Goodbye 2014, Hello 2015

image from weheartit.com edited by me

I can't believe we are at the end of the year already. I was just looking through my blog for links to add to my previous blog post, and couldn't believe that some of my reviews were that long ago! So now it's time to sit down and reflect on the past year and think about what we all want to achieve next year, and I thought I'd share my thoughts with you.


As far as my personal life goes it's been very much up and down. I don't want to say it's been a terrible year because I got married and of course that was amazing, but it's not exactly been the best year otherwise. For those of you that followed my monthly life updates this year, you will know the main reasons why I, and most of my family for that matter, will be glad to see the back of 2014. For those of you that don't know what happened, rather than go into the detail of it all again, the main reason is covered in my update here. It's not been the best year for my health either but fingers crossed I appear to be coming out the other side of that now (stinking cold aside!). All in all I'm very much looking forward to leaving 2014 behind, pushing all the sadness away and looking forward to a brighter year ahead. But before I do, it's time to revisit those goals I made at the start of the year and see how I did....

1. Improve my fitness. I started off really well with this, and by May I would say I was in pretty good shape. But as soon as my family problems started, it was the furthest thing from my mind and I never really got the motivation back to start picking it up again - it's one thing I want to do next year. I'm going to be a little lenient on myself and call this half a success haha!

2. Read more. Honeymoon aside, where I spent the daytime lounging by the pool with a book, this was a complete and utter fail! I set myself a target to read 15 books over the course of the year....I think I managed five, and three of those were during my time away!

3. Get more sleep. I'd say I succeeded in this one, but it was a long time getting there! Being ill kind of forced me to get more sleep in the end, and then I just carried on the pattern once I was better. I recently blogged about my good night's sleep routine, which I want to stick to as much as possible.

4. Improve my skincare routine. I think I can put a big tick in this box. I know have a range of products that I'm happy with and use in my regular routine - it's very much improved on where I was this time last year. I'm also finding my evening routine a way to wind down and relax, rather than being a chore, which is good!

5. Blog at least three times a week. Aside from a two week period where I was too tired to even think, I've stuck to this one, so I'll let myself off not doing this 100% throughout the year. Plus, I managed to stick to blogging every day in the run up to Christmas which I was really chuffed with. I'm hoping to put up even more blog posts next year, but I don't want to put the pressure on and commit to anything definite.

So, I got a bit of a mixed bag of results from the goals I set for 2014, but I don't think I've done too badly. There was definitely room for improvement though, so fingers crossed I'll have better results from my 2015 goals, which are:

1. Interact more within the blogging community. I take part in a lot of chats on Twitter but that's about it at the moment and I feel like I could do more. I've met a lovely friend this year through blogging and I'd like to make more friends in 2015. So whether it be commenting on blogs, or using Twitter more outside of chat hours, I need to start talking to more of you. I also need to sharpen up and reply to my own blog comments a lot quicker than I do now!

2. Make the most of my "me time". I feel like all I do at the moment is slob around in front of the tv when I get a moment to myself. Next year I want to do more with my time - go out somewhere new, do something a little more creative, or maybe read the books I should've been reading this year!

3. Take more photos. I'm forever scrolling through my Instagram feed looking at everyones lovely photos, but very rarely do I use it myself. I guess it ties in with the last goal - if I'm doing more interesting things with my time, maybe they'll be more need to photograph moments in my life, To do this though, I'll need to get over the fact that I hate having my photo taken! I also want to improve the photography on my blog this year.

4. Create more opportunities for myself. I have so many ideas stored up in that little head of mine, both blog related and life related, but there's always a niggling feeling in the back of my mind that stops me from putting my ideas into practice. Next year is time to push the negative thoughts out of the way and start making these ideas a reality. I may have been right, I may not, but I won't know until I try.

5. Get back to my target weight. That's right, I'm finishing off the old cliched "lose weight" goal, but it's something I really need to do. When I reached my target weight at the end of 2013, I vowed I would never go back to the weight I was again and, whilst I managed to fend off my old eating demons until our wedding, it went downhill pretty quickly after that. I think with the combination of the rough time our family was going through and the comfort of knowing I didn't have to fit into a wedding dress anymore, I just stopped caring and ate what I liked. I'm now almost at the halfway weight between my start and target weights, and don't want to go any further. We've just bought a treadmill which I think will really help now I'm back to full health - I hate exercising outside!

I'm really happy with the goals I've set myself for 2015, I can't wait to look back at these next year and see how I've done. 2015 promises to be a really great year for me and those closest to me, and I really can't wait for it to begin - hopefully I'll get to share some of those moments with you guys too. In terms of my blog, I don't have any specific targets I want to reach, I'm just really pleased with what I achieved this year and would love for it to continue.

How has 2014 been for you? What would you like to achieve in 2015?