Happy New Year!

I've been thinking about resolutions a lot since September. To me, it's September that is the start of the year, thanks to years of British Schooling, my own children being in the Britsh school system and of course now working in a School. September is when the new notepads come out, when I start taking stock of what I have (or haven't!) achieved, thinking about what I want to achieve and having a little bit of a trial run before I actually set my goals for the year in January.

I've come up with a few things that I want to achieve in 2021, I'm not sure if they are really resolutions they are more a mix of short and long term goals but I know that these four areas that I'm focusing my efforts in are the areas which will help me to be the me that I want to be, that they will smooth off my rough edges (or maybe give me some!) and help me to be better.

First up Health or my Physical goal.

Flyfour and I have made great strides (haha) with our walking, our average walking speed has sped up without us actually trying to improve it and we both enjoy spending the time together talking about the rubbish we talk about and catching each other up with all our news but if I want to improve my health in any serious shape or form then I need to take it a bit more seriously.

In the past, when I have been on health kicks, I've become a little "addicted" to what I've been doing. Cutting calories drastically, eating at regimented times, cutting out whole good groups, attending the gym several times a day, walking for hours on end and getting very fastidious about it all. I can't be like that. I can't be addicted like that again.

So I've decided to start slowly, couch to 5K to start with. Then again. And again and again and again, until I'm able to do the 30-minute run. As it is a nine week programme, I think if my maths is right I'll be able to do it 5, almost 6 times and I think it's going to take that long!

Secondly my Intellectual goal.

Well, I'm always doing various courses as I hunt out free ones and ones that the government pay for me to do because I'm a middle aged woman and they like to keep us on side. So this is just going to stay as me doing a new course every two or three months. Spending my term learning things I didn't know that I didn't know and of course practising the piano.

Oh and keeping up with my duolingo and my daily sudoku!

Third up my Social goal.

I think that for me, whilst 2020 has been great for my family relationships it has taken a toll on a lot of my friendships. My work friends and I seem to have bonded more (mostly because they are the only people we've seen!) but I haven't seen my friends from Church or former work colleagues or random people I've met and we haven't been able to hang out as much as we would like and only partly because I work in a school and haven't felt comfortable being with several of my friends. Look my friends are old and I didn't want to be the one that killed them.

So 2021 is going to see me go back to one of my favourite pastimes that I really should have done more of in 2020 if I'm honest. I'm going to write letters and post them to my friends. I'm going to talk about rubbish and do silly drawings and hopefully, they will write back. And even after we can hang out again and even though we'll probably text or WhatsApp and phone each other I have a feeling this will be my favourite thing of 2021.

Lastly, Spiritual goal.

This one is the hardest for me because this year has been hard on me Spiritually. Not having the Sacrament on a regular basis has been hard, not having the weekly lessons with my friends and fellow members has been hard and my personal scripture study has slid a little backwards.

Okay, I'l admit it I've hardly done any this year.

So next year I want to be better. I want to study at least weekly and to ready daily. I'm not going for record breaking here, just a little stronger than this year.

So those are my goals. Hopefully come the end of the year I'll look back and realise how much progress I've made and not roll my eyes at a year of wasted opportunity!