2016 Resolutions - how did they go?

Way back when at the beginning of the year, like a lot of folk, I set myself a variety of resolutions - from the everyday (tidying the spare room) to the wider sweeping (get a new life now my teen had left for uni) and, looking back on them, I'm pleased to say that I've gone at least a little way to achieving my goals.

a huge success - spare room re-discovered!

I particularly wanted to achieve some order in my surroundings and life - through de-cluttering, streamlining some things, taking time out to appreciate things,

So, taking them in the order of the original post  ... we cleared out the spare room - and it now looks like somewhere a visitor can, and did, stay; not a junk store.


... I've cut down the amount of day-time I spend on social media - maybe not quite as much as I would have liked but I've tried to limit it to a few hours at a time.


... cutting down on the competitions I enter was maybe an odd resolution but I'd been merrily pressing the 'RT to win' button and winning things I didn't want. This year I've been a model of restraint but did win an electric guitar (for my Teen) and some books.


... reducing the number of books I read for review, and including more reading for pleasure - yes, this one worked too. I've read less overall - about 90 books rather than last year's 150 - and feel less pressure to struggle through something I'm not enjoying. I've also cut the number of book blog posts per week - I used (with my husband's help) to try to post every day. I now do most of the reviewing myself and aim for 2, maybe 3, posts a week, which fits the speed at which I read.

I started getting up early - though this was really down to my teen being at home for this academic year and working!

Get a life of my own - well, there's been a lot of this, mainly in the form of going out to hear music in pubs and clubs, with some proper gigs towards the end of the year, and it deserves its own blog post



Spend more time pottering aimlessly in the garden - this is probably the one I've made least advance on, but I have tried to take those few minutes to look at the garden, the sunset, the birds chattering, take a few photos of anything interesting, though being a sort of non-activity it's hard to quantify.

Blogged more - definitely, because of everything I've been up to, and a new found attitude about not taking my middle years quietly. Sometimes I feel I'm only talking to myself, but if it's only a diary, so what? It gives me a way to keep track of what I've done, where I've been, what I've thought - and whether it's called a diary or a blog really doesn't matter.

Does making resolutions make any difference? Well, I think it has. It's certainly enabled me to look back over the year and see which things I've changed, and which things I'd have liked to do more of. I'll definitely be making a list for next year ...