Happy New Year everyone, I hope the festive period was kind to you and you are ready to face the new year! This year, rather than writing myself a list of goals to achieve, I wanted to just write down my dreams and ambitions for the year.
For me, 2023 is going to be the year for us as a family that we move onto that next step in our ambitions. It is not about what others are doing or achieving, it is about what we want to achieve and how we are going to get there and the focus will very much be on that for us.
2022 was a funny year for us, it started well, but then everyone felt the pinch financially, and work got so stupidly busy, that I pretty much reached my limit and didn’t have much else to give. We did have a huge achievement though of getting the garden 90% finished, which is not bad considering neither of us had ever built anything in the garden, let alone the huge project we did do! I have just realised I have never shared this on the blog so have made a note to do this soon!
Here are the dreams and ambitions for 2023.
Personal –
- Get healthier – I am not very healthy or very fit and to be honest, I don’t want to put pressure on myself to lose weight/lose inches. What I want to do is get healthier all around, so I want to lose some pounds but I also want to do it from the inside out too. My bowel issues are still there and I am under the consultant regularly for checkups and processes to try and get it to settle down but I do think some of this may resolve itself if I take care of myself too.
- Take time out – We haven’t had a holiday in a while and there is not one planned for this year as we have a few bits that urgently need doing on the house, however, I would love a couple of day trips out and time away from our normal life if we can. It doesn’t need to be very far or very expensive but it just breaks the normal routine.
- Take time off! – Last year my work-life balance was none existent and the Christmas break has given me the chance to sit down and re-focus on what really is important to me and what I need to do to get there. With this in mind, I need to set better work boundaries and learn when to switch off and say no. This will allow me the chance to have the mental capacity to achieve what I want to achieve in my blog work.
- Finish our garden – We are pretty much there but there are a few bits that need completing. Once these are done, I plan on spending lazy days at the top of the garden, enjoying the sunshine, views, and company as we can finally get full use out of the garden!
- Become a little more financially savvy – 2022 Was actually a good year for us financially in getting us on track for our long-term goals, however, 2023 is the year we need to take it to the next level. With the housing market looking like it has put a hold on our plans to move, we are taking this as a chance to put us in an even healthier position when we are able to do this move in a few years.
Blog work –
- Consistency – This is the key for this year, although we built and grew last year, it was not very consistent across the blogs so the plan will be to make sure we are consistent across the board.
- Be more time efficient – We spend hours on the blog every week, something I don’t think people realise when they do not have a blog. However, these hours are not always being used to the best of time and I want to change that this year. Rather than being sucked in on things when blogging, this year I am trying to set myself slots to work and then hard focus in those slots. For example, this morning I set a timer for an hour and in that hour, there were no trips to make a quick cuppa or check on social media. It was all about getting things done and words on the page.
- Grow the passive income – I think this may be up there as the top one for me. I love our sites and the extra opportunities it brings but I really need to get the passive income up and running on them, this is the plan for this year and the focus that by the end of the year it is bringing in more of a passive income for us, no matter how small that may be.
- Get creative – Blogging and social media have changed so much since I started 12 years ago and there are some amazing content creators out there. All of this has happened whilst I have pretty much stayed still. This year, I would like to step out of my comfort zone a little and become a little more creative with the content we produce.
I don’t think any of the above is going to happen overnight but I do set myself plans for every quarter too which I have set as my pc background, none are non-achievable but they are there to serve as little reminders to where I want to get to and how I plan to do that. 2023 is going to be the year that I step it up a little in the areas that matter and remind myself, there is only so many hours in the day to make sure that I use those to what matters the most to me.
Do you have any ambitions you are chasing this year? I’d love to hear them in the comments below.
