So, I've been reading.
I'll pause while you pick yourself off the floor.
Guys seriously. I mentioned I was reading this in my previous post & I honestly haven't read such an inspirational book in a long time. I described it as sitting down with an old friend, having a cup of tea & a chocolate biscuit & that is genuinely what it's like.
I like to think of myself as an organised person (if you know me, you'll know nothing excites me more than a spreadsheet!) but the actual doing of the tasks is another matter. I'm hopeless at prioritizing my time, so much so, I find a lot of my time is spent worrying about things, that could literally be solved from completing them. Easy right?
We're all under this constant pressure to 'exercise more, eat healthier, socialise but also have time for ourselves' & the list goes on. Surely, a regular human can't do all these things as well as maintain a full time job!?
Anna breaks it down brilliantly. She basically states that if you have all of these as your goals, you'll never complete them. Start small & be specific & you're onto a winner.
On page 103, she suggests grabbing a piece of paper & writing the following headings, so that's what I did.
Financial / Wellbeing / Personal / Career
You can obviously add in different ones if these aren't relevant to you, but they suited me perfectly. Anna's top tip here is to try to break down the goal. So instead of 'drink more water' be more specific & say 'drink 2 litres a day' or if you want to add exercise into your life, instead of 'go to the gym more' it could be 'try to exercise once or twice a week' My top tip is don't give yourself too many. You'll overwhelm yourself & you'll find that instead of completing the majority of them, you'll end up giving up. So here are my goals for the categories above.
Let's start with financial. So James & I have recently bought our own house which is incredibly exciting, but obviously meant we are now budgeting for a bigger property than we were when we were renting & we are still learning about the house in regards to our water & electric usage. Hence, my first & only goal for this one is try to save £50 a month. Now this money will literally go straight into the 'house' fund. I do want to start adding more to it in the next year, but with Christmas coming up, it seems like the sensible amount to aim for.
Next we have wellbeing. I like this category as you could add one of the smallest goals, but it could make the biggest different to your lifestyle if you stick to it. The first one for me is to attend my Bounce class once a week. I used to go back in the Summer every Monday after work, but since my shifts have changed, it hasn't been as easy for me to attend (let's be real, they do 3 classes a week.. if I forced myself I probably could have made quite a few that I was "busy" for on other days!) but I truly don't know why I stopped to be honest. It's so much fun & the ladies I do it with are amazing, so there really isn't any excuse. My second one is nice & easy; drink 1 litre of water a day. Now I know you're supposed to drink 2, but right now getting me to drink anything other than multiple cups of tea a day with a half glass of orange squash thrown in is a challenge, so I'm starting small to see if I can achieve it. It should definitely help with my headaches & hopefully my skin will thank me for it too! & final one for wellbeing is try to either jog, or walk for 30 minutes, twice a week. I actually live half an hours walk from work & in the Summer time when it's lighter, I would think nothing of the walk there & back, but unfortunately as we head into Winter, it's so much easier (& safer) to grab the car. But I find I feel so sluggish if I haven't walked in the day. My job involves sitting at a desk for 8 hour days, so I really need to push myself to get out more.
Thirdly we have personal. I have 2 goals for this one which I'm hoping I can achieve. Firstly, spending no more than 2 hours a day on my phone. I've recently got a new iPhone & it's got the screen time tracker on it & my god, it's scary. Who knew scrolling through Instagram looking at all those cute puppy videos would make you seem like you have no life away from a screen!? I seriously couldn't believe it when my first 'weekly report' came through, so I'm determined to switch off from my phone from now on. Anna also suggests have a 'digital detox' every so often & literally shutting your phone in a draw for an evening or a whole day if you're feeling brave, just to see what life is like without being joined at the hip to socials. I'm definitely going to do this more. Secondly is read a book per month. Anna had this one on her list & I attempted to read 8 last year & think I got to about 6! Not bad but I still think I can do 1 a month. I thought about how much I lay in bed each night on my phone for about 20 minutes before I go to sleep & for what reason? ..there is no reason! So why not pick up a book instead (also that will help me with the 2 hours a day goal too! 2 birds with 1 stone & all that!) I found my library card at the bottom of a handbag when we were moving & now I'm absolutely craving going there & selecting some new books! As I remember, you could only borrow the book for 3 weeks at a time, so hopefully that'll force me to stick to my goal.
& finally career. I'm quite private about my job on my blog, so I'm afraid I'm going to keep this one to myself as I know I have colleagues that read this from time to time, but I will share 1 of Anna's with you to give as an example. "Get a piece of my writing published in a magazine". I mean, is there anything this girl can't do? It'll be ticked off in no time (if it hasn't been already this year!)
Well lovelies, I hope you enjoyed that exceptionally rambley post. I'm hoping by me actually typing these down - I'm going to stick to them! Let me know if you try this method of planning your goals & what yours are! I'd love to know : )
