- To become a vegetarian
- Not to buy any new clothes
- To be teaching a dance fitness class once a week
Over half way into the year and I've nailed the fitness class, failed at the vegetarianism and have treated myself to only one new item of clothing (an expensive floaty little top by surf brand Roxy which I then promptly spilt red wine on) and a few second hand charity shop bargains (perfectly fitting River Island jeans anyone? How can a person say no???).
I'm eating plenty of vegetarian food however and am determined to stick to the 'no new clothes' rule until January (including those pesky second hand bargains).
Why bother to set goals if I'm going to break over 50% of them you may ask? For me, it's a way of life (I'm a professional fundraiser for my full time day job so targets are part and parcel and essential for staying on track), a way of knowing whether or not I'm achieving the things I set out to and if I'm not, then constantly striving to ensure that eventually (after multiple setbacks and failures) I do achieve them.
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| Vegetarian dreams... |
Those times of multiple setback and failure also enable a period of reflection around whether or not we are actually following the right goals. Vegetarianism is important to me and I believe that we should simply eat the plants we grow to feed our animals instead of adding an unnecessary layer of resource to our food chain. It makes sense if we want to save the planet. But at the moment, I just enjoy the odd meaty meal too much to be able to cut it out completely and abide by this (albeit very sensible) philosophy (*feels guilty and runs off to make some oat milk...*).
Limiting my clothing purchasing also continues to be important and I'm determined to see it through until the end of the year, save possibly for a pair of desperately needed winter boots after my second hand pair fell apart and started to let the winter storms in through the leaky soles. Ugh. Despite this, my bank balance and the planet will be oh so pleased.
Teaching a fitness class once a week still feels like a dream come true and more than I could have asked for this time last year when on a whim, I signed up to become an Exercise to Music instructor, fulfilling a very long held life goal which until that point, simply wasn't important enough to act upon. Increasing my teaching hours doesn't feel important at the moment however, maybe when my little girl is a bit older and no longer needs putting to bed.
So goals can help us achieve our dreams or make us realise that our dreams were never really that and so new dreams are needed.
Whilst I'm on the subject of new dreams and the aforementioned multiple setback and failures, I feel that now is the time to set some serious life goals. Three months ago, my full time fundraising job (which I love) was subject to a departmental restructure and I decided not to reapply for a new role in the same organisation. Such a hard decision to make and one I know I will question constantly until my life starts to look a little bit sorted again.
As I lounge in bed at the beginning of four weeks leave (and part of my three month notice period), I feel like this could be the most creative, inspiring, challenging time of my life and the possibility for taking control of my world and achieving big things is endless. It's definitely time to set some resolutions (big and small)....
Watch this space.
