Goals for 2022

I can’t quite believe we’re nearly at the end of January already – it’s scary how quickly time flies the older you get. I’ve been tentatively thinking about my goals and intentions for this year over the past few weeks; it’s definitely taken me longer than usual as I’ve wanted to be realistic while also ensuring I have something solid to strive towards.

Whether you buy into the whole ‘New year, new me’ thing, I think we all have to admit the idea of a fresh start is welcome right now, and I’m excited to see what the year ahead will bring. While things are still very much up in the air in terms of travel and big plans, I think I’ve put together a fairly realistic set of goals for 2022.

Create more

This is probably the biggest goal on my list as it covers so many different things. When I was thinking about what goals I wanted to achieve this year things like ‘writing more’, ‘drawing more’, ‘doing more cross-stitch’ kept coming up so I thought bringing them all together and just setting myself the goal to ‘create more’ worked pretty well.

I want to start regularly posting on my Instagram (I get really into my head about it and things not being perfect, and before I know it weeks have past with no posts) as well as on here, and I also want to pick up my iPad and get back into drawing and lettering. I’ve recently discovered I love cross-stitch, so I want to do that more too, and my Mum got me a loom for my birthday last year which I definitely need to have another go with!

Prioritise my health

Again, I feel like this goal covers a few things which works well for me. I know I need to eat more fruit and get back into exercising regularly, but I also need to prioritise my mental health too. I started going to CBT for my OCD last year and it’s been really helping so far, so I want to keep that up so that this time next year I should be in a totally different place with my OCD. I already feel so much better about it and it’s only been a couple of months. Exercising regularly also goes hand in hand with my mental health as it helps boost my mood considerably, so I think I can work on both things harmoniously.

Get outside more

Since the pandemic we’ve all obviously been spending a lot more time at home. If, like me, you also work from home, you can go a bit stir-crazy being stuck in the house, while at the same time the idea of going outside can feel like a lot of effort. I always feel so much better once I get outside though so I want to go on more outdoor adventures this year. I absolutely loved our Scotland road trip last year so I’m thinking more weekends spent walking around the woods with my dog or going on hikes are definitely on the cards.

Stop holding on to everything

I have a confession to make: I’m a bit of a hoarder. I hold on to A LOT of things, many of which I really don’t need. The idea of throwing things away always terrifies me a bit as I always think ‘But what if I NEED it?’ but actually what happens is I end up with mountains of things I don’t need. It’s got to the point where every cupboard in our house is a bit of a danger zone and so this year I really want to stop holding on to everything and actually get rid of things. I might have to re-read ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying’ and start throwing away everything that doesn’t spark joy.

Save money

I’ve always been really awful at saving money. It always astounds me when people say things like ‘I saved £3,000 this year’ as the very idea of that seems impossible to me. But, I do have a tendency to buy things I don’t really need (see above!) and so I’m going to cut down on spending and see how much I can get saved this year. I’ve recently started using Plum and I find it’s great for squirrelling away bits of money – it’s basically an app that works out how much money you can realistically save and then it does all the work for you. I’ve been really impressed with it so far!

What are your goals for the year ahead?