Curious Pandora: goals

"This Time Next Year..." // Tag

Hey cats!

So the lovely Chloe from Chloe Bee's Life was kind enough to tag me to take part in the 'This Time Next Year' tag and I do love setting myself some goals/getting my priorities organised, so I thought it best to seize the opportunity to do so! You can check out Chloe's post here and keep on reading if you want to find out where I want to be in a years time...

Rules of the tag:

Thank the person who tagged you
Write your goals for next year
Write how you’re going to achieve your goals
Tag at least 5 of your blogger friends to share their goals
Then, if you wish, in 365 days write a post for everyone to see if you have been successful or not

This time next year... I'll have finished college, qualified in what I want to do and be learning new skills to entwine perfectly with my chosen career path

I'll achieve this by... working hard, keeping positive and accepting help off others if I need it

This time next year... I hope to have more of the tattoos & piercings I want

I'll achieve this by... keeping healthy enough to have them, planning my time and saving up some money

This time next year... I'll be fully moved in with my boyfriend and also be able to drive

I'll achieve this by... pushing to carry on going through all the things I've hoarded, hopefully securing a part-time job to earn some money and also by having the confidence to take my driving test

This time next year... I'll have gotten into a healthier eating pattern & lifestyle, learnt more yoga and go to the gym regularly

I'll achieve this by... planning ahead with my meals, setting out a timetable/to-do list in order to keep me on track and try to learn more coping mechanisms for my anxiety in order to go to the gym

This time next year... I'll be blogging regularly and even making videos to fuel my enjoyment of this hobby/passion of mine

I'll achieve this by... once again organising my time, pushing myself to allow time for things I enjoy and creating myself a nice space to work from

I hope you enjoyed my goals, I wanted to include a range of big life goals as well as smaller ones, after all nothing you want to achieve is ever meaningless. I'll tag my blogger buds over on Twitter, so go check my profile out if you want to know who I've tagged! Thanks again to Chloe for tagging me and also to Sarah from Little Reader for creating this tag.

What do you want to have achieved by this time next year? Lets have a natter in the comments!

Stay curious

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*Original header image: DTTSP

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Autumn Goals & Hometown Hunt // Lifestyle

anxiety 16:44

Hey cats!

So here we are in Autumn and the last thing I thought I'd be doing is writing an Autumn themed post or be feeling even remotely excited for Autumn. There is reason for my usual pessimism at this time of year as I suffer from depression & anxiety, so the lack of light makes these much worse, plus my birthday is in December and I hardly relish the thought of being another year older!

Having said that I'm trying more to enjoy each day and give myself things to look forward to, yes it's a basic distraction technique but it's about time I stopped wallowing and started planning! It has to be said that the on/off warm weather has helped me slip into September with ease, and to now be surrounded with Autumnal decor/Halloween tat, well, I'm in heaven. The idea for this post was sparked when Eventbrite got in touch asking if I'd share my favourite Autumn pastimes on here, and knowing that my Dad has used them countless times for attending events, I figured why not get into the 'Fall' spirit!

It's a new season so that means it's time to reaffirm my goals and as my blog can also act as a little to-do list, here are the things I want to achieve this Autumn, as well as a few event picks I hope to get myself to!

Fall Goals

Try a pumpkin spice latte for the first time
Go have a carvery - I do love a roast dinner!
Get back into having driving lessons
Get up-to-date at college
Have a wardrobe clear out before buying Winter clothes
Set more time aside for painting - promote your creativity!
Just order the camera you've been eyeing up
Join a gym & actually go
Take time to learn more about crystals
Stop being scared and go for that reiki training!
Start reading again, even if it's only magazines
Eat at a Caribbean restaurant

Upcoming Events/Places I Want To Check Out

Manchester Museum

Since being a child I've always adored museums of any kind, anywhere with hands-on learning and I was there! This museum is wonderful from the get go, full to the brim with all things dinosaur & Egyptian (always winners for me), and if that wasn't enough it also runs a great selection of events and displays which I love to check out. There was a Charles Darwin exhibition a couple of years back which totally won my heart!

Manchester Art Gallery

This is one of my favourite places to go in and take a breather from the hustle & bustle of the town centre. I find it such a relaxing atmosphere, the café has lovely food and I just think it's nice to soak up some culture once in a while.

Halloween In Manchester

It's no secret that I love Halloween and always have, there's something afoot in Manchester and I'm excited to know what it is!

Cheshire Outdoors

This is located right next to one of my favourite places to go (Blakemere Village) and I've forever been eyeing up all the people having a fantastic time playing mini golf or taking part in the segway course. I'd love to try my hand at some archery and maybe even take the Nature Trail, something I haven't done properly since a Primary School trip!

Cheshire Falconry

This is more of a hope to treat myself or receive this as a birthday/Christmas present, but I would absolutely love to take part in the 'Meet the Birds' experience, I love owls and I'd be so interested in seeing the other birds fly, as well as getting to be a part of it.

The Wonder Inn

This is health & wellness centre with an organic, vegan café that runs tonnes of regular and pop-up events such a music nights, yoga and holistic retreats. I've attended a couple of wonderful events in the past and would love to experience more.

EventBrite Events that I have my eye on:

PLAY Expo Manchester 2016

Manchester Alternative & Burlesque Fair

Photography Workshops

Photography 101

Scrapbooking w/ Paperchase

Down the Mines!

Indy Man Beer Con 2016

You can also help to support local event creation here, there's tonnes of both free and priced events &
workshops to nosey at, as well as blogger specific events!

What are your favourite things to do in Autumn? Let me know in the comments!

Stay curious

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*Just an FYI, I didn't receive anything in exchange for this post, I liked the idea and was happy to incorporate it.

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Blogging Improvements // Lifestyle

accomplished 19:19

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Where I Am Right Now vs Where I Want To Be // Lifestyle

achievements 16:47

Hey cats!

I've let a lot of things drag me down and get the better of me lately so now I feel I need to focus on myself a lot more; knowing that self-care is not selfish, it's necessary for surviving. I wanted to jot down what is significant in my life right now and what I hope to achieve in the not-so-distant future. I realise that these things will take time and it's all about practicing patience/being mindful of my situation.

So this blog post is me sharing a few personal things that may seem predictable/obvious to many, but having a place where they are actually written down is a big help to me in gaining clarification and getting them out of my head into somewhere I can look back and reflect on them. Fingers crossed in a couple of months I can review this and see what I've achieved!

Where I'm At

Jobless & living with my parents
Stuck in limbo with all my belongings, trying to sort through and get rid of as much as possible
Passed my theory test but my anxiety is too bad for me to be able to take my driving test
Out of shape with zero stamina & in very poor health (albeit a lot of this is out of my control)
However, I don't completely hate the way my body looks considering everything
On the road to replacing my products with cruelty-free/organic/vegan alternatives but not wanting to be wasteful with the products I already own
Mentally exhausted & emotionally drained almost constantly
On a college course that I used to enjoy but currently have no passion for & therefore I'm very demotivated/behind on work
Hormones all over the place due to a bad experience with the contraceptive implant
In a strong, happy and consistent relationship
Taking steps to point my life in a different direction whilst keeping my options open

Where I Want To Be

Living with my boyfriend & secure in a part-time job
Having a more minimal amount of 'stuff and things' clogging up my life
Passing my driving test so that it's done and I don't have to retake anything
Maybe joining a gym or keeing up a fitness regime of some kind, eating well and doing what is in my control to improve/maintain my health
Loving the way my body looks
Living a mainly cruelty-free, organic, sustainable & eco-friendly lifestyle that works for me
In a better mental state, either by helping myself out or finding counselling again
Seeking help at college to assist in gaining my passion again & get back on track with work
Getting the implant out and being on contraception that works for me
Still in a strong, happy and consistent relationship that continues to grow as we live together and build our own family/life together
Living each day in the moment, finding balance, being happy and helping others

Are you happy where you are or have you got goals you'd like to achieve?

Stay curious

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The Winds of Change // Lifestyle

adventure 20:59

Hey cats!

This isn't a planned post at all but I felt the overwhelming need to write so I am doing. I don't know if I'm the only one this happens to - I imagine not - but lately I just feel like life is really catching up with me and overnight my priorities, wants and needs from life have all changed.

Now a lot of this has been ongoing since the end of last year but recently I find myself flipping from wanting to run away and be single, living off the land; and then the next minute I want marriage, a house, a family. It's so disorienting and I don't quite know how to find balance. Maybe it's the influence from many around me either going off on adventures or settling down and having children (seriously though, like, EVERYONE is having babies right now!)

On a personal level there's been a huge shift for me where I came to the realisation that I am in fact a hoarder and was getting myself into a rather worse situation than I was already in. I managed to tackle it before the hoarding caused much of a cleanliness issue (dust mainly), however I'm now the opposite end of the scale where the sight of mess and clutter induces a panic attack. I want much less 'stuff', no mess and everywhere tidy; unfortunately this isn't an easy thing to achieve as years of hoarding means there's a lot of things to sort through, throw out and clean, which of course takes time. Knowing that there's so much to tackle also becomes very demotivating and instead of getting things done and making progress, things have remained stagnant despite how much I want to sort my life out.

Naturally there are a lot more contributing factors to my situation, including ongoing issues with my health (hence the lack of posting) which is very frustrating but I'm forced to take things day by day. I plan to talk more about health, well-being and how I've tackled my issues in future posts but for now I just wanted to get this off my chest. If any of you can relate to anything mentioned in this post I'm right there with you. It's hard being a certain age and seeing everyone else settle with their life but feel the one who is still mentally flighty, footloose and fancy free!

Do you think there's such a thing as 'age appropriate' behaviour?

Stay curious