On achieving my goals

I’m a funny mix of a person, you know. On the one hand, I’m a lazy bugger who will avoid tidying and whose idea of an evening well spent probably involves snoozing or otherwise relaxing. Yet on the other, I always achieve things, I have my goals and I like to get those boxes ticked. Granted I tick them in a lethargic way, but that means I’m damn good at doing just the right amount of work in order to achieve something – take my GCSE’s and A Levels – I neatly did the minimum to get an A, and no more!

Don’t get me wrong, in my working life nowadays I often go above and beyond – but home time is relaxing time, and I’m so tired for most of it that my “get up and go” is more theoretical than practical! That said, yesterday Andy pointed out that I should be so harsh on myself – because this year I’ve achieved a lot of things that I’ve wanted to, and I should be proud rather than berating myself about all the things I’ve yet to do.

So, what have I achieved in the past 12 months?

1. I passed my Professional Certificate in Marketing. Most of this has been waiting, completed and passed, for nigh on two years, essentially since my break up with Ben. That’s when I failed the last module (through freak out and significant lack of effort on my part), and it’s been needing a re-take ever since. So, this year, I bucked my ideas up (ans my dear mother would say), and retook it. It’s taken until August for the results to come through (the module was submitted in April/May!), but I’ve passed and am now fully marketing qualified!

2. I learnt to drive (again, having not driven since I failed two driving tests when I was a wee nipper of 18). I also turned this into passing my driving test second time (we don’t count those first two, back in the great beyond), despite encountering the most crippling nerves

I have ever experienced. I overcame my own body (and that’s saying something!) and now drive my little in-between car to work whilst…

3. We do up my my official first car (owned pre-Micra, thank you very much), a 1978 Mark II Capri. Andy’s doing the remarkable work, magic involving welding and metal and sparks all over the ‘shop, whilst I help with the sanding and filling and painting and dyeing. I’m proud of what I’ve learnt and what I’m still learning. Plus, I can do my own oil change, change a starter motor, change an oil filter and more! I’m useful!

4. I’ve moved into a lovely little house with a boy that I love beyond belief, and set up a home and a future. I’m mindlessly happy, utterly loved up, and genuinely able to say for the first time in my life that I am not even slightly depressed. It’s a good way to be.

5. I went travelling for 3months of the past 12, by myself, and I learnt a lot about the world and my place in it. I now want to do it again with Andy, to show him what I experienced, but I am so proud to have grabbed life by the metaphorical balls and to have just bloody done it. That’s no mean feat, and it allowed me to make mistakes, be brave, be scared, and see beautiful things. I like to think I’m a better person because of it, in spite of the mistakes I may have made when I was away.

That’s not a bad list really, is it?!