It’s New Year’s eve. Finally, 2016 is ending. (Thank fuck). With the closing of a year and the start of a new one, I’ve been seeing on Instagram, New Year’s resolutions and the obligatory “New Year, New me” bullshit. I totally see the point in setting goals and working towards them but the New Year’s resolution, I feel, has an undertone that is notoriously negative. I mean, the nature of it implies pressure. “Come on Sarah, it’s New Year, better make this year’s resolution something big!” So we focus on all the things we have fucked up over the last year and all the things we want to do differently or do better like losing weight, stopping smoking, contacting relatives more often, getting that new job etc etc. We don’t address the reasons why we haven’t achieved those things so far, or break them down into manageable steps. So we “fail” at our resolution, normally within the first couple of weeks of January and set the tone for the rest of the year.
I said in my last blog, 2016 that “We need to spend time finding the good and highlighting it.” (Eeewww I just quoted myself! On a scale of one to obnoxious I’d say that ranks pretty high). Despite obnoxiousness levels, I did say that and I meant it. So I’m gonna put my words into action and do something that makes me feel hugely uncomfortable, which is to focus on my achievements for 2016. This totally makes me cringe because I’m very British and in our culture if you are proud of yourself, you are arrogant. If you talk about your achievements, you’re boasting. Even if you think someone else has done something good, you should temper your compliment with a put down (also known as banter). It’s this attitude which makes me cringe when I quote myself because surely nothing I say is that important and definitely not worth making reference to…
But if you don’t ever think about what you’ve done well, how will you have the confidence and belief in yourself to set and achieve future goals? And why not talk about what’s going well? If anything, this world needs a bit more of that kind of positivity.
Here goes…..
Raised £1700 for Macmillan by shaving my hair.
Volunteered 47 hours for Age UK Northants doing fundraising, helping at the Venton Day Centre, providing weekly Hospital Aftercare support and delivering meals support.
Interviewed by Age UK national communications team for an interview in their annual accounts brochure about my volunteering.
Travelled solo to Warsaw, Vienna and Sofia.
Achieved a Gold performance rating at work for 2016.
Spent two-thirds of my working days away from home, in 21 different offices.
Read two whole books! LOL This hasn’t happened since university, 12 years ago.
Volunteered for a small business run by the lovely Emily Coxhead, folding happy notes for her happy jars that will have brightened lots of lives.
Started The Look Up Project sharing beautiful sights and helping people appreciate what’s all around them. I aimed to get 100 followers, which I did quickly and a year on, amassed 6000 likes.
Had an idea and within 2 weeks set up this blog all by myself, despite knowing absolutely fuck all about blogs!
When I look back, 2016 has been a busy old year and personally, a really good one. There are lots of things I wanted to achieve and didn’t but fuck it, I’ve not done too badly all things considered. I didn’t sit there on January 1st and set all the above as resolutions and if I had, I wouldn’t have believed I could have done it all and I definitely would have quit before January 31st. So please, DON’T set resolutions. Instead, think about what was good in 2016. What did you achieve and what did you enjoy? Let me know. Comment below, I’d love to hear about it. I promise not to give you any banter back, just genuine love and encouragement.
