New Year New Goals

Happy New Year everyone! I know I'm a bit late to the party, but I have spent the last four days trying to make some big decisions, and I wanted to have all my ducks in a row before I came here to talk about it. The start of a new year is always a good time to set new goals for the  year and decide where you want to go for the coming months. I've never been really good at resolutions, I either set unreasonable goals, or I don't plan properly, and things fall apart really fast. So as I was lying in bed the other night, wondering if my 2 hour nap earlier in the day was the reason I couldn't sleep, I decided to spend my time wisely and write down what I wanted to happen this year.

I knew that in order to be successful, I would need to be as specific as possible in what I want to achieve, I would also need to be realistic. I can't be a millionaire by the end of the year, but I may be better equipped to handle running a household on a limited budget. I won't be able to fit into a bikini, but maybe I can have a healthier lifestyle. It is these distinctions that I hope will lead to success. For more tips on setting goals check out this awesome post by the Empress of Dirt

My goals for 2016
Below are the big goals I decided on initially

• Become more organised
• Quit smoking
• Lose weight
• Manage my money better
• Grow my blog

Now those goals are too broad on their own, so I needed to refine them further and make them more achievable. Below is the more specific list of goals.

• Learn to manage my house like a pro, and become better at time management
• Be a non-smoker by the middle of the year
• Learn to love exercise and healthy living
• Find a budgeting system that works for me, and be closer to being debt free by the end of the year
• Increase my page views to 500 per week, and start writing more regularly

Now all of these things appear to be achievable. They are clearly outlined, and there are definite destinations to reach. Now all I needed to do is break all of these goals down into even smaller chunks, to make them less daunting and easier to implement. Below are just some of the smaller goals involved in the bigger goals.

Manage the house like a pro & time management

• Set up a manageable cleaning schedule and stick to it
• Implement a one in, one out system to reduce clutter
• Aim to send at least one bag per week to the charity stores
• Create a personal planner system and use it
• Write to do lists, shopping lists, cleaning lists, list lists, anything to make objectives clear.

Become a non-smoker

• Try patches
• Try gum again if I have to (I really hate the gum)
• Discuss my desire to quit with my doctor, get help
• Find a quit app that helps
• Learn different ways to distract myself when the urges hit
• Talk to other people who have quit, and see what worked for them.
• If I slip up, keep trying, don't give up giving up until I get there

Love exercise and healthy living

• Cut down on the junk food (notice I didn't say stop entirely, even I realise that's an impossible task)
• Start exercising regularly
• Get outside and run around with Miss K
• Start snacking on healthy options
• Use the fitness app on my phone

Find a budgeting system and be closer to being debt free by the end of the year

• Research budgeting systems, and find or make one that works 
• Find different ways to bring extra income into the house
• Quitting smoking will save $6,700 per year (woo hoo)
• Organise payment plans for all outstanding debts

Increase my page views and write regularly

• Create a bank of writing ideas for when inspiration is lacking
• Start writing posts in advance when I am feeling creative to help fill in the blanks if I'm having a slow week
• Set aside time for writing every day/every other day

So that's how all of my goals have been broken down so far. I am already implementing some of my ideas, and I hope to share my progress here with you guys over the coming weeks. Of course a lot of the time I'm not going to be reinventing the wheels, so I'll be including links to resources if ever I come up with something that works. If you check out my Pinterest boards, I've already started pinning a heap of stuff which I plan to use regularly. 

Have any of you set any goals to achieve this year? Do you have any tips to share on how to make this journey happen? Please leave a comment below and let me know.

A few positive numbers

Another afternoon has come, Miss K is sitting next to me in her high chair smearing jam everywhere so what better time to write a post than now.

Following yesterdays terrible failure to quit smoking through hypnotism, I have decided today to try a more conventional approach, so I have gone to the chemist and picked up some nicotine chewing gum. I had my last cigarette 4 hours ago, and I have been chewing through my allowed 20 pieces of gum like they were jelly lollies. Aside from the fact that my mouth burns like I am chewing on pepper whenever I have a piece of gum in my mouth, they seem to be doing the trick. I won't say that I am finding it easy to not have a cigarette in my hand, and it is tricky to not lose my temper, WHO IS MAKING THAT ANNOYING CLICKING SOUND????? Oh it's me typing. But I am determined to give this my best shot. I can't say if I'm winning or not yet, but every time it gets hard to not spit the gum out and reach for the cigarettes, I take a look at Miss K and it seems to help remind me why I'm doing this. I have actually downloaded an app for my phone that has stats for how much repair I am doing with each cigarette I don't smoke, so I'll just let you know some of the numbers, for anyone who is interested.

In the last 4 hours of not smoking, I have not smoked 5 cigarettes. I have saved $2.67 so far and saved 30 minutes of my life. My carbon monoxide levels and oxygen levels are 49.43% normal rates, my sudden death risk is lowered by 16.81%, I have regained 8.4% of my sense of taste and smell, and I have eliminated 2.4% of my dependence on nicotine. I know the numbers seem small right now, but the longer I can keep this up, the bigger they will get.

Well this is just a quick update for now, as Miss K is having a bad day too thanks to teething I think, but I will be back later on tonight once she is safely in bed to do a proper post.

Until then I'll try not to maim anyone. Wish me luck

Smoking, no good hey?

So today was my appointment with a hypnotherapist to try and help me quit smoking. The fact that I just put out a cigarette and want to light another one already should tell you how it went :( I'm not sure if it was the fact that the woman sped through the speech like I was her last customer before lunch, or the fact that she almost had to yell to be heard over her "relaxing" music, or the fact that I knew her script better than she did, as I have actually used it in the past on mum to try help her quit smoking. But half an hour after I left the session, I was at my big sister's house with a cigarette in one hand and a coffee in the other, everything that I had just gone through thrown out the window.

But even if I couldn't take anything away from her hypnosis skills, the woman did have some frightening facts for me which were a huge wake up call. Apparently every cigarette I smoke takes 14 minutes off my life, and 28 minutes of Miss K's life. That's a massive 7 hours out of every day for me, and 14 hours for Miss K. As someone who thought that they spent their time protecting their daughter and making her safe, that is a terrifying thought, and something that I truly hate myself for. If I want to kill myself slowly and disgustingly through my cigarettes, then that's my decision, and no one can feel sorry for me when it happens. But to kill my own daughter, and at a faster rate than I'm killing myself is just not acceptable. It was not her decision that I take up smoking, she does not force me to pick up each cigarette and light it, and she shouldn't have to suffer the consequences of my stupidity.

Once I heard these words come out of the hypnotherapist's mouth, all the excuses I had made for myself over the years just seemed weak. It was no longer good enough to call it an addiction, especially when she pointed out to me that if it was a true addiction I wouldn't be able to get through an entire night's sleep without having to wake up every time the nicotine wore off to get another hit. It is a habit, and a dirty disgusting one. And a habit is easier to break than an addiction.

And so I start again, refreshed and renewed in my quest to quit smoking, not just for my own health, but for Miss K's. I want her to grow up in a house that doesn't stink of old ashtrays, and have a mum who can chase her around for more than 5 minutes without needing a break to catch her breath. And I don't want her to be standing in a hospital looking at me lying in a bed, connected to all kinds of scary beeping machines terrified that I'm going to die because I couldn't break the habit. Because I have been there, and let me tell you, it's not something you would wish on anyone.