Cultivate what matters.

There are so many demands on our attention that sometimes it is difficult to see the bigger picture. We get bogged down by day-to-day problems, chores to do, errands to run and it often leaves me with the question 'is that it?' Is my life about short episodes of busyness, worry, joy or delight, caught between each other, but ultimately rather fleeting? I crave for a thread that would join all the pieces together, that would give purpose of it all.

As I was setting my goals for the year ahead, I really had to think what mattered. There isn't enough time to devote your time to peripheral things.

One my my colleagues keeps telling me that health is the most important thing in life and that I need to look after myself first. It's a challenge for me as so often I automatically put other people first. But recently my physical and emotional health has taken a massive hit due to stress and simple winter illness and I am become increasingly aware that my wellbeing, understood in very much a holistic sense, is important. There is only one me. So I better take time to do those stretching exercises, plan nutritious meals and schedule health checks.

I've been living on my own for a while now and nurturing important relationship has been something that I am notoriously bad at. Beyond Mr Magic and my parents, I really need to take more time to become a better friend. I have some periods when I'm on the top of things, texting and calling the people who matter to me, but I know that when things go a little crazy at work, I let those slip. Thankfully my friends are extremely forgiving, but I know I need to appreciate them more.

Looking at these two areas, health and relationships, I can't help but to notice how grateful I am for what I've got. Overall, I'm a healthy person with some solid friendships. And beyond these, I have a beautiful home, a decent job, fridge full of food and plans for a bright future. Gratefulness is so important, because it changes your outlook on life. Instead of seeing the glass as half empty, it becomes half full. There are some psychological studies showing that practising gratitude improves life satisfaction. From my own personal experience, I can say that if I pause every day to nice all the blessings I was showered with that day, I am a much happier and optimistic person.

As my journey through 2019 continues, I know I need to stop worrying about the details and start looking at the things that truly make a difference to how I feel and think. It will be a long journey.

Budapest travel diary.

All the pictures from this wonderful, albeit short, visit to Budapest are credit to the most wonderful Mr Magic who captured all the beautiful sights while I just enjoyed the surroundings.

Winter favourites.

Wrangler boots

I've picked these up in TKMaxx months ago and only started wearing them at the end of December when temperatures finally dropped to low single digits. One of a few pairs of shoes that didn't give me blisters. They are cute and sturdy (can these two adjectives ever go together? apparently so) and I hope that the cold returns soon so I can wear them a bit more. Anyone else looking outside of your bedroom window every morning hoping to see snow?

Comfy pjs

No picture here, but my new pjs are so comfy and it's just amazing to sleep in them. I don't think we pay that much attention to out nightwear and we definitely should. Sleep is so important, we spend a third of our lives asleep, so we should make sure we get high quality rest and part of it means feeling comfortable (and fabulous) in what we wear to bed.

Chocolate and pecan spelt cookies

I had some leftover spelt flour in the cupboard and decided to give a new recipe a go. Spelt flour is a source of fibre, many micronutrients (calcium, magnesium, selenium, zinc etc.) and has slightly higher protein content than ordinary wheat flour. It has a distinctive taste so might not appeal to everyone, but I really like it. Chocolate chips give the cookies a little more sweetness and pecans provide a bit of a crunch. I wouldn't say it's a guilt-free pleasure, but it's slightly healthier than store-bought snacks.

Exercise

I have a largely standing job during the day and so I sit loads in the evenings while writing, reading or talking to my loved ones, so my back does suffer due to my lifestyle. I started doing some stretching exercises for about 30 minutes twice a week and I can already feel better. Surprisingly, it doesn't bore me (I do loose interest easily) and it doesn't leave me awfully sweaty. I walk up the stairs (two flights) quickly to get some cardio each day and I started parking my car further away from the entrance at work so that I up my step count. Here's an interesting series of podcasts that really motivated me to get moving.

Honey and cinnamon body scrub

I had this scrub for ages, but only recently started using it regularly. It smells delicious and does wonders to the skin. It's a bit of a luxury for me since I don't really do baths or anything like that very often so anything beyond shampoo and shower gel is a treat for me.

New monthly planner

I'm in love with my new planner. 2019 will be so good. I have multiple stickers, different tracking system and generally I am thoroughly enjoying planning in a very different way than before. The monthly view gives me much more clarity which I need for long-term planning. I look at my planner every day, so I need it to be both functional and aesthetically pleasing and this is exactly what I manage to create now. No-nonsense planner pages where everything is 

Sunday Special: Verse a week.

In the next few weeks I am going to be elaborating on some of my goals for 2019 in hope that 1) it will motivate me to actually achieve them and 2) you will find some motivation and inspiration for your own yearly goals.

I call them goals rather than resolutions, because resolution sounds to me like something that you need to keep up every day without fail, whereas goals are things you aspire to and work towards. 

One of my spiritual goals for this year is to memorise 52 Bible verses: one verse for each week of the year.

Why bother?, you ask.

I had a number of friends over the years who were able to whip up an appropriate Bible verse together with where you could find it in the Bible just like that and I've always wondered how they did it. It has only recently occurred to me that they must have memorised them. They must have made an effort to commit those important verses to their memory so that they could permeate their lives. This is the reason why I want to memorise 52 Bible verses this year: to immerse my life in life-giving Words of God.

How do I go about it? Every morning I write out the verse in my notebook and repeated it a few times. I come back to it throughout the day and make it a centre of my prayer in the evening.

So far I'm on my second verse of the year. Last week it was the last verse of Psalm 23, this week it's a verse from the 2nd Letter to Timothy. If you feel inspired and would like to join in, here's the link to my schedule. Yellow fields are Psalms, blue are verses from the Gospel. I'm going to finish off putting in the last weeks of the year in the coming days so it will then be all ready be printed, copied into the planner or whatever else you might want to do with it.

Have a truly blessed and joyful 2019!

Getting ready for the New Year.

I've actually starter planning my 2019 goals in late October. I like to be ahead and really clear as to what I want to do. I also had a bit of spare time on my hands and October is as good as any other month for planning the new year.

In my 2019 planner I've divided a notes page into four sections for four categories of goals I will focus on: personal, work, financial and spiritual. These will probably change slightly by the time we get to Easter, but listing things that are important to me will help with staying on track and will also be a helpful reminder of where I am heading.

This is really why I'm doing it. To refocus my attention which is so often fragmented by the worries of today. To have something to go back to in times of confusion.

I really encourage you to do the same. Make a list of goals you want to achieve this year. Not by the end of January, but by the end of 2019.

Below is a picture from my planner with the goals I've set myself. Maybe these can inspire you. They didn't take me that long to come up with, though you might need to do some more soul searching depending on your self-awareness. As you will probably notice, most of my goals are long-term. I cannot achieve them overnight. To achieve them will require a lot of very intentional planning. And who doesn't like some serious planning?

I'm planning (ha! again, planning here, can you see a pattern here?) to post regular updates with how I'm getting on with these. I will also elaborate on some of these in the coming weeks, mostly for my own benefit, I don't really know what I think until I write it down.

Many people say that having two, maybe three, a maximum of four top priority goals to focus on is best. As you can see, I have way more than that, but most of them are pretty actionable or I know what steps I need to take and when to achieve them. For some I need to schedule a date to start the process (sorting out my digital clutter). For others, I'm already doing it (rosary, reading) or have taken steps to achieve those goals (I've applied for the position of the examiner, I'm regularly saving money to build up my emergency fund). Establishing a better work-life balance ties nicely with exercising and reading. So hopefully these goals for 2019 will not be overwhelming, but will become a foundation of my everyday choices.

I'm really looking forward to this year. It will be a good one.