My 18 Ambitions for 2018

With 2018 now well underway I have decided to look back on how this year started in order to set myself 18 goals to achieve throughout this year.

My Month-to-view calendar for 2018!

So I'm going to jump straight in... 

1. Remember to be grateful for what we have, I will probably always aspire to have more but you really have to live for today. There are people in the world far worse off than I am so instead of wanting more I want to appreciate what I already have- I personally think I am very lucky for what I have in life. 

2. Have self-confidence. I tend to think more about what others think of me, rather than thinking about how I really feel. In order to achieve this I am going believe in myself in everything that I do- 'Self confidence is the most attractive quality a person can have. How can anyone see how great you are if you can't see it in yourself?'.

3. Help others, whether they are my best friend or a complete stranger, I want to do more in order to help those who need it. I want to try my best to use what I have to help others so helping friends with homework or helping the homeless by giving them my loose change. 

4. Read more, since high school I really haven't had the opportunity to sit down and dive into a good book. We used to have to read for 15 minutes everyday, which retrospectively isn't a great deal of time but it all adds up. With my apprenticeship I travel on the train for roughly 40 minutes a day and I aim to use this time for reading, not necessarily everyday because this time is also useful for work but I would like to at least attempt to read during this time. 

5. Photography- With finally building up the confidence to start a blog, I would like to improve my photography skills and generally use my camera more. My aim is to use all of my own pictures when posting so improving my skills will help me to capture better pictures for you. 

Experimenting with my Instax Mini 8. 

6. Travel! Last year seemed to be such an eye opener, after going on a cities trip with Sixth Form I realised how much I actually want to get out there and see the world. There are so many places I would love to see, both within the UK and further afield but I appreciate that I won't be able to afford it all this year so this one is an ongoing ambition.

7. Live in the moment, after events last year I have come to realise just how precious time is. Often I get upset or feel deflated if plans change but I am pushing myself to discard any disappointment if this does happen, there is simply no time to dwell on things. 

8. Take risks, I have to admit I like to live life on the safe side and stick to what I know. I am determined to get past this and take risks when necessary in order to achieve my goals. My mind very much focuses on what could go wrong so instead I am trying to think of what I would gain if things went right. 

9. Slow Down, I like to be occupied all of the time whether this is spending time with family and friends or going out shopping or for food. I need to remember to slow down and not plan my life away, time at home doing nothing is just as valuable as being busy. Everyone needs time to themselves. 

10. Don't hold grudges, I am the biggest hoarder of grudges. For some reason I seem to remember all of the negative parts of what someone has to say. I need to let go of these grudges as I don't want to think of myself as an angry person- 'forgiveness doesn't make you weak; it sets you free'. 

11. Save! I’m trying my best to knuckle down and save throughout 2018, before you know it there are unexpected costs occurring throughout the year so in order to accommodate for such costs I have come up with a savings plan designed for me. This helps me then save towards things such as holidays and Christmas. 

12. Get Oraganised & Stay Organised- I aim to be as organised as I possibly can be this year. I have my savings plan in place and am currently experimenting with diary organisation methods in order to find the one that works best for me. As well as this I have my portfolio to maintain and assignments to keep up with so I need to keep up to date with all of my work. 

My organiser for 2018 with cute stickers and pretty Post-it notes.

13. Eat Healthily- Dining out and eating fast food is currently one of my weaknesses, it’s such an easy habit to pick up. So my goal is to eat healthily for 2018, now for me this is going to be flexible as I don’t want to completely give up fast foods, instead I’ll just have them less frequently. I aim to reach my 5-a-day target everyday! 

14. Get fit! I have a gym membership but don’t particularly utilise this well. So for 2018 I am going to create a fitness plan. Classes are available at the gym so my plan will consist of classes, general gym time so that I can work on what I want to work on but also leisure time such as playing Badminton with friends. 

15. Stay hydrated- this is an important one! I have a really bad habit of not having enough to drink throughout the day, if I don't feel thirsty then I just don't drink. So as part of my aspirations for 2018 I was to fight this habit and stay healthy by drinking what is neccesary for the body to function. 

16. Experiment with new recipes and cook more in general. This is more of a fun aspiration for me, I love cooking and trying new things but never really have the opportunity to play around in the kitchen. I suppose I have already started this one by baking cupcakes on the weekends but would love to broaden my whole knowledge of cooking. 

17. Spend more time with the people I love, both friends and family. We all know that there are certain family members that we don't get to see very often, sometimes it's just every Christmas, well I want to make time for those who I hardly get to see. Valuable time with family and friends shouldn't be wasted so with every free moment I get I will arrange to see friends or visit family. 

18. My final aspiration is blog related, I hope that my blog will grow with time and to aid this I aim to upload a post once a week.

So that is my 18 aspirations to hopefully fulfill in 2018, just a little disclaimer, my aspirations are in no particular order and some of them will be easier to achieve than others- the hardest part for me will probably be maintaining them.

Thank You x