Yes set goals, manifest, create a Vision board and get a new diary or planner, but what is around you right now? I have gotten in a place where I am okay by how it is now. I have clothes, my son, my homes and my writing and at this moment, I love all these things.
So I am open to what 2026 brings and just let life be more present and leave part of my life to fate and yes I believe in God. There are changes and transitions, as I am moving, as I live partly with my mum and step dad but with my husband and son too, and they are the things I am focused on now.
There is still a lot to learn and going to do more courses as I love doing that. I loved my reading and completed 20 books this year and my challenge for 2026 is 21 books. I will be updating site, My Books and Stories.
I am watching a Video by Carter Sullivan on Youtube and is on the same mindset as me and that is to see what happens in 2026. Its a relief to me and letting go off the girl who feels I have to map it out all the time and mind maps are good, but you don’t have to set up your whole year but where your are now.
So January it is getting back in to learning mode, for me working on my book called When Mothers Are Real and setting up my watch for measuring my steps and sorting out the home.
I have begun No Spend January and set up my planner which I plan to film and it doesn’t mean I can’t spend anything. Its only essentials and stock up on them so I don’t need to go and buy. It means doing a spending plan and what is not a priority.
I have regretted things. I have really punished myself over them. Life is about moving on and going as the times goes and letting things go: Autumn Reset Day 5: Letting things go If there is a photo that makes you unhappy delete it. If there is a piece of clothing or furniture that makes you quiver and upset you then addressing your feelings can help aswell as letting them go.
There are certain songs that can trigger it and so I will play a song that makes me happy or change the thought because of that song. Listen with fresh ears and the same with films or certain TV.
Time is not going to wait and as humans we grow from our mistakes. I have said the wrong thing. Can I turn back and correct? Not I can’t.
Life is full of lessons and we need to forgive ourselves and stop obsessing. If you can imagine being constantly being hit on the head or anywhere with a mallet how would it feel? It would get on your nerves and that is what regrets do.
It is up to you to of how you want to keep pestering yourself. Cut yourself some slack. You can’t fix what’s gone and so why should you? Will the person you have a regret about or an incident that happened involving someone, be restless about the regret you have? Do they still talk to you?
What is it that is bugging you? Write it down. I when my son was doing some tutoring, went through my fears and past worries and why they were bugging me and it just made me come to my senses of it all and felt ten times better. I have begun to realise that somethings are meant to be, because that is how we learn about relationships, good communication, living better and building our inner self to be the better person you are and reinvent yourself and start a fresh.
No being rude to someone is not good, but I wonder how bothered they are and teaches to stop regretting and just learn. Think of all the good things you have done and how is your life now? So stop regretting and start living.
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I was fired by an employee back in 2008 and it really affected my confidence. I couldn’t wait for #Christmas to have a break. The people where I worked, was so rude that I wondered if they would be that rude to their family? Snapping whilst on the phone as I would be doing what a company should do, give Good Customer Service and they hated it. The guy who ran the company, was awful.
There was no morale and when I reported the bullying to him he blamed it on me and yet it all the people who were there, were all really unpleasant and so going back after Christmas and start of a new year I was fired. I feel they did the right thing, because I didn’t walk out, which some would have done and so I am glad he did fire me now because then it made me decide my next path and did some temping for a bit, but was ready to go back home and my time living near the south coast was coming to an end.
So if it is too much then don’t let yourself feel as though you have to take it. There are organisations you can call for help and then I found job in Kingston and yes there were not very nice people there but I became resilient and they ended up leaving and I ended up being in a good team and so take action. It may be fate, meaning that its time to change and that can be the thing we fear the most, of what to do next so we can often feel that we have to stay. No, if it is stressing you out then leave and get support and life is about chapters ending to welcome new beginnings.
One person who was having issues in a job and she rang me unexpectedly because she felt she was being bullied and sometimes you don’t want to be rescued, or for someone to resolve it for you, its about able to speak to someone to make sense of it. So talk to someone. Also you have a right to leave and say that you are not happy and if things don’t change you will leave and it is okay to confront. I would not advise to do it without support for your own safety and not their word against yours, but ask for a chat and if you can have someone there with you.
I have come across many walks of life and met different kinds of people and those that carry out the bullying are actually the one that is vulnerable and perhaps they need help. I am not saying they should be getting sympathy, but that often it is not about you but about them and the using you as a verbal punchbag and so should be reported for their own sake.
I hope that helps you and as we head into a new year I wish you a Happy New year and if you like to read more of my blogs on this site then you can subscribe.
See above a blog I wrote in 2018 and still relevant because as there is always obstacles but I have learned to deal with them and not allow them to stop me in achieving my goals and dreams. I do a radio show and we have a new system to play music. I have found it challenging but rather than avoid, faced it head on and I know if I keep using it, the less of a hurdle it will become and challenges are there to help you.
Life has a way of keeping you on your toes and so allow the hurdles or doubts that come into your mind, and life and what you want to do. Do you want the voice of doubt bug you? Are you going to quit?
Quitting is fine, but if it ends up as a regret then take some time to reflect and does it excite you? Mel Robbins says that anxiety and excitement is the same thing. I love my show, I just finding the nerves overwhelming but I know this is what I was meant to do along with writing blogs, books and creating videos. I care so much and want to create my blogs, videos and show to help those. The Radio show is for my local hospital as it is a hospital radio station and I get so much joy.
What does a new year mean to you?
Is there something that gives you a burst of excitement?
I am going to see Bon Jovi once again. Yes it could end up being cancelled, I may become ill, but what ifs are just that. What if it all turns out alright? My son is going to a potential school option and finally get a placement. I have chosen to have less commitments for myself in 2026 to spend my time visiting different places I’d like to take my son to and want to explore more and continue what we did the year we are leaving and yes trains can have disruptions and the buses haven’t been reliable but we have got to where we wanted to be and plan less to do more.
Twenty twenty five has been a good year. Okay my son got sick at the beginning but we still had the meal we wanted afterwards, because he was taken to hospital and Henry was fine, he didn’t have a meltdown and just chilled until we could go home and just a bump in the road. Life will have bumps and as much as we don’t want our kids to be sick, their intolerances and immune system need to develop and so, he wasn’t fazed by it and so I am not.
When we went to the Polka theatre a lot and one of the shows we ended up getting drenched. The Radio event I did for the first time, leading to Christmas in 2025 finished early because of the weather and had issues with music and the choir shows, but we carried on and I enjoyed it and was a good experience and didn’t allow my nerves to talk me out of it.
So face the obstacle but don’t allow them to continue to grow, my word for 2026 and if you fall, get back up again and carry on.
So Christmas has been and gone. It was so good to just relax and have a drink or two and watch a film. I watched Calamity Jane, my childhood favourite film. I would watch it continuously, driving my brother and my parents mad. It is good to watch the old favourites and The Rocky Horror Show. Very strange film. It was so good to see it at the theatre this year starring Jason Donovan.
Picture I took of my mums Christmas tree.
It is boxing day and just been out for a drive and coffee. It feels good to sit and not have to be anywhere in particular. I loved the places we went to, like staying at a lodge on a farm.
I am looking forward to more. I have tickets to see Bon Jovi, tomorrow as I write this blog going to see Devils Wear PRADA again as it was good and then gonna spend new years in Epsom.
I am having one of my favourite lunches Soup and a Baguette. My Fav soup is Carrot And Coriander. I would like to make homemade soup again at some point as it is easy and simple and full of goodness and so love my having a nice meal that feels me with joy. Christmas Lattes are full of sugar and calories, but they make me happy AND I LOVE Cold coffees and will never give this up.
My life has moved on from someone who feared food and gaining weight. Now I enjoy life and if I want a festive coffee then I will and my son enjoys going to the coffee shop it is our time in the morning and he will have a hot chocolate or a glass of milk. This year for my sons birthday we went to sixes in London Bridge and it was so good. We all enjoyed it and want to go back and vlogged it: https://youtu.be/p89X9qFs7GM
It good to do different things and yes the days can be dreary, but doesn’t mean our day has to be dreary and still enjoy yourself and have fun. It is what gives you pleasure.
So hope you had a good Christmas and a Happy New Year.
It is also time to have a bit of chocolate, a festive coffee. My favourite festive drink this year (2025) is the Nutcracker. What is yours this year?
Give yourself time to just chill and tomorrow I am looking forward to not having a no alarm and gonna read and listen to an audiobook and make breakfast. We are having a cooked one. So get out your #DVD’s and go through your planner of #TV saved and take a break to recharge and have good family time to have a good break.
You do not have to be rushed off your feet, if you do not want to. We are going to have Christmas dinner, but I would like to watch a film. I have a cold coffee on the go, on the sofa with a blanket, in my PJ bottoms and Christmas jumper.
If you want to go out and have something to eat rather than stopping then why not? It is good to just do what makes you happy and helps you to wind down. There was a time I worked at Christmas time when working at a holiday camp and it was good fun, but I did miss home and we’d go out, but Christmas days could be very long and glad I no longer have the Christmas hangover. Remember about getting home and a tip, book a taxi before hand and if you can travel with someone else then do or stay at a friends house.
Just having a change can do the world of good and so cooking now. I have put on some sausage rolls and bought wine but I feel like a cup of tea. We just had some cheese and crackers with the sausage rolls, crisps and dip. Light cooking on Christmas Eve is what keeps me sane and as I finished this blog just watched Calamity Jane.
So merry Christmas everyone, and I am vlogging; I will post a vlog on Friday so please check my Vlog channel, along with my other two.
It has a been a different kind of winter this year. Not that cold but wet and rainy, with a bit of frost in the morning. Yet riding on the bus in the mornings to take my son, Henry, to do his schooling, I have found myself boiling hot.
Picture I took from when I visited Windsor this year and so been setting my Winter, to enjoy the places we went to and so using this time of year, winter, to go through 2025 heading into 2026.
I like to have a nice iced coffee still, yet you’d think that that would be too cold and hot coffee all the way but no. So enjoy your take away iced coffee, is one tip. As I write this blog, gonna have an iced coffee indoors and I am looking forward to getting a perfect glass for a home coffee for 2026. So to gift to myself is going to be shopping for a better set of glasses and no more novelty mugs.
With the changes I want to make I want to clear out the kitchen before the start of the New Year. I decided to let my baking tools and equipment go; I know I may go back into it but I like cooking dinners rather than baking.
So second tip, find some home projects to do. I am trying to do more of my sons bedroom and mine and it really is making me use my Winter, to my advantage to concentrate on what I can let go of and making improvements to my homes. I live in two places and soon we, my parents, will be moving from Wimbledon and I feel positive about it.
I spent time yesterday creating vision boards for 2026. Organsing my birthday and Christmas gifts for family for this years Christmas and been organising my Notion. I went through my plans in terms of my finances for 2026, just got to put my planner together. I like to plan ahead when it comes to my finances I am going to do “No spend January” and try to do a “Low spend year” as I am going to call it, because I feel doing a No Spend for me, too unrealistic.
I am finding now that there are less things I want to change, but have more experiences. I liked the walks we did this year and the places we visited, my son, husband and I, with my mum and step dad and would want to visit more places. So rather than focusing on the low energy I usually get, I think well I am going to slow down. I am going to have a good set of books to read and just thinking about what I can do, not what I can’t. Normally I put my indoor workouts on hold but I have found that I like breaking up my exercise and do some through the day, rather than a set workout and I have a watch that I bought to wear at home and out to see how many steps I do when at home and outside as do like to potter around the home and tidy. I like to walk through the local parks and checking out the shops and can shop with out buying and going to continue and not act on impulse unless it is doing a bit of a workout and cleaning and tidying is still physical activity. Check my blog site on google: https://getfitgetactivewithme.blogspot.com/
I loved the walks we did even though I was reluctant at the time but it was good and loved Windsor, We walked from Kingston to Teddington and would love to continue to walk and visit different places within the UK, so using the Winter to think of all what we did this year and I love to plan my year and have things to look forward to. I have tickets to see Bon Jovi, plan to visit Scotland and the Isle Of Wight. Third is to get away. If you can get out and my son and I do bus rides and just good to be in a different environment and where my creative side of my brain gets active and I live rivers, lakes and the sea.
I hope you have been enjoying these blogs and there will be more to come. Please check out these links:
I have felt good this year. I am enjoying journaling whilst my son is having is lesson and it has been a great resource and I do it as my first thing in my journal and I would recommend using the Journal APP I have, not sure if it is available to all phones as it was an APP that was already on my phone. By making this change has helped me to plan content, write about my life, moving on and growing from the past. I dwell a lot on the past from things I did wrong but has helped have shape in my life and “Grow”. My word for 2026. This year 2025 was “Lifestyle” and I have changed my lifestyle.
Was a bit Skeptical about the Elf on the Shelf but my son loves it and I have stopped being a Humbug.
My reading has been an amazing and walked a lot and now as it is Winter I have taken a step back for the Winter and just slowing down, but still being somewhat productive without overwhelm.
Just making one change to your routine can make such a difference. Like having more reading time. I read every morning and evening and it has been one of the greatest habits that has really been a boost and set a challenge of reading 20 books. I am on 17 and have a book on Audible that I am listen to and so is 18 so will have two books left. I have done this on Good Reads. Check out my site: https://mybooksandstories.wordpress.com/
The other change is cleaning. I do it as I go and will make sure that before each meal that I have cleared away the items used. Cleaning does not give me joy but like the results do. Learning. I have done some really good courses and been using Youtube for free training to, to build my platforms and content.
It is good to see the stars and do like a clear sky, but at the same time it is time to slow down and watch some good TV, with a nice hot meal and it is the simple pleasures that makes it different for me now. I did get depressed as I reached adult age, in the winter, but now I embrace it, by not rushing and focus on little pleasures. https://mystylewayofliving.blogspot.com/2025/11/things-that-gives-me-pleasure.html
It is good time to declutter. I do a bit a day and once I start which is the key. Less thinking, more doing and going through my things and today I wrote a list of what I want done by the end of the year and love planning for the next year, around about this time of year and embrace the new year which back at one point would get emotional and felt I wasted a year and so I make the most of the days whilst I am alive and it just simple changes, can make such a difference.
It all counts.
So I hope you are finding these blogs helpful and comforting and that it does not have to be doom and gloom.
In the year the Two Thousand for the first time I dreaded Christmas. My family life had changed, my Nan passed away and I was in a job I hated. It was a fail. I had to re-address my life and where it was going.
Our Elf on A shelf
For some, there are people, like that year who dread Christmas. When a change happens, all those good times feel like they have stopped and can make you feel like you want the world to swallow you up, to never be seen again. It took me a while to adjust and I made the decision to leave my life in Richmond behind to move to work in the South Coast.
When I moved Christmases were a work day. I moved to work at a holiday camp and where I met my husband and so I had the Christmas my boyfriend, then at one of our friends house and it was fun working at Christmas. Within in one year, I stayed with then my boyfriend and worked with a hangover but I do not regret as it, it was so much fun.
I lost my spark for the festive cheer. I was sad. My nan was the center of my universe and my Grandad and my Nan, made the Festive season the best ones and it struck me that those times were gone and I asked, “Would Christmas be good again?”
I see the Christmas as a day a of rest and recuperation now. I love that my son loves it and he has helped bring back my Christmas spirit, to feeling happy again, we hosted Christmas once with my in-laws. Now though it is just the three of us and celebrate for him now and he has helped me bring back my joy for #Christmas.
I am not a fan of the busyness of the Christmas so tend to buy online but do like to have a traditional drinks, decor an like a Mulled Wine or a Winter Cider and may have a glass of wine. I love a festive coffee. This year 2025 its the nutcracker latte, iced or hot. What is your festive drink this year? For a while it was the Blackforest Gateaux Hot Chocolate.
If you’ve not had a good year then it can be hard to enjoy Christmas but do something different and if you want to eat out as many restaurants or pubs can be open. The year before Henry was born we, my husband I went to Florida which was good fun and next year I plan to go to Scotland and today we are off to Kingston if the weather is okay and see the lights and see if we can get any decor or my sons bedroom.
The other thing is family break ups. Alternate visits. One year let your kids be with their dad and the next with you. It was hard when my parent divorced but my dad would go to my brothers and so it can work out and just say “Your not gonna choose” but will see them what day works for you and if they are persistent then say “No this is what is going to work with me” and if they make it hard for you then you have to be honest with them and be stern with the decision you have made.
It is not the time for arguments. It is the time to end family feuds and just enjoy it.
So going to pop out as I need something for my teeth they’ve been hurting me a lot and have a Christmas coffee and a pastry of some kind. Sometimes you just need that lift and it helps me think and feel lucky to have experience Christmases with those gone and that Christmas is now worth celebrating.
This idea came from watching a Youtube Video by Kate Kaden and each month I give to the local foodbanks in London and work for a Charity. I present a show for my local hospital and it gives me such a buzz. The Winter can be tough and so if you can cook a hot meal for someone that you know is on their own, can do a world of good. Or even buying them a coffee and give them your time to chat.
In the winter I find it hard to see those doing all they can to earn money from selling the Big Issue and people walking passed, knowing that they can really make a difference. We do have families who are struggling to put food on the table. Why in this day in age have people needing to go to a foodbank?
I’ve watched Call the Midwife and feel from the times that the programme is based on learnt nothing.
The high street is suffering, the prices on utilities are going up and I have been to a supermarket and had to cancel items having absolutely nothing and it is the worst feeling in the world.
This is not to make you feel guilty in anyway. It doesn’t have to be materialistic but just your time. One of my sons schools friends parent who’s child was in his class would use her to listen to children read and I love volunteering. So rewarding. At many of the staff at the local garden centres are volunteers.
When I do my shopping and I am asked if I’d like to give a donation and I say yes. It can be lending books to your neighbours if they are alone or if they’d like to go for a walk. Have a joint Christmas with neighbours. I remember when I was kid and we moved from one block of flats to another the lady opposite us looked after me and we often go to other’s homes when living on a housing estate.
There’d be Christmas parties on the Estate and I loved them or Christmas Bingo nights.
Such a massive community and wonder if that still happens now on Housing Estates. I see many in the library where my son gets tutored until he gets a place in a school, are people who visit it and are alone.
There are often events in libraries and run my volunteers. If you are struggling joining the library can be a good way to save money on books or visit charity shops. I buy most of my books from Charity shops and our library does free coffee and drinks, like juice and so can be a good way to meet people.
So if you can make a difference and have some time spare, it can be good for you and the reciprocate. M
Everyone can build a castle 