2022 Word of the Year
We’ll skip straight past the fact I haven’t written a blog post since my birthday shall we and move right on through to the fact it’s a new year.
I love a new year, I know the cliches are true and the new year has a lot of pressure but I love the idea of a fresh start and a chance to better, a chance to hope, a chance for change.
I always consider the age old resolutions, lose a bit of weight, read before bed instead of going on my phone, eat healthier, run more….but I always stick to it for about a fortnight and give up so for the last few years I’ve chosen instead to focus on a word as a start to the new year.
I’ve had a draft in my blog archives titled ‘ambivalent’ for two years with not a word written on it but I think that just about sums up the pandemic and my mental state doesn’t it. I didn’t do a word last year for obvious reasons and I don’t think any of us held out too much hope when we entered 2021 in lockdown.
This year though, even though in Wales we entered our third pandemic year with restrictions in place, a little sliver of optimism shines through. 2020 was rough, 2021 was probably rougher, and yet I find myself in 2022 with a little bit of hope we’re coming through the other side.
So this year on the 1st January I considered if there was one word that I wanted to look back on the 31st December 2022 and sum it up and I settled immediately on…
P R O G R E S S
The last two years have had me on pause, have had my life on hold, and I know I’m not the only one. My brother said last week ‘who’d have thought your wedding would cause the end of the world’ and although a joke, it was a little like that.
We got married in February 2020 and within 6 weeks were in a lockdown, separated from everyone we hold dear except each other, with money worries and job worries and completely stripped of all normality we knew.
Then last year felt more of a challenge, whilst I was able to see my family more, my work life balance became non existent, we faced a lot of illness, mental and physical challenges in the autumn and more than anything I felt like the world moved on without me.
2021 felt like a strain on every fibre of my being, a long drag, 365 days of feeling vague and as restrictions lifted, along with my vulnerable family I stayed in, continued lockdowns and self enforced isolations, had arguments over what was safe and what wasn’t, was pressured or judged from nearly all angles for my lack of movement and it felt never ending.
I went in a big supermarket for the first time since March 2020 in December 2021. I went back to Cardiff for the first time in October and stressed the whole 2 hours I was there. I didn’t meet a single friend indoors all year, opting instead for countless walks and a shake of the head when asked ‘are we doing hugs?’
In hindsight, I think there was a lot more I could’ve done last year, a lot more braver steps I could have taken and when restrictions allowed and the weather was nice and the rate of infection was low, I regret not taking the chances I had.
So this year, progress is what I want to focus on, in every aspect of my life, and 14 days in, I am already progressing (geddit) with that.
Career
Let’s start with the obvious - I got a new job for 2022 and started on the 4th January with a bang straight after the bank holiday. Ten days in I’m loving it so far and looking forward to getting properly stuck in and so it makes sense that this year will be spent progressing my career and pushing forward. I’m looking forward to progressing by settling in, developing my own CPD, taking charge of new initiatives and programmes and also create a better work life balance for myself. The latter being the most crucial.
Family
We had one of the most stable years for our family in 2021 for the last few years and that’s saying something as it was still rocky at times. This year I want to focus on progressing traditions and family time as we’re hideously close and family really is the be all and end all for us. This year we can hopefully see my husband’s American contingent again and I want to fill 2022 with memories.
Love
The bedrock of everything I do, the constant stability, the never changing, doesn’t cause me any (too much) stress, is my husband and my marriage. 2022 looks to be a big year for us, we’re both turning 30 within 6 months of each other and life is changing. We both have newish jobs, we’re both progressing professionally, we have goals we want to hit and milestones we are naturally heading toward and we thankfully do it together.
Home
I have been planning our home renovation for two years and now we have the finances and the resources to do it, I’ve hit a brick wall. No pun intended. This year I am determined to progress the work we want to do on the house, I am giving myself to the end of January to settle into work and then builders are going to be booked and we will have our new home ready for the big tree in the corner I envisage for Christmas 2022.
Financial
I have never had a financial goal before, I haven’t had the privilege for years and then during the pandemic when my job was threatened I found myself squirrelling every spare penny away. My disposable income became money I didn’t spend, both out of fear and because my busy lifestyle came to a sudden halt and I am proud and privileged to say I now have a decent pot behind me to enable me to to the house work above. Conscious I will be wiping that pot out, and combined with a new salary I have set myself a goal to get to by the end of the year to top myself back up when I’ve been spend happy.
Life
The biggest progress I want to make this year is to take every opportunity that’s thrown my way, in a way that makes me feel safe and confident my family can remain safe, instead of just saying I can’t to everything. As long as restrictions allow us to leave Wales and enter Scotland, we’re rebooking our honeymoon to Skye, I’ve booked a weekend away with my bestie pre birthday, I’m starting to think about celebrating my 30th and I’m having my belated leaving do next week and I am excited to live again.
Self
And finally, most importantly I want to progress myself. I want to create healthier habits for myself to better myself and whilst that does of course include the old cliches of exercising more, eating better, staying off my phone and living more selfishly, I really am determined that by the end of this year I will feel like I progressed positively.
So come at me 2022, be kind and gentle and lets see where we are as the clock strikes midnight on the 31st December.