Resolutions

A week into the New Year and here I am thinking about New Years Resolutions. I don’t honestly make a huge fuss over them in general, because I try to make little resolutions very often. Every day I resolve to learn from the previous, to avoid making the same mistake again, to continue doing the things I’ve done right and try harder to make other people happy. But New Year is a good time to think about bigger resolutions so here are mine…

Read more

I love reading but never really do enough of it, I just make too many excuses and need to stop that. So if you have any recommendations, please comment down below

Slow down

I love my busy lifestyle, I really do, but I know that there’s not too much spare time in my days. So why I say yes to jobs that I know will be time consuming and I don’t have time for, I’ll never fully understand. I do get that I’m a huge fan of being busy and making others happy but it would definitely be good for me to slow down, think about the tasks, plan time for them and hopefully I’ll be a bit more relaxed

Work harder

On my degree. At work. At everything and anything. Everything I do, I do because I enjoy and also because I know I can succeed, but it would be brilliant to graduate with a first and I know that I can do it if I remember how much work I need to put into it

Run frequently

This is in part linked with my final resolution. When I’m feeling particularly anxious, I’ll avoid running unless I’ve made a previous commitment to other people to run with them, despite the fact that running would help. Logic, huh? But I’ve recognised that and so would like to change it. I also aim to run my second half marathon this year, and potentially my first marathon (marathon!?! What!). Not only that, I’m super excited to start guide-running for a man with visual impairment! 

Blog more and take more pictures

Very similar to reading, I love to do it and having my own corner of the internet to express myself is amazing but I forget how much I love it when I don’t write anything for a while. I don’t get to be particularly creative within my degree so it’d be nice to spend a little bit of time each week on my creative hobbies

Less anxiety

I can’t say ‘no anxiety’ here because that would be far too big an expectation for myself. If I did that, then it’d end up manifesting in some other way and wouldn’t be as productive.

My aim for this year is to recognise my anxiety better. To avoid less of the things I enjoy just because I’m too worried to do them on that particular day, and talk about my feelings properly when I need to. Mostly just to have a ‘mentally healthier’ year than 2016 was

What are your resolutions for 2017?

Keep smiling,

Kathryn x

Reflections

It's been a crazy one, hasn't it? I'm not going to say I've had a brilliant year, but I'm not going to say that I've had a terrible one either. Let's face it, it's had more ups and downs than the Grand Old Duke Of York, but you can learn just as much from the ditch at the bottom as you can standing at the top of mountains. And sometimes a little bit more. So here's a little bit of a reflection on the things I've learned this year....

This year I made a decision. I made the decision to take my previous twelve months, and re-write it. It was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make as it meant choosing to do something that had the potential to make me very happy but also to disappoint a lot of the best people in my life. It turned out to be the right thing but it was a scary time for me.

I also got quite ill. Maybe more than once. And I'm not going to lie about it, every moment of it sucked. The first time I was so ill that I couldn't sit my exams, I was barely able to leave the house, I didn't feel like myself and I spent a long time coming to terms with what was actually wrong. The second time I caught some unknown virus that left my immune system very weak and my body exhausted unable to do much more exercise than walk to lectures each day (and sometimes less). But this taught me to be patient with myself. It taught me that if you let people know what's going on, they're usually happy to find a way to help out. That's something I still have a hard time remembering.

This year I ran my first half marathon. I was so proud of myself for completing it,and enjoyed every minute of it. The Great North Run inspired me to carry on, to sign up for bigger challenges, and help others enjoy the sport as much as I do by volunteering with running local running groups, wherever I happen to be in the country. It taught me that self-belief can be as influential as training for big events. It helped me realise that I can do just about anything I set my mind on and that sometimes the biggest obstacles aren't really obstacles at all.

And then I sprained my ankle. Twice. I was annoyed and frustrated to end up in a hospital with a doctor telling me I wouldn't be able to do sport for 4-8 weeks but I'm stubborn I guess. I struggled to rest, but I learnt to respect my body a lot more than I had been doing and that sped up my recovery. In a backward sort of way, it was potentially one of the best things that could have happened to me because when I was able to race again I managed to PB my 5k time on three consecutive weeks.

Disney. I went to Walt Disney World for the first time at the age of 19 and oh my god it was the best place that I have ever been to. I guess it was just magical and taught me to never grow up,  and that  all of your wishes and dreams can come true if only you believe in them hard enough.

And here I am, after another long gap between posts (but lets forget about that for a little while), ready to rock in 2017 and make it the best year yet. Another year full of scary mistakes, and scary decisions, because if we didn't have those, we wouldn't learn. And if we didn't learn, we wouldn't be moving forwards.

Keep smiling,
Kathryn x