First off, Happy New Year! I hope you’ve had a relaxing Christmas holiday period filled with love and good health.
I’m a New Years resolutions person. I love having a fresh page of goals that I want to work towards in that year or experiences I want to try and despite not always achieving my goals, I still like to have them to keep me steering in the life direction that I have (or had) in mind.
I thought it would be nice to reflect on things that I had started to do in 2021 or did better in 2021 and want to keep doing in 2022, so here they are.
1. Reading
I re-became a bookworm during lockdown. It’s been years since I read this much but somehow I found solace in books during these times. I had forgotten what it was like to be swept into another world, another time or someone else’s consciousness. They kept me entertained, growing, words gave me comfort, characters and stories captured my imagination. I even spent some money on books (gasp shock horror- see here).
2. Exercising
I think 2021 was the fittest I had been in a while and I’d like to keep this momentum up as best as I can. Even if it’s just a walk or some at home strength exercises, it helped me sleep better, made me feel stronger and well. I’d also like to help my future self by doing the best I can at making myself mobile and nimble enough for more adventures in the future.
3. Keep exploring grocery stores
As we weren’t allowed to travel, staying within our city was the only thing to do. And so was exploring different types of foods in different grocery stores. Sydney is quite multicultural and there are many different grocery stores around, each stocking a variety of foods from their respective countries. It’s been great actively trying to mix up the home cooking, try out new receipes and try some different snacks and drinks regularly. It was almost like travelling.
4. Making mornings me time
I sometimes get so annoyed that by the end of the day, I want to focus on language learning or other hobbies but I am just too tired to process anything. I was thinking about how I could rearrange my day and decided that I should try and dedicate time in the mornings before work instead. It sounds great in theory but trying to shift my day and routine has been abit of work. Going through motivation slumps this year, I thought it might even get me out of bed rather than wanting to sleep in. It has worked to varying degrees but I could improve.
5. Keep minimising
These weird times have meant that I didn’t need new clothes and had more time to re-evaluate my existing wardrobe. I did one of those mandory lockdown wardrobe cleaning sessions and got to donate some unworn clothes that were from 10 years ago and also finally got rid of those items that really needed to be thrown out. I came to 2 conclusions: 1) Items are suppose to be worn until they wear out and not ‘saved’ for a better occasion and 2) I don’t need so many options.
What are some things that you will keep doing in 2022?
Lingo in Transit 
All these are on my list too other than the grocery store visits!!!! My 5th would be to keep working on my blog. Happy New Year!!!
All the best in your goals this year!
Happy New Year, Sophie! I like your plan for rearranging your work schedule to rise earlier and try to find some creative time. It makes a lot of sense and one I could apply here as I remember being too exhausted in the evening after work, to do much else. I have applied this kind of regime since I semi-retired early due to Covid. Still, even if I was working full time, getting up early in summer could achieve much more. The mind is fresh and it is so delightful seeing the sunrise, when it is quiet and the city is still largely asleep. Maybe warming a croissant in the oven with a cuppa tea might be an incentive to get up early!
Stay safe!
Yes, I think in summer it would work particularly well!….if only I could get to it better. That would be a great incentive to get me up!
Love the fact you are building on good habits rather than completely starting again. Good luck with shifting your priority project to the morning, I did the same with exercise. It’s not naturally my best time to work out but it helped get the habit going.
Thank you for your kind words! So great to hear that you’ve changed your habits and it worked.
I love all of your points. I myself am enjoying grocery shopping because I too plan to explore new recipes to nourish myself. And yes to exercise, and YES to keeping mornings for myself. It’s so weird how self-improvement is so similar for all of us, despite our cultures, locations, or goals being different.
Thanks for this post!
All the best keeping your endeavours! Yes, interesting how we can have such alike goals despite where we are.
I love that you focus on keeping up with the things that you know already make you happy! 😊 I also use morning to work on my languages and different goals, so I don’t have to deal with it at the end of the work day, when I’m exhausted and tired! 😊 I wish you an amazing New year, filled with books, supermarket adventures and regular adventures as well!
So happy to read that you’re also using mornings to work on your goals. If you have any tips, I’d love to know. Thank you for your well wishes!
I am naturally a morning person so waking up is not that difficult for me, though having a “sunrise” alarm (with light rather than sound) really helps A LOT, especially in the winter! I also found that I am more motivated if I know exactly what to do so I don’t have to think too much in the morning ahah!
I’ve always thought those sunrise alarms are cool! Ok, I will come up with a plan and see if that helps me.
Pingback: Half Yearly Review: 2022 – Lingo in Transit