DID I ACHIEVE MY GOALS?

Hi Hello How are ya?

Today is almost 8 months since I set myself some rather realistic Winter bucket list goals, check them out here to jog your memory. It’s been a crazy ole winter and more recently a fun ole spring, with tonnes of exciting things that have taken place both career and life wise and I’m excited to be able to recap over the things I’ve achieved in this post today.

I’m still a huge advocate for setting seasonal goals, it’s been really nice to have something to aim for, however big or small and whilst some have been well and truly achieved, others have faltered and been somewhat impossible to achieve at all, so I’m going to wrap it all up today and set some brand new goals for the summer months ahead.
Winter is considerably longer than that of summer so I’ve had a greater time scale in which to try and achieve the goals I’d set for myself, but does that make the difference in what is and isn’t achievable? Lets find out shall we.

 

1. Okay so the first goal I set myself last September was to own a property by the end of 2017. Whilst we’re very much in the thick of 2017 and by no means at the end of the year just yet, things are looking good. George and I are thinking a lot about the type of property we’d like to own. We’ve viewed some properties and some bricks and rubble that is set to be the flat of our dreams but we’re still a little undecided.

I very much do not feel ready to leave the city centre right now.
I adore Manchester and I truly love being able to pop into town for a spot of shopping, a coffee or just to get out and about and to enjoy my beloved city to it’s fullest. The thought of leaving the centre right now scares the living daylights out of me and isn’t something I’m quite ready for just yet. We have our whole lives to live in suburbia so for now I think our voyage to getting on the property ladder starts and finishes in the centre of Manchester.
However, space is what we both crave and need, we’ve quickly outgrown our 1 bedroom flat in the Northern Quarter so most definitely need a flat that is spacious enough for my ever expanding wardrobe (oops) and with a spare room that I can convert into my home office/studio, working from my dining room table has gotten very old, very quickly.

So that's the scary prospect of owning a property looked over, whilst I definitely don’t own the home of my dreams just yet, the wheels are in motion and I hope to be able to have a very exciting announcement this time next year, who knows ey?

2. The next goal on my winter to-do list was to learn to drive… LOL.

This is one epic fail, purely because I just don’t need to drive right now.
I live in the centre of Manchester and with Manchester being SUCH a cosy little town with absolutely awesome public transport links I just don’t feel the need to learn to drive just yet. The prospect of getting a car straight up just isn’t doable, what with the absolutely extortionate city centre parking prices and all, so logistically it’s just not worth forking out for lessons and my test, to then not be able to put in the practice afterwards. I just know that if I ever bloody pass my driving test, I’m the type of person who will quickly loose my confidence if I’m unable to get behind the wheel of a car from the off. So as thats simply not doable currently, I’m putting this on the back burner for a while. I think if we ever move out of the centre then I’ll totally give learning another go, but until then it’s good ole pavement stomping for me!

 

3. The next two goals were somewhat vanity inspired, with the first being to grow my hair.
Well, thats an easy one to try and achieve and I’m still very much in the mindset of “grow baby grow”
It’s a slow ole process but we’re most definitely seeing progress; I’ve recently switched up my hair salon to Vidal Sassoon in Manchester and I’m totally loving it. The wonderful Lee at Sassoon has devised a hair growth plan that we stick to regimentally and it seems to be working a treat. I have regular hair cuts, every 6 weeks and whilst we tend to chop off a good inch every time (damn you ombre bleached hair) it seems to be doing the trick and growing a lot quicker than before.
I’m also giving up the bleach for a more natural and healthy look. Whilst I still have the whole ombre/balayage vibe, I’ve not had the bleach reworked for almost a year now, instead we just approach the roots and mid lengths of my hair with a tonal brunette shade and simply pop a toner on the ends to stop them going brassy and it's proving to work quite a treat with my little head of hair.

I’ve also recently discovered the Liquid Hair solution by Wella and enjoy going for regular treatments of the stuff.  A treatment like no other, that leaves my hair looking and feeling brand spanking new, I’d highly recommend you check it out in your local Sassoon salon, it's game changing stuff ladies and gents.
If you're keen, I thought I'd mention that I’ve been given a cheeky little code for all Vidal Sassoon salons throughout the country which can get you 20% off both cut & colours, simply just quote “Megan Ellaby” at the time of booking… You’re welcome 😉

4. Regularly attending Bikram Yoga classes was next up on my winter bucket list and unfortunately this has NOT been a success, in fact I would go as far as saying this has been one almighty fail.
I’ve suffered from back trauma now for the past few years, with it coming to it’s absolute painful pinnacle at the beginning of this year.
So much so that I’ve had a couple of sessions with a chiropractor which definitely helped get me back on track, but I have to say the relentless daily task of hunching over a laptop isn’t doing me the best of good and I still have days where I’m completely crippled with pain, so it’s been pretty difficult to exercise in any way without my back playing up once again.

My chiropractor specifically warned me not to partake in Bikram Yoga due to our bodies being so hot and therefore being more malleable than usual, which simply means we push our bodies to the absolute maximum; a maximum that would normally be completely out of our reach. Apparently this doesn’t do our bodies, especially bodies with back trouble such as mine, any good at all, so with that, I’m giving up Bikram Yoga altogether and frantically trying to find my exercise jam, when oh when will it find me...WHEN!?

5. Travel is and always will be a personal goal of mine. I’m a HUGE wanderlust fanatic and dream of sandy white beaches, of city breaks exploring street after street of culture, if it means seeking out new destinations then I am 100% KEEN!

Back in September I wanted to visit San Francisco, Iceland and Croatia, all of which remain very much true and very much undiscovered by me.
I didn’t get to any of those destinations so they’ll definitely be rolling over onto this summer’s goals list. However I was lucky enough to visit New York, Miami, Paris and Copenhagen in the last 8 months which is pretty darn amazing indeed. This time around I’m going to add that of Italy, New Orleans, Chicago and the Maldives to my list too, so thats just 7 destinations to explore in 4 months… LOL alright then Megan.

  

6. Two goals that were pretty easy to achieve were recreational goals of reading more and going to as many live music shows as humanly possible…DOUBLE TICK!

I’m reading regularly now which is so wonderful, I love getting lost in a good book and have finished 2.5 books in the past 2 months, not bad for me at all.
I’ve read The Farm, an absolutely AWESOME thriller, murder mystery. Finding Audrey, a super easy read about a young girl with mental health issues, a beautiful and insightful read indeed, and I’m currently making my way through Moving, a beautiful story of an 80 year old woman reflecting on her life, it’s totally gripping and I simply cannot work out where the story is going, the perfect way to read a book.

7. Music wise, I’ve not done too bad at all. Since September I’ve been to a fair few gigs such as Hello Operator, Cabbage, White Lies, Father John Misty, The 1975 plus many more. It also REALLY helps that since December last year George and his brother Jimmy opened a music venue and bar which hosts gigs almost every day of the week, meaning it’s so easy for me to watch live music and discover some new unsigned bands on the reg.

 

 
8. Finally I promised to clear out my wardrobe seasonally, and whilst that completely still stands, I am currently drowning in unwanted clothes, shoes and accessories. It’s getting SO totally out of hand and whilst I did purge my wardrobe late last year, it’s come to the time where I must do it again. I’m thinking this time of giving everything to charity rather than selling over on Depop, but I’d really love to do some form of charity fundraiser/clothes sale very soon, do you think that would be of interest to you guys? Would you come? It’s all a work in progress but has very much been something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently so please watch this space.

 

So there we go, the winter bucket list has finished and I don’t think I did all too bad now did I?  The past 8 months have been SO totally awesome with tonnes of personal mini wins and some pretty hefty HUGE wins too. It's been a good few months and I'm excited to see what will happen across the course of this summer.
I appreciate these goals were VERY much achievable, other than the owning a property and travelling the world part, so next week I promise to divulge you with some bigger and tougher goals for summer, see you then?

x M