Since my last post I have turned 27, finished putting together our apartment and spent the majority of summer feeling frustrated and anxious watching the bushfire crisis unfold. Not the most uplifting start to the year or this blog post, but I don't think there's anyone in Australia who hasn't been impacted over the last few months and although I'm incredibly lucky that my own life has been affected very minimally in comparison to many, there was a solid amount of time when things seemed to come to a bit of a standstill. It's hard to get excited about a new year when there are thousands of people only an hour or so away sheltering on beaches and losing their homes, and we're well past the point where ignoring the climate crisis is a feasible course of action, so my anxiety went into overdrive for a little while there. I'm not going to go into any more detail because this post is largely about looking forward, but suffice to say that looking out my inner-city window at a blanket of smoke did not put me in the mood to focus on my goal-setting, so it's been a slow start to 2020.
On a more positive note, in recent weeks I've not only done some solid work on prioritising my mental health, but also recaptured a sense of clarity on my long-term goals that I haven't really had for quite some time. As a result, I'm currently in scheming overdrive. I drew up a basic 5 year plan last week and am now filling in the first lot of action steps on my journey to owning property in London by 2024. I currently do not own property anywhere and have been brexited out of my right to live in the UK, but where there's a will there's a way and on top of my own resounding stubbornness my boyfriend is literally named Will so I'm sure it will work out. I did not say it was a simple plan (love Simple Plan where are they @ it's been a while), but none of us expected me to set up an easy shot. My astrological placements would not allow it.
Furthermore, in a bid to keep ourselves accountable and up our productivity/quest for ultimate domination, Fiona and I have started holding weekly meetings on Mondays wherein we discuss our progress and present new ideas. We have had two so far (three by the time you read this), and I can safely say it is already a genius idea. Like a tiny mastermind where we're the only two invited and there is no mentor, authority or voice of reason present. Just like Tony Robbins would suggest. I'm sure I will write a full post detailing how you can create your own transformative meetings with a friend/colleague/momager once we have nailed the format. There are spreadsheets involved.
Other smaller changes to report are that I've started a daily practice of roughly 15 minutes of writing exercises from a book called 'Songwriting Without Boundaries' and despite my predisposition against being told what to do I am enjoying the short but consistent challenge of having to actually write based on prompts, rather than being driven solely by my own emotions. Speaking of which, I've also started a new notebook expressly for that purpose. A black Leuchtturm notebook full of venting. It is where all my memories and feelings will go in order to be catalogued and eventually regurgitated in the form of one creative project or another, so they can stop taking up highly sought-after real estate in my head. The planets are telling me to deal with my past and I am listening. I've also been using my alphabet stamps to jazz up the entries and if it weren't all deeply, deeply personal information from the absolute pits of my soul it'd make a great flatlay prop.
I'm not 100% sure what blogging will look like for me this year, but I will figure it out as I go. In the near future I'm planning to show you some bits of our apartment, finally post my Rome photos from ninety years ago and maybe even share a lil sneaky peeky of the first draft of my novel. I also want to post more up to date mini adventures, but I'm never in the mood to go on those until the weather is suitably cold and miserable, so expect a roadtrip probably some time in May. Some of my favourite posts to put together have always been the ones wherein I tell you how to live your life, particularly re: productivity and goal setting, so you can expect more of those, but mixed in with me trying to figure out my own life because boy oh boy is there some work to do there. Starting a business is no joke and my sleep pattern is completely reversed. Maybe I should set myself a challenge to sleep like a regular person for a post and the Hawthorne Effect will make it actually work. Stay tuned.
That's all for now, just wanted to pop in to say happy 1/6 way through the new year and break the seal on posts for 2020. I'm doing so much writing in other areas of my life - novel, songs, many different journals - that it sometimes feels like there isn't much left in the ol' word tank to go on here, but like I bet someone says in Brokeback Mountain, a film I have never seen, I can not quit u huns so we'll be fine. I'm off to do some work like a grown up and then force myself to revise some novel scenes I've been procrastinating for a literal entire month, so have a marvellous day/evening/morning/time period of ur choosing and I will see you again SOON. Actually soon. Ariana Grande 'soon means within 10 days' soon. Love u. Leave u. Xoxo.
