2019 | Looking Forward
Happy New Year, and hello 2019! I hope everyone had a good time, however you chose to celebrate New Year. I’ve mentioned in previous years, that saying about how you spend your New Year can define how you will spend the rest of the year. I had a quiet night at home, with a couple glasses of wine and some Netflix, then popped out to the nearby park to watch the fireworks over Edinburgh Castle at midnight. If that means I’ll have a fairly relaxed year, that would be fine by me! I’d rather not spend it alone though (I like my own company but not all the time!) nor do I necessarily want to cut down on my partying, but we’ll have to wait and see! So anyway, what am I hoping to get from 2019 then?
In the most practical sense firstly, my concrete plans, I imagine this year will be fairly similar to last year. I plan to continue working as a tour guide for my friends’ company for now. In the past, I’ve often worked jobs for fixed length contracts, like when I was teaching abroad, so it’s a little weird still to be doing something so open-ended. I don’t think I’ll do this forever, but I enjoy my job and I want to keep helping them as they grow the company, so I’m staying for now. I’m also staying in Edinburgh, and in this flat, for the same reason. I’m happy with where I am, so I don’t want to upend it all just now.
I’m still not sure if I’m in Scotland to stay permanently or if I’ll go live abroad again – I’ve toyed with tour guiding in another city or two perhaps, as it is a job I enjoy and I’ve started to consider if tourism might be a potential career path – but I doubt that will happen this year. I would like to do some more travelling though. In 2018, I only went abroad once, to Ireland! I’ve already got a two week trip planned at the end of this month, but then I’d like to go away at least once or twice more after that before the year ends, even if just for a week or a long weekend!
On a similar note, I don’t intend to live in my current flat forever, as it’s a shared rental situation. I like my flatmates a lot, but eventually I would like to be able to buy my own flat. Again, I doubt that will happen this year, but it’s something that I do want to save and work towards. It might get put on hold if I do decide to go abroad again anytime soon though! I’ve not often had much in the way of definitive plans in the past, and I still don’t really, but this year I’ve started to think more about the future and what I want from it. A job I enjoy, and being able to afford a flat, and get some travelling in there too – these are the long term goals I’m trying to work towards! I think I’ve had them for a while really, but I rarely actually write them down like that, and as I get older they feel like less far-off plans. They probably won’t happen this year still, but steps in the right direction would be good!
I don’t usually make full on ‘resolutions’ each year, as it’s too much pressure and no one ever sticks to them, but I do always try to set some intentions for the year. I’ve decided that I want to be less negative and not complain so much. I do it a lot, especially at work – the nature of being a ‘free’ tour guide means people choose how much to pay me at the end of the tour. So sometimes I make great money, sometimes I make very little – some people walk off in the middle and give nothing. I knew this when I signed up for the job, but it still gets frustrating at times. But rather than be grumpy about it when i have a bad tour, I want to try to be more at peace with it, and move on instead of complaining all day. This applies to anything else that I get grumpy and negative about as well!
I also plan to write more this year, in a format other than blogging. I recently started a second blog, about travel and history, so I’m actually going to reduce posts on this blog to twice per week I think. Half the time I feel like I write posts on here for the sake of it, rather than actually being invested in them, so the new blog is helping to channel my ideas a little better. And doing two on here and one on the other will also give me time for the main goal. I want to work towards something bigger. Now, what that ends up being, and if it ever gets finished, and if it ever sees the light of day in the end, is all unclear just now. I’m not saying “I will write a novel this year” as I haven’t had much success in completing stuff when I’ve tried in the past. But I’m resolving to just write something and see what happens with it.
There’s also my usual little goals too. I’ve been doing a lot more yoga recently, so I want to keep that up, and go hiking again more (once the days get longer again!) to stay active. Between researching for the new blog and watching more documentaries lately, I want to keep learning more, as that’s something I sort of stopped doing after finishing university. I want to try to read more again, and I’ve started listening to audiobooks to help with that, and exploring non-fiction as well. I really ought to cut back on my sugar intake, but that’s always one I’ve struggled with, so we’ll see! I’m also thinking of buying a keyboard as well, to have something to practice piano on again (since I can’t bring my proper one from home up to this flat!).
No one knows for certain what the future will bring, and I’ve never been one to have much in the way of long term plans. But I do have goals and intentions to keep working towards and trying to achieve. I’m not going to stress or beat myself up if they don’t work out, but the New Year is a time for fresh starts and letting go and moving forwards. So I’m going to try to do just that. I think I’ll always be ‘just muddling through life’ – to be honest, I think most people are! – but if I can keep moving forwards and learning and growing, then that’s good enough for me!
