Happy New Year! 8 days late, but still, I hope everyone had a lovely festive period and the best start to the year. I did nothing but eat, sleep, read, and it was absolute bliss. I’m now back at work though, hence the late post!
I tend to set “resolutions” every single year – but they are more goals and projects to work towards rather than something that can be implemented straight away, as I think most of us do. I know setting resolutions and goals is controversial – but it works for me, so I’m not about to stop!
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My retrospective of 2021
2021 was very weird year for me. It started really well, because me and my boyfriend got engaged, which was probably the highlight of the year. We also moved in together which was super exciting. I also finished a really hard uni course in June and got my first full time job in September. I feel like I went from being a student to a full-blown adult in the space of one summer, and that was super difficult for me to deal with. I definitely have a tendency to focus on the negatives (in my personal and my professional life!) so for this little review of 2021, I thought I would try to focus on everything that went well this year, and the fact that we made it through another year by listing one thing I’m grateful for, for each month of 2021. Let’s see how it goes!
January. We got engaged!
February. I cooked an amazing meal for the first time that I’ve since re-made many times since! & started my blog journey!
March. Bought some clothes that made feel really good about myself!
April. Visited a lovely village in Northamptonshire and took lots of pictures!
May. Had a great night at the pub with friends!
June. Graduated for the last time! & saw my best friend for the first time in a year due to Covid.
July. Moved into our first flat!
August. Had a lovely visit from my mum who I hadn’t seen since December of 2020!
September. Started my first full time job!
October. I went back home to France for a few days & I had the best Halloween, we ordered cupcakes from a local business and watched a TV series we both love!
November. I read three books that month, my record!
December. Lots of things happened this month! We had our first Christmas in the flat, I cooked my first Christmas dinner, got to open and give out lots of great presents, made my best cookie recipe yet (which you can find here!)… Overall, a good end to 2021!
April May
October October
A few goals for 2022
I always set goals when one year finishes and another one comes around, become I am a big believer in new beginnings and changing up/improving your life through projects and setting goals. I don’t think it’s possible for me to be goal-less – I need something to keep me going, however small.
So, here are my goals to achieve for 2022!
Read 25 books
I’m back on the reading bandwagon, and I’m hoping to carry on that way this year! So, I’m setting myself the same goal I did last year, which is to read 25 books. I would have pushed it to 30, but I think at this point in time, as I still get used to my new job, it’s more realistic to leave it at 25 and see if I get beyond that. I also want those 25 books to be new books, because last year at least 3 or 4 books were re-reads and I’d like the books I read in 2022 to be books I’ve never read before!
Practise yoga
I started doing yoga back in 2019, and I did it fairly regularly until the first lockdown in March 2020. You would have thought spending more time at home would have kicked me into gear and made me practise more, but actually, not having a routine really threw me off and I just didn’t do a lot during that time at all. So in 2022, I’d like to get back into yoga! I think I’m going to start by doing the same beginner video everyday for a couple of weeks to get my body re-accustomed to moving this way again, and then move onto longer, harder videos little by little. I always loved Yoga with Adrienne, so I will definitely use her videos again this year!
Build my savings back up
Without going into details, I managed to save a decent amount of money last year. And then, we moved house, and had to buy a lot of things – as you do when you move into a house for the first time! So we burnt through savings pretty quickly then. I’ve never been the best at budgeting and buying only what I need, but as we want to be able to buy a house in the next couple of years, learning to manage money and building my savings is going to be really important to me over the next couple of years! So, I’ve put a budget together and calculated how much money I can save each month in theory every month. I’m also going to try and follow the chart that’ll allow you to save £2022 in 2022 – it sounds like a really safe way to make sure you save at least a little bit of money this year if you’re unsure whether a budget would work for you!
Explore the UK
I’ve lived in the UK for five years now, and in that time I’ve only visited about 3 cities in England! That’s something I’m hoping to remedy in 2022 (Covid-19 permitting, obviously). I’m really hoping to be able to visit cities like Edinburgh, Brighton, York, Bath… There’s so many cities which would be so great to go to for a weekend city break!
Cook some new recipes
I love cooking and baking, but I definitely don’t do it as often as I’d like, just because, to be honest, I am lazy! It takes so long to cook one meal So one of my goals for 2022 is to cook a lot more! I have all the kitchen gadgets you can think of, and I even got an Instant Pot and cookbook for Christmas so I really have no excuse to cook new recipes now. I am doing Veganuary this month, so I’m really hopeful that it will help me find some new recipes that I’ll love!
What are your goals for 2022?
Em ♥
I love reading about the highlights of the previous year. Most people tend to focus on the negatives and forget about the things that brought them joy. It was great to read about your new year goals. I hope you do great in all of them.
I made lots if changes in my life during last year and this year changes will continue happening. All changes targeting the best of course.
Great goals and a fab review of last year. Saving money is big on my list too.
Your 2021 sounded good. And you new year’s resolutions are good too. So all the best to you this year. Fighting!!!!!!
These are some lovely goals to work towards in 2022 — I love the positivity of them and how they are a celebration of you/your life. I’m wishing you all the best with them — you’re going to do great!
Congratulations on your engagement! 2021 sounded like a good year for you. I also want to do a bit of yoga this year – let’s hope we both do that x
Ooh fab goals here – and a very belated congrats on your engagement, it sounds like you had a great year overall! I’d love to read more and save up more this year too (I actually start university in September so now’s the perfect time). I hope you’re able to see more of the UK too, I was lucky enough to go to Bath a couple of times last year and it’s wonderful – I absolutely loved it! Thanks for sharing, wishing you all the best for 2022 x
Congratulations on getting engaged lovely, that’s fab news! I hope you have an amazing 2022! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
You had a really good year! Congrats on the new job. And good luck on your resolutions! I should add yoga to my list too, feel like it’ll be good to try it out.
You sound like you have had a lovely year. Hope you meet some of your goals in the coming year, especially the one about exploring UK (it sounds so fun)!