So if you didn’t see my last blog then I am taking on a new challenge for January and that is no spend. This is from and idea I got from watching a Kate Kaden, and not because she is doing it, it’s because I do want to control myself when it comes to money and focusing what I need rather than what I want.
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Yes it is 2023 and my first challenge for this year for January is going to be no spending. Now yes I have been out and bought a few bits today, but they were items I needed, and it is not buying items that aren’t a need, and avoid the impulse buying. Plus I do have a birthday coming up, but have already reserved money for this and planning what I will be using my money for, like travelling that I do each day to wait at my son’s home to come home from school, food and that is what I did today and want to buy items for lunches to be a bit more healthier and be vigilant with what I want to put into my body.
I am not going to buy anymore clothes and wear what I have got and not spending money on coffees at a coffee shop. Making a small changes make a huge difference and doing no spending days, that I did last year really help prepare me, and it helped me manage my habit of buying coffee from a coffee shop and use instant or from the coffee machine I have where I live. I will be vlogging it and so will do this as of tomorrow as I should be able to speak as I have had a stinking cold, and just want to get over the first day.
I have just written my financial target to pay off my debts and almost paid one off, just got to make another two payments and then that is then complete, and all I have to worry about is my credit card, and so plan to pay off £1200 by the end of this year, by paying £1200.00, which will take my debts to zero. I feel so good about that, because debts has had an effect on my wellbeing and mental health.
All challenges have to lead to a good result that make you feel good about life. Getting as much out of life as much as possible and feel good about yourself and give you a buzz, and stir you on for building your life every year. Making good positive changes. I want to start running again and do some fundraising events and do a fitness class that helps me to fight fatigue and to help me build up my energy levels, to feel fitter and reduce my sitting down time.
I am trying stop having my phone near by all of the time, as it does make me procrastinate and has made me feel more present. I think we get so sucked in when it comes to social media so monitoring my phone habits, when I have tasks to do, having my phone away from me has made a difference and getting jobs done.
I am not sure what I plan for February, but going to see how my no spending January goes first, and looking at the thing I want to invest in and was going to book an exercise class, but got a bit nervous about doing so and so going to concentrate on not spending money on clothes and see how much I can save for items I want, and what I need and would like it to continue in being logical when it comes to money.
I have put together a set of Pins which has some Life coaching advice and tools to help, check out my life coaching tools I have put together on my Pinterest that may help you set some challenges for yourself, and have already putting items ready for my Life coaching programme, “2023 Project” too, so you can whilst you are there checks these pins too.
It is new years eve and tomorrow it will be 2023, and soon it is all systems go again, but not gong to forget 2022, it has been okay for me. I am happy that I did complete the writing of my book I wrote about yesterday and going to make it a tradition that I publish a book by the end of each year to publish as I approach another year.
I didn’t complete the writing of my Christmas book and want to make changes to it and so still got to achieve this goal and have a book about Christmas. Many may not believe in goals but I do, as I like challenging myself. It gives me such a good energetic feeling and looking over 2022 I really liked the challenging to read a book a month as I have read some really good books, check out my videos All About Books. I do video book reviews and due to do another as talk about the book I read and finished during the Christmas holidays.
Doing my reset and for Autumn and going to do another this year as it made me feel free. It is good to have space and I plan tomorrow to do part of it and film, so I will let you know if this happens, and I liked reaching out to you through my Life Coaching blogs. It was good to go through my emails and still got to do more to empty them out, and so yesterday did a big clear out as I have run out on storage on my google account.
This year I began writing newsletters and love putting these together and I am glad that you have liked them too.
Another year means more challenges to come and creating new habits this year, like not having my phone near my bed has made such a difference and making my bed each day. There is more I want to do, as they are helping me so much in making sure I look after my self aswell as other people and concentrating on what makes me happy.
So lets all have a good new year and celebrate a new year,
We can all be somebody if we truly believe in ourselves, watching the world cup inspired me to write this post because we like me a lot of you may, doubt themselves, and for me I have always wanted to do something that I never thought I could do. I never thought I’d ever run and was just a thought and never thought I’d do the Great North Run, but there I was in 2008 doing just that. It made me see what I am capable of and everyone deserves a life they want and be the best at what they can be.
Making small changes in your life can lead you to success and that can be doing a workout in the mornings and I have started to meditate each day and I never thought I’d write a book, even though it has been a childhood dream, and then I saw a programme on TV and it was someone talking about self publishing on amazon, and thought I’d like to do that, so when I had my son it inspired me to create The Parenting Adventures, check these out on Amazon under my married name Carrie Challoner and working on a new book called Mum&Me and editing as we speak and never thought I’d blog as this type of writing never was a thing as a child as there were no internet like there is today.
I know a lot of people are going to be struggling this year with the prices of things going up, but you can still have a life you love and that is to set a plan and if you wanted to write and publish a book then go for it, or run a half marathon, as it really helps with your wellbeing. They are just examples, because when I was working it inspired others to do the same and I loved that and people wanted to join me.
I never thought I would have people liking my blogs and it was reading a book that inspired me to start blog writing and everyday I getting likes and followers and it really feels my up with a lot of joy and build my life up even more.
Set yourself some quick and easy goals, like going for a walk each day and if you are looking for work then sit down and do plan to find that job you have always wanted and write a plan of how you want to get there. Tomorrow I am going to a Job Fair and if you contact the Jobcentre they can refer you and make an appointment for you to go. If you find out it is not what you want to do then that is fine, your only going to find out and see.
Think about year from now what do you want your life to look like?
Visualise and write it down. Set yourself challenges and these has really helped me and I have managed to get a lot done by breaking it down and focus on small tasks each day. I listen a lot to Mel Robbins and she writes just five things a day and I have found this very resourceful. So make challenges for yourself and small and then make them bigger each year.
Hello and thank you so much for your feedback of the blogs I shared for my Autumn Reset, and it really has helped me get tasks finished and plan to do another in 2023.
I have put together a free printable for you to help you have a reset this Autumn and other ones to come.
So I said in my last newsletter that I would be putting up some days in a life and gift guides but I need to put my hands up “I am behind” and do this to myself a lot. I try to do some many things and so once again I rein myself in and think right what can I get done that will make less for tomorrow?
Since school half term which was two weeks ago it has been tricky to get bits for my blogs and videos been difficult but do what I can. I continue writing this blog on a Saturday night, and supposed to be my night off, but wanted to write this blog because I write a lot of blogs on having a better wellbeing, and show I am a real person and not always ahead of myself, as much as I try to be and because I know for my wellbeing I need to slow down.
I have been doing a course about mental health and it that is has taken a lot of my time, but wanted to do it to help me go to where I want to be and that is to help others with managing their mental health, but nearly completed and this week going to do all I can to get back to working on my book Mum&me and have more day in a life videos to publish as I love doing documenting my life and something I can look back on and if they really help just a few people then that is my goal and keep my energy levels high to keep on creating items for my blogs, books and videos.
I also been looking for outside work hence why I have been doing some courses, and be in healthcare or in a educational setting.
When I get behind it helps me to focus on focusing on one thing and having a cup of tea and a coffee in the morning really helps along with having something I can jot things down on, even when I go out, as ideas of content usually comes to me when outdoors along with listening to podcasts and music.
The other things I have started to do organize what I am going to wear each week on a Sunday and wear all of my clothes I have, I have started to go through my finances and manage my money again and have no spend days and use what I have got and not started other things until I have gotten a few the main things I need to get done completed first. To manage my life and you may feel the same is when I prioritize and like this week get my training course done and today now being Sunday finishing this blog and last night when I couldn’t sleep is create a filming schedule and what videos I want to film and upload.
Have patience with yourself and know that you will finish tasks and break it down. I did this last night and created a list of things I want to complete and where resetting really helps and so do this each Sunday, which is today finishing this blog and Monday’s and get back on track and continue growing my life, my blogs and my videos.
This was so enjoyable to do and I am glad many of you liked the posts I shared, and I did manage to sort some areas out like going through my emails and using any spare time to go through and unsubscribe from services I no longer need, but with half term and getting my next book finished it was a lot of work,but glad I was able to have a good sort through and lead me to new positive habits, like each Sunday I will plan what I want to wear in the week and getting the most out of my clothes. Clear my laptop and do have a printable to go up for the Autumn Reset, but been on a course and so couldn’t complete, but going to continue with it and upload, once ready and can still use it as I do a weekly reset, mainly on Fridays, Sundays and Mondays.
I want to do more projects and for Winter I am planning a Winter Wellness Project to give tips on Managing Your Life in the winter as I can often feel slumped because of the reduction of day light, and so this will be coming soon. I will say more next week.
It is all about looking at your mind, body and soul.
Making gradual steps is what works for me and will help me set up new goals for myself and getting ready for the festive season and going to do some gift guides, but minimising my spending and remember that is not able cost but being with family and creating happy memories, and I know we are all feeling worried because of the prices on things are increasing, but you don’t need to spend a fortune in celebrating Christmas and forget the worries for one day and have friends and family bring food over so it is a joint effort and enjoy the festive cheer, without having to organize on your own, and ease the anxiety on the cost of things and not have a Christmas.
Life is not all about money it is more to do with time. If you make a gift or make a card with scrap paper with nice message is still a thoughtful gift and use what items you have in your possession unused that someone else would like. Doing a reset helps to see what ways you can change things in your life, and giving gifts can be one of them. Do a reset on money, can really help reduce spending and now I keep note again and check my account throughout the week and seeing what I can reduce, to save and invest in my life, of items that really mean something to me, such as clothing I like to wear all through the year and not just for the colder or summer season, and on skincare because I like to try different products and like to treatment me to some gift sets that will last all year and will save my money on festive drinks I like to have, like Advocate and Lemonade, which is called a Snowball.
Have what you like but save for those special occasions and have a back up fund, for those days you need an extra bit of cash, and one thing you can do to do a reset is to set a financial plan to budget and save for those items we want each year and any amount you can save do it.
I have limited myself to not spend money on coffees out and use my instant coffee. I now have a discount card on travel because I travel a lot to look after my son when he returns home from school, and if you are on Universal credit you can get money off on travelling on buses and trams.
I have begun limiting my spending on clothes, and buy what I need. like I live in Leggins most of the time because of be active with walking a lot and playing sports with my son, and so I replace them but limit myself on pairs, but enough that I can work continuously and make sure they wash well, as some can lose their shape.
So I am not going to get ready for the week ahead, and will blog again in a few days.
There was a time where I would take my son to school and as soon I got home would return into bed and then get up about 1pm to give the house a clean and then go and pick up my son from school, and as soon as I had dinner go back to bed.
I couldn’t find the energy to do much, and it was as if energy had been pushed out of me. Now though that girl has gone and glad. I love being lazy at times, but that only results in me feeling more tired and I like to get up have my cup of tea and then breakfast and make sure I am dressed apart from the weekend where I do take it a bit easier and spend that time with my son.
The mornings for me is the hardest at time but once I am up now I get myself ready for the day and take anything that is rubbish downstairs, take shower if I don’t have one the evening before and gather myself together. Having routine that is fulfilling is what helped me get out of the slump of wanting to stay in bed all day, and so I make sure I have a enough sleep at night so I have no reason to go back to bed.
So if you are having a hard time to get up and out of bed, ask yourself, “Do I want to be doing this all my life?” and I didn’t and knew that it was effecting my everyday and it would cause arguments, but then something clicked in me and I have now never felt so alive. It takes time, but if you feel fatigue all the time, it may mean going to the doctors and getting support as it is a mental health issue and put things into bed that makes you want to get up and make the most of your days.
This is why I write these blogs to give support if you feel low at and unenergized it is something that you can work on and can get out of.
Living in the city, it can be very noisy and you can get sucked in the city way of life. This is rushing and not taking anything in, but the noise of the city.
Today I edited a new Autumn Reset video and going to upload this tonight, this is now up: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUDFIqjVKLy7NhtcR6Hy0Tg and sometimes you just need to take mini steps, which is part of having a reset as we often can’t take it easy with running errands.
If you can take yourself away from it, then do. I travel to and from Epsom, and walking along the common can be peaceful and sitting near a pond, even like the Serpentine in Hyde Park can make all the difference and when I am near water, I instantly feel so much better and helps stop the noise that can disrupt us and good to take some time away from the busy streets.
I like to read a book in the park and have a nice coffee whilst sitting by the river. I like listening to podcasts when waiting for my son to return home from school, and then listen to my music whilst on the bus and just helping my anxiousness that I get each day, and taking in what is around me rather than rushing around and not noticing anything.
Seeing it from my son’s eyes has made me look around me and watching planes flying over watching other parents with their kids and just chilling, whilst others are rushing around, I just need that peace and quiet. So I make sure I give myself that time, as it helps ease the mind and stop feeling overwhelmed.
Everyone can build a castle 