the only shopping I want to do is for food and I want to spend no more than £48 which happens to be the exact amount of cash I have in my purse right now. The only other spending will be for bird food for the plot but that comes out of the allotment budget.

Meal Planning and Food Prep

If I can’t throw money at it, I need to take the time to cook and work out how to use the food I have in the house. At the very least, I need to make sure that I have food ready to go for the days I’m in the office.

None of these things are revolutionary, it’s all basic stuff that I’ve done for the majority of last several years, this is just me setting the intention to make it habit again. Small stuff…