The past year was a fantastic but definitely unpredictable twelve months.
In the first few months of the year I felt strong and unstoppable - I smashed my half marathon goal time at Brighton, committed to a weekly yoga practise and was feeling all kinds of balanced and awesome. I joined Classpass, flitted around the different studios in London and felt like a “proper” fitness blogger.
Then I got made redundant. When you're single, living alone and balancing mortgage, bills and living costs this is pretty stressful, not to mention knocking your confidence. After a horrible few weeks of not knowing what was going on, including having to interview for my own position and continue working as if nothing was wrong, I made the decision to apply for jobs in the health and fitness industry.
One month later, I joined an awesome team of ladies as an Account Executive in a Fitness PR agency. I have spent the last six months learning the ropes, being promoted, training my replacement and generally loving working with lots of health and fitness clients who share the same passion as I do for helping people stay active and get fit.
It is a much more time-consuming career however, and somewhat ironically I have struggled to balance the longer days, never-ending list of tasks and smaller office with healthy eating and keeping active.
Add to this an annoying knee injury, which essentially came on during Brighton Half Marathon and hasn’t gone away since, and the last few months of the year were pretty lazy.
2016 is a chance for me to develop a routine, and get back to feeling fit and confident!
My word for 2014 was STRONG, 2015 was BELIEVE - which I think I did really, believing in my ability to get a half marathon PB, and to make a pretty drastic career change.
This year my word is:
FOCUS
I find it all too easy to get distracted - whether that’s by social media, when I’m trying to write a blog post or by other people’s success when I’m trying to forge ahead with my own. Focusing on FOCUS (ha!) will hopefully allow me to really pay attention to my own health, career and relationships in 2016, and bring some clarity to what I want to achieve.
"Always remember, your focus determines your reality" - Star Wars.
2016 GOALS
- To focus on my knee rehab, commit to the exercises and get the problem under control
- To focus on a regular achievable fitness routine that works for me, and not worry about keeping up with other people, so I can run another half marathon and take on some cycling races
- To focus on my new career and take every opportunity presented to learn and grow
- To focus on my finances, and budget appropriately according to my smaller income (and maybe afford a beach holiday somewhere hot!)
- To focus on my friends and family, spend time nurturing relationships that make me happy, and not waste time on those that don’t
- To focus on my health and wellbeing to create a better work-life balance, taking my lunch breaks and getting to bed earlier
- To focus on eating a healthier, fresher diet with less treats and evening snacking
I know that these are pretty general so I will be breaking them down into monthly targets, as I did at the start of 2015. Stay tuned for January's Goals!
What word would you choose for 2016?
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I really like this ! I will you all the best for 2016.
Also, I think that you are doing a really good job in your new role as a fitness PR x
Thanks Laureen, I really appreciate that 🙂 I hope 2016 is a great year for you x
Great goals! I think it's tough when you have a new set of routines with a new job that you have to adjust to. It can throw everything out of whack. It took me a while to get my routine sorted when I moved house!
Hope 2016 is even better for you 🙂
Thanks Anna! I'm glad to hear that things do settle down 🙂 I hope 2016 is a fantastic year for you!
A great choice of word. I think "focus" would be my pick too as my goals are also about that - recovery from injury and getting back to running, incorporating more cycling into my year, finally learning the front crawl. And my non-fitness goals are about finding more time to focus on me - read more, relax more and generally manage my time better.
Looking forward to following your progress over the next 12 months 🙂
Those sound like some great goals Allison - I wish you all the best with them in 2016 🙂 I think we could all do with some more me-time!
Thank you. I agree, we all need more me-time!
Congrats on your last year! I love how you focus on one word each year. That's so cool! I'm focusing (!) on the power of 3 - 3 goals per area of my life, 3 mini goals per month and 3 focal tasks a day! Good luck for 2016!
Ooh that's a cool idea! I think that making them more than just "New Year Resolutions" gives them extra meaning, so you are more likely to achieve them. Best of luck with your 2016 goals! 🙂
Congratulations on a super year- especially with all those challenges to overcome.
Happy New Year!!!I wish you all the luck to achieve your goals!Nice post!!!
http://www.2activelab.com
I hear you on the knee bit! The best trick I've found to make sure I do my physio and strength exercises is to do them as soon as I get out of bed before I do anything else! Might have to set my alarm a little earlier but it definitely works. I tend to get distracted or lazy as the day goes on - particularly when I get home from work! x
Great post - I was made redundant last year as well and am now back on my feet - glad something positive came out of it for you! Health and Fitness PR sounds like lots of fun (but hard work I'm sure!)
Can't wait to see what you achieve this year!
Phew what a year! You have some great goals for 2016 to work towards too. I tried to get a better grip on my finances towards the end of 2015, and wholly recommend You Need a Budget (www.youneedabudget.com). It's really helped me to focus on my financial priorities.