2018 The Good, The Bad & The Plans

It’s that time of the year again. We’re all reflecting on the year that has been. You’ve seen the tweets doing the rounds, top three accomplishments of the year, or our favourite things that have happened, or maybe “What are your plans for 2019?”. I’m brazenly joining in, I love a good a bit of navel gazing frankly!

Travel

We’ve ticked off some epic trips this year, some that have been on my bucket list for years in fact! First up, Iceland in January! I even wrote a post all about Visiting Iceland, definitely worth a read. The trip itself was simply breathtaking. Finally got to see the Northern Lights in their full glory, they are spectacular. Top it off with geysers in full flow, frozen waterfalls not flowing at all, craters and the Blue Lagoon. All simply glorious.

For my birthday we went to Cornwall. We went eco-camping, sadly the weather was a bit woeful but we had a wonderful time exploring. I’ve realised that I’ve never actually written about it, or shared all my fun photos – although a few did appear on Instagram of course. Expect a write up soon.

We also got to experience Glamping for the first time! It was so much fun and wonderful to have a bit of a digital detox. It actually started a bit of a trend for me, spending less time online. More on that later.

The last trip was to San Francisco – the final bucket list location for the year. It was glorious! The forest fires were raging while we were there, so a thick smoke mixed with the fog, there was a strange haze over the city for our entire stay. I felt awful for those experiencing the brunt of the blaze. On a more positive note, we made the most of our stay and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve started to share some of our experiences – Pier 39 for starters. More to come.

Life

Well, this one has been a hell of a mix, hasn’t it? My health massively deteriorated around March/April time. After quite a few months, I can confirm what was going on back then – my endometriosis has grown and moved in around more of my organs, persistent thing. Turns out I’ve also got fibroids! Double whammy right there. However, I’ve managed to swing things back around in the last 6 months. So to start with I couldn’t walk much, or function much to be honest – the pain I was going through was excruciating to be honest. I shared my journey on Self Care When You’re Chronically Ill.

Now I’m on week 5 of my couch to 5K, I’m climbing twice a week, pilates weekly and I’m going to start my yoga teacher training in February! How? I must do an updated post on it. A large chunk of it was listening to my body, I was living entirely out of whack with myself. So a shift in diet, medication and self-management. Also a deeply ingrained seed of pure determination and stubbornness, most definitely inherited.

The finances are looking in better shape now too. I’ve been working two jobs when I had the chance among other things. One of the contributing reasons to my minimal posting on here. Priorities folks.

Other things?

Well, I’ve become a tad addicted to knitting and crocheting. I also touched on the fact that I’ve been spending less time online. This is sort of true. I’m spending less time on Twitter, it feels toxic lately. I just need to spend less time on it and focus more on the positive I think. Instagram and Facebook? More fun. This year I switched my Instagram up and now share lots of lifestyle and touches of beauty. I’ve even started an account for my fitness journey – Honestly.Fitness. Either way, less time on social, more time with people and doing fun things like reading, knitting, climbing, yogaing (yes that’s a word, I’ve decided)… plus I’m in the middle of setting up a business. That’s another post – these are racking up aren’t they! Content for the next few months at this rate?!

2019 Plans?

I have lots of things I want to accomplish in 2019. There are a few already set in stone – starting my yoga teacher journey, taking a trip to Cork with the in-laws in June, visiting the Isle of White with work in January.

The rest? I’m pondering at the minute. I’ve been enjoying spending less time online, so I think I’ll continue to restrict my time. It’s so easy to get sucked into Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and time simply disappears. So maybe timeboxing it is the way forward. The same applies to watching films and TV-shows. I want to read more, improve my photo editing skills and play more with photography itself. I need to shift my time to these pursuits. Again, it’s so easy to lose time on random shows that don’t really do much for me.

I want to be debt-free by May/June time. It will mean saving for a house and possibly even having most of the deposit by the end of the year!

What about the blog and YouTube? OK well this is going to be an interesting one. I do have plans, however I lack all of the time. So in a bid to make sure I manage my health, I’m going to try and post twice a month on the blog, maybe the same on YouTube. The vlogs will be monthly, there’s not much to share when I’m working from home – all trips of course will be shared. I will continue with the shift towards all things lifestyle with the touches of beauty.

I think that’s everything. 2019 is going to continue getting better, I’m finally getting a hang of the work/life balance a bit. I’m finishing up old projects so I can start 2019 with a fresh slate. Life is good and it will continue on that way I think!

What are your plans for the new year? Are you continuing on with some changes you’ve started to make?