What Do If Your 2018 Got Off To A Bad Start

So, hands up who else entered 2018 with the virus/flu/cold of death? Because the first week of the new year has been a complete blur and it's left me feeling like a big fat failure already. And I can't deny I'm a big fan of the new year as it's one of the easiest ways to draw a line in the sand and attempt to leave everything that happened in past 12 months in that year and start fresh. However, when you've got all the plans and resolutions and you feel excited to get on with them and they seem to go down the drain straight away it can be pretty disheartening. So in case, you're also trying to battle through January with a nose full of snot and chest full of phlegm or handling anything else that might have put a dent in your productive spirits then keep reading.

a bad January doesn't equal a bad year

Whilst wallowing in my sofa/bed snot kingdom I moaned in my ridiculously high pitched voice to my dog that the entire year was ruined and I had better just wait till 2019 to be super-productive where I start it off spectacularly. Of course, this was highly dramatic but it's so easy to want to give up when things aren't going well. There is a lot of pressure put on January, from just about everyone and everything. But in reality it's just one month and there is so much more possibility for the other 11 months of the year. Not everything needs to be done and ticked off in January, it's the dreariest month yet we're so hell bent on getting everything done. I'm not sure about anybody else but I find it the hardest month to get myself motivated and always find myself feeling far better as the year goes on.

IT'S NOT A RACE

Also during my time of napping and laying on the sofa, I spent far too long perusing social media which probably wasn't my smartest idea considering how crappy I felt. And not so surprisingly it made me feel even more downtrodden, my IG was a stream of people going to the gym and concocting healthy meals. And all I'd done that day is demolished a bag of Frazzles because that's all I felt like eating. Much like everything else in life, it's not a race who can tick off all their goals first, the only person you have to worry about contending with is yourself. It never matters what people are apparently doing on social media because it has no effect on our lives, yes it's nice to be nosey and sometimes it can be inspiring. But more often than not it just ends up in us feeling rubbish because we're not doing our 1000th squat of the day.

every day can be a fresh start

It sounds like one of those really cliche things that belongs on a mug or home decor piece but we have the chance for a fresh start every single day. I used to be really bad for dwelling on things, for months I would dwell on the same thing and overthink things constantly and it was such a bad habit to have. Granted, I do still slip into bad patterns but nowhere near to the same extent. Every single day is a fresh start for something, even if it's just getting out bed and brushing your hair that day. We put such a big emphasis on the big picture things that we tend to forget all about the things that make our day go round. And even though a new day isn't quite the same a new year you can still draw a line in the sand, start a fresh and go from that point.

our worth isn't measured on what we achieve

It's probably something that sticks with us from our school, where all we have to focus on is grades and doing well and it haunts our adult life. I'm sure much everyone else reading this I tend to measure my self-worth on how well I'm doing with my career and not on the thing that's really important which is whether I'm a good human or not, whether I have a kind and compassionate heart which feels empathy. Achievements are wonderful things and when people celebrate them then I think that's an amazing thing, I truly do. But I wish it wasn't the only way we deemed how we judged somebody as there is so much more to people than their list of personal achievements.

make yourself a bloody good list

Now I'm hopefully on the other side of the flu from hell I know the first thing I'm going to do to in order for me to really feel ready to give 2018 my all is create a seriously good list. It's such a obvious thing but I'm not great without a list. I need something where I can see everything that I want to achieve and then somewhere where I can write down daily to-do's. This year I've jotted down my big picture goals in the back of my planner that I use daily, this way there easy to get to if I need them but they're not constantly in my face. And then my daily lists are everything that I need to do that day, I went through a stage of writing general bullet points but now I write super detailed lists. It takes a little more time and can make things look a little scary but it helps make sure everything gets done. I'm a big believer that you're either a list person or you're not, some people hate them and don't see why people love them so much but they're such a game changer in my routine.

and make everything achievable

For so many years I used to set myself the most ridiculous goals, bordering on the likes of sprouting wings and flying to the moon. And I think it's really good to set yourself something where you have to really push yourself to achieve it, but there's pushing yourself and setting yourself up for failure. And so often we do the latter we set ourselves a million and one things to do and how are we ever going to achieve that? Setting ourselves goals that are achievable never sounds as exciting but what it does result in is us actually managing to achieve them.