Nic Dempsey

I spent a lot December reflecting on my year. You can see the Advent posts here, here and here and you can see how I felt I did with my 2015 goals here.

It’s easy to get caught up in January in setting unrealistic goals and there’s loads of advice out there talking about how to set realistic goals or about setting them at time when they are easier to stick to than January, which along with November is an unsweetened rice pudding of a month!

I get all of that but I’m a firm believer in setting goals and trying to learn from the missed AND achieved goals. I find that the review process teaches me about the difference between what I think I should care about and what I actually care about and helps me understand how to live with that difference. All that to say that I am setting goals this year and I will try to maintain a monthly recap about how I’m doing but I’m not going to beat myself up, if that doesn’t happen. Last year, splitting the goals up into categories really helped but I think I tried too hard to have concrete SMART goals and didn’t pay enough attention to the emotion or feeling that I was trying to get to with the goal, so this year will be more of a hybrid and some of the goals will go across categories. So, if you’re still reading this, I apologise for the wordiness that is about to hit you.HOME

I love my living space and I want to continue to feel as comfortable in it as I do now but I want to love it a bit more too, some of it needs some attention.

• Decoration. In 2016, I need to paint the bathroom, bedroom and living room again. I’d like to tackle the bathroom before June but the other rooms will have to wait until I have full use of my foot again!
• De-clutter. I want to have another clear out of the cupboard of doom and have a serious look at what’s in the kitchen.
• Deep cleaning. I will assign a weekend every three months to deep clean the flat. In this weekend I will scrub the floors, clean the oven and windows and all that stuff I’m not good at remembering to do!

FINANCE

I’ve written extensively about this but it’s worth a brief recap. Money is a big control trigger for me (I have a thing about control it’s going to come up a lot this year!). For years, my finances have been like maths, mention it and the shutters come down as I panic about my lack of ability to deal with it. It’s a place where I apply emotion, most often fear, where emotion is not useful or necessary. So this year, I want not to be fearful about my finances or financial situation, I want to be in control. This is going to break down into goals like this:

• Tracking. I’ve been using a spreadsheet, that Ma (the queen of the spreadsheets!) helped me set up. It tracks what goes in and out of my bank account and what’s left. It also helps me plan for the year. In 2016, I will be consistent about using it.
• Food Budget. This one is already in play, in 2016 I will set a food budget of £15 a week and I will record my spending and eating on this blog each Tuesday. Any money I don’t spend each week will go into the change jar, which is sealed and won’t be opened until 1st December 2016.
• Overdraft. I have one and I want it gone, so I will pay it off in 2016.
• Credit Cards. I won’t use them in 2016. I reserve the right to use them in an emergency but I can’t plan for those…

BODY AND MIND

Home and finance all contribute to how I feel about myself but the focus of this category is on health, exercise, mental well being and ease of living.

•  Walking. Walking more was a game changer for me in 2015 and I want to get back to that, obviously that will depend on how my foot recovery goes. So I need to have small, long term goals for this, a) by the end of March 2016, I would like to be walking either to work from Paddington Station OR from work to Paddington Station, that’s about 35 minutes a day. b) by the end of June 2016 I would like to be walking both ways and getting my 10,000 steps a day.
• Body Balance. I love doing this when I do and my work gym membership resumes in July. So I’d like to go to one class a week in July and August and then resume 2 classes a week from September.
• Yoga. The evening routine is good for me so by the end of February, I want to be doing this at least twice a week.
• Volunteering. I want to start attending the volunteer allotment days in June and this year use the two CSR days work gives me. I’m sure that my Mum can find a use for me either at the foodbank or the homeless project!
• Books. The 12 book target was good but restrictive last year, I’m going to give myself a bit more leeway and have 24 books this year.
• Work Uniform. This year I want to have a work uniform, but not use it as an excuse for buying more stuff. I need to wear office clothes 4 days a week so I will create 6 outfits for work make sure that 4 of them are clean and ready to go for Monday morning.

Word for the year

This year has been harder and easier to pick a word. If there’s a theme this year, it’s about being true to myself without stepping on others. So the word that I chose straight away was authentic. This year, I want to work on honesty being who I am, which means being open with others about where I am and knowing my value, I know that the whole world doesn’t revolve around me but I am worth the time and attention of the people in my life, in 2015, I didn’t own that and this year I’m going to.