Goal Setting, tag

Setting Intentions for 2019

Madam Mim

Madam Mim

I have a massive problem with the word “resolutions”.

Basically, at this point, it just makes me feel apathetic about whatever I’m trying to achieve. It smacks of failure before I’ve even begun. Every year, we all set these lofty New Year’s Resolutions: I’m going to lose weight… I’m going to be healthy… I’m going to write that book I’ve been thinking about for 10 years… And somewhere around the end of March, all those good intentions have gone out the window. We’re back in our comfy old ruts again, complaining about our lack of motivation. Well, I am, anyway… Just me?

I’d like to propose something radical: let’s re-name the whole damn thing… I, for one, am going to “set intentions”, not make resolutions. “Intentions” is just a better word. It’s about “intentional” planning and goal setting. It’s conscious.

And I loooove goal setting! I’m a big one for lists. Plus, I did a manifestation course (which is a story for another time) and read a lot of Tony Robbins this year… Basically, at this point, I’m all about writing down “intentions” and setting achievable goals. I’m the ninja of goal setting. We literally have a chalkboard on our bedroom wall with things we’re going to manifest… I journal now… I mean, my inner-hippy is so satisfied she’s practically dancing round a bonfire in her pants.

Personal intentions…

I have quite a few intentions for 2019 personally… Too many to really list here. I didn’t think I would, because I’m actually in quite a positive place coming into 2019. Previous years… Not so much… But this year I’m feeling good about my life choices, I have great people around me, and I’m more or less where I wanted to be. But I sat down to write some goals, and a lot came out.

So. My top three are:

  1. Go Plastic free

We’ve all read those terrifying articles about how plastic is clogging up our oceans, destroying marine life, takes thousands of years to breakdown, and how half of it doesn’t actually get recycled anyway. You may have read the recent articles about how we’re all living with a certain amount of plastic floating around our systems, thanks to all that delicious plastic-y food packaging and water bottles and all the rest. The chemicals from which, we have no earthly idea what they’re doing to our bodies. Nope, no thank you…

So, my big goal is to be plastic-free by 2020.

I know that’s virtually impossible in today’s world, so I’ve set myself some ground rules:

  • No plastic in any products that go on my skin or on my food
  • No single-use plastic of any kind
  • Replace as much plastic, even the recyclable kind, as possible
  • Where there is no non-plastic substitute, the plastic has to be re-used or recycled once the product is no longer functional
  1. Start a smallholding

My forever dream is basically River Cottage… I’ve already started growing a few things, but we’re planning to turn the garden into a miniature smallholding in the Spring.

  1. Write a book

I think everyone here has that goal, right? But I’ve made more time to work on it this year, and I think I’m about ready to start…

Bookish “intentions”…

I’ve never actually set any bookish goals before. I read the number of books I read every year, and whatever takes my fancy at the time. And I’m a pretty consistent reader, I’ll give most things a go, so I don’t think I’ve missed much.

However, since it’s that time I’m going to give this a go… My bookish goals are:

  1. Read at least one new release a month
  2. Read more books with diversity themes and from other cultures
  3. Hop on board with a book subscription box

I’m also planning on re-jigging the blog slightly, because I’ve only been doing this for about 7 months and I’ve learned sooo much in the process! I want to keep making it better, more interesting, more unique… And there’s things I can see now could be better.

That’s it! Happy New Year, welcome to 2019 everyone!

 

25 thoughts on “Setting Intentions for 2019”

  3. Ok, first of all I had to Google “smallholding.” (American here!) And now I want to do that too!!! I also love that you want to go plastic free. I’d love to know how you do that with skin care products, etc. Everything I use is in plastic containers. Happy New Years!

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Hahaha I guess you call them… farms? Do you not have smallholdings? If you can find River Cottage on YouTube, it’ll convince you it’s amazing haha well. Skin care products are the easiest, I think. I made a big list of everything in the house with plastic, and skin care I will just get Lush products… they’re handmade and come wrapped in paper (solid products anyway). I don’t know if you have Lush in the US… though I saw someone’s Instagram story and it looked like they walked passed a Lush store, so maybe. Some I think I can make… Make up is going to be tough though! Nooo idea how I’ll do that!

    Like

  13. I’m also trying to go completely plastic free, in addition to just trying to buy more eco-friendly items. That’s great on you writing s book! I want to get back into poetry this year; we shall see how that goes. I also want to try and write my own novel as well, but I have so many ideas that I need to shorten it ha-ha!

    Great post and awesome resolutions!

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Oh brilliant! If you make any cool discoveries for ways to replace plastic then do let me know! I’m sure there are a few things in going to struggle with! Thank you! Good luck with the poetry and the novel. Have a great New Year!

    Liked by 1 person

  17. I love going with “intentions” instead, what a fab idea!! Reducing plastic is also a great goal and one I was so good at in the middle of last year but have fallen off the bandwagon a bit. I’ll set an intention to reduce again 😊

    Liked by 1 person

  19. Totally agree with the idea of re-naming resolutions. I find that I don’t really make them anymore. I look at something I know that I can work on and change that. Last year, was mostly finding and keeping hope about life. This year, I’m wanting to stand up for myself more and be more vocal. I tend to let everything just eat at me and never say anything! I wish you the best of luck and I really hope you write your book!

    Liked by 1 person

  20. Thank you! I think those are great goals 🙂 and being able to speak out in a way that’s authentic to you is a hard thing to do, so I wish you all the best with it!

    Liked by 1 person

  22. These are great intentions. I think the plastic free one is on my list too, but it’s so hard when basically everything is shrink-wrapped! Best of luck with your goals!

    Liked by 1 person

  23. It’s ridiculously hard! I bought new cutlery (borrowers had been at work and we were down to 4 spoons), every individual item came wrapper in plastic! And then all those items were bundled into 2 more layers of plastic! Like whaaaat… what even is the need?! Sorry, boring cutlery story 😂

    Liked by 1 person

  24. It just goes to show how it’s everywhere though.. so annoying. I follow @going.zero.waste on Instagram and she has great tips on reducing waste! I’ve implemented a lot of her ideas. (If you need a rec)

    Liked by 1 person

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s