Getting in here right at the very last second of January with my goals for 2022, but time isn't real so who cares? I spent some time reflecting on my 2021 goals in this post, which I really enjoyed so make sure to read that first if you'd like to! What I've liked about not announcing my goals quite as quickly this year is that I've had time to actually see if they're achievable as I've already been working towards them in private for a month and I love that.
Some of my goals for this year are one-off events that will take place on one day, some are ongoing, and some are things I've pretty much already achieved that I would just like to keep going with.
In no particular order, here goes:
1. I mentioned in my 'things I won't be doing in 2022' post that I thought I had finally finished doing weird things to my hair. I've been experimenting, (as much as someone with naturally dark hair can!), from around the age of 17, and when you're reading this, I have had my natural black hair back for two days and I am actually in love with it. I don't know if this is just me or if it's everyone, but my hair always looks shinier and healthier, and seemingly grows faster, when I've taken out all of the bleach. I'm so glad I like it because it's something that I've never thought suited me, but it will be so much healthier (and affordable) for me to put the hair dye down, so my goal is for it to stay that way! I also mentioned in that same post that I wanted to change the way I do my make up, and to find my own style - I've only worn make up a total of three times this year as I really haven't done much outside of the house except get tattoos and change my hair, but I have to say that I have been doing it the new way I wrote about in that post, and I really like it. I also bought a cute new make up bag which I'm going to show you here - it's a double layer bag where you can store your brushes in the top to keep them clean and away from everything, and then the bottom half is big enough for me to store pretty much all of my everyday make up, which I love as it's really good for storage and for curating my everyday look. I love the brushes that it comes with too - I'd been using my old brushes for absolute years and it was time for new ones - if you've not tried Spectrum before, I really recommend - they're totally vegan and cruelty free of course!
2. On the topic of make up, this leads me quite nicely into the fact that I would like to be kinder to the planet this year. I've always aimed to use less make up wipes, or at the very least, use biodegradable wipes, but it's something that I have struggled with, and if I'm being honest, it's just because I'm lazy. However, it's not an excuse that I'm going to let myself use anymore because I have shown myself that I can use the Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish (the rose and lavender one is my favourite) on a reusable make up remover eco pad for an entire month now, so I really do not have an excuse. My skin feels better, it looks better, my night serum applies better on top of skin that has had a deeper cleanse than just a make up wipe, and I do think I can keep up with it - so that's goal number two. I do still have a pack of biodegradable make up wipes in our bathroom cabinet for if I need to very slightly fix something with my make up, but I'm refusing to let them be used for anything past that.
Alongside this goal, I've been, (unfortunately, forcibly due to my long covid), but nonetheless, I have been a pescatarian since the end of September and even though my parosmia is getting much better now, I have decided that I will not return to eating meat as I have genuinely not missed it at all - and once my taste for onions and garlic properly returns, I'll be able to eat a much better range of vegetarian alternative meals which contain onion/garlic powder, so I'll be able to have a much more enjoyable diet then too, and I'm way more excited about that than the idea of eating meat again, so I think that will also help me reduce my negative impact on the environment.
I'm also working on buying way less clothing, I haven't bought anything from a fast fashion brand yet for this year, and as someone that used to have a real problem with online shopping, this is a huge achievement and I'm hoping that I can keep this up. Reducing the amount that I contribute to that industry will be another way of me keeping the planet alive.
3. While I'm mentioning goals that I've already touched on before, I should say that I'm going to continue with my screen time goal from last year. I've gotten myself into some pretty healthy habits already this year, as my daily screen time average has gone down from 5.5 hours to around 2.5-3 hours, which I'm super proud of - especially if we remember that prior to 2020, my average daily screen time was 8 hours - it's a long way to come in just two years, and I'm glad that it's continuing to improve too. Along with this, my sleep pattern has gotten much better, and I do believe that these two goals go hand in hand, as if I'm not up way past midnight scrolling on my phone and ruining my sleep pattern, I'm also not wasting half of my screen time goal before the next morning even starts - plus I sleep better after the absence of blue light right before bed too. We love a domino effect, and I think this is the change I'm most proud of at the moment.
4. This is the last one which is an ongoing goal before we get into the ones which will be achieved over one a day or two. I recently found out about 'marriage meetings', from a Youtuber that I watch, (muchelleb), but they were originally coined by Tim Ferriss, I believe. You can listen to more information on them here. They're supposed to be weekly relationship meetings, but as we have fortnightly date nights, we thought we would also do fortnightly marriage meetings as one of the sections for discussion is planning the next quality time session/date night so that makes sense for us since the following week is always the week with the date night evening. The other three sections of the meeting that we've chosen are appreciation, organising upcoming events/chores/working out who is in charge of buying upcoming birthday gifts for friends etc, discussing any challenges that we see coming up in the next two weeks, and how to solve them before they become issues, and/or bringing up anything we've been struggling with in the past two weeks in a super healthy and safe space, although we tend to be more of a 'in the moment' couple when it comes to that. We've had two marriage meetings so far and we love them - it's so fun to sit cross legged on the sofa, hold hands. talk about things, plan date nights together, and tell each other what we've appreciated that the other person has done in the past two weeks. We're incredibly good at expressing appreciation all the time anyway but it's also nice to have this dedicated time for it, and the marriage meetings in general also help with ensuring that we're both always fully up to speed with what's going on in both our individual and joint lives. We've almost been married for a year, (which is insane), so implementing techniques which help us to stay that way can never be a bad thing.
Which leads me on nicely to 5. finally have our evening reception on our wedding anniversary! At the time of writing, this week will take us down into the double digits of the wedding countdown which is so insane, and we're so super excited to have all of our friends gather to have the huge celebration that we initially wanted but couldn't have - our intimate wedding ceremony was absolutely perfect but it's time to party!
6. Speaking of which, my evening wedding dress shows off a huge amount of my tattoos, if not all of them, and I only have three more to get to have everything on my 'get before the wedding because they'll look COOL' list ticked off - two of which get ticked off next week, and the final one should hopefully be done and healed right before the wedding as it's the most special one. Obviously I might end up getting more tattoos in the future, but these 11 (in total) are all that I have planned for now, and I'm very excited to finish my list.
7. Finally, move out of where we currently live and go somewhere closer to my Mum, and to our friends - we've lived in Reading for four years this year, (can't believe I'm old enough to say that I moved out of my family home FOUR years ago), but it's definitely time to be closer to home. I'm excited to move, but not entirely excited as it was voted the most stressful life event, (in a study of 1000 people, 45% of Americans voted this way), and considering that we only got married last year, (in the same study, 33% of Americans considered a wedding to be the third most stressful life event), I'm not exactly looking forward to more stress lol, so we're not putting a lot of pressure on this one, hence why it's at the bottom of my goal list for the year, but if we can manage it, go us!
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