This New Year, I was very much looking forward to welcoming in a fresh year. 2024 had thrown up a few difficult challenges, the main two being losing our lovely dog sooner than we expected and the loss of OH's dad after a long illness. (I've mentioned these things in order of the timeline in which they occurred, not their significance.)
As a consequence, I was looking forward to turning the page. We will continure to think about and miss our dog and OH's dad throughout this year, and we can't really change anything about this, but there are areas of our lives where we can make changes. For me, personally, I am particularly looking forward to a fresh financial start in 2025, as my spending habits got a bit out of hand in 2024 for various reasons and I am looking forward to getting them back under control.
I'm not doing a no spend year or any such thing in 2025, as for me this is totally unsustainable and there are still unfinished and ongoing projects that I need to spend money on, such as the garden, but I do intend to try to spend more intentionally, rather than participating in impulse shopping, which I've done a lot of this year. I also want to curb my thrift shopping habit a bit this year, although I'm not going to completely stop, as I prefer to buy things in a circular economy, rather than buying them new. I just need to be a little (lot) more mindful about it.
New Year's Day here was a bit of a washout. The weather was rainy, which meant that I didn't get out for a planned run. I spent the morning in my nightwear contemplating the consequences of LB's disappointing New Year's Eve incident, as mentioned in my previous post. I then decided to all park that in 2024 and move on to the New Year ahead.
Before moving forward, I just had one more backward looking task to complete, which was to empty and re-read my Happy Things jar and start a new one. It's a habit that I started last year, where I write on a post it note whenever something good happens or we enjoy a happy event or day out. I put the note in the jar and at the end of the year it enables me to look back at all the good things that happened that year and not dwell on the bad.
With that task done, I could start to think about the New Year and what I want to try to achieve. I came to the conclusion that I mainly just want to spend my money wisely, save more, keep working on the garden and decluttering unwanted stuff. Other than that, I just want to be kind, supportive, grateful, resourceful, creative and productive, give more to charity, look after myself and enjoy the good times. Simple as. I have no firm plans, but so long as the things I do work towards these aims I'm happy.
What are you looking forward to this year?
We started a good memory jar, but did not keep it up, it sits unloved in the corner. I don't do resolutions, but I do want to spend less time on my phone.
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to more gardening this year. I have some fruit bushes (well very large bushes) on order. I really need to work on making my outside space as inviting as possible. I may even move outside to do some crafting this year.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.