2023: A New Year Brings New Challenges and New Adventures

I’ve been in a bit of a rut with my blog the last month or so. I usually have several weeks planned out, or at least a rough idea of what I’m going to write about. However, things seemed to go a bit off course when I got invited on a last minute trip to Antarctica (I will be doing a post on that later this month). A mix of full panic mode and two weeks without stable internet, followed by an incredible but pretty intense family Christmas, meant a lot of things got pushed to the side.

As we move into a new year, I am keen to get back on top of it. I’ve had a lot of pleasure from writing this blog over the last year or so and certainly find it therapeutic when I get into the swing. I’ve also had a lot of feedback from people that have found posts useful, or where they have really resonated with a topic or something I’ve talked about, so thank you for reaching out.

Last Christmas…

This time last year, I was seeing in the New Year on my own down in Cornwall. I’d just come out of Covid isolation on Christmas Eve and knew I didn’t have the time or energy to be able to drive myself back up to my parents in Leeds. Christmas alone wasn’t as bad as I’d first thought it might be, it was just different. I went for a sea swim with a bunch of strangers in the morning, had a Christmas Dinner for one and spent my day eating chocolates, drinking wine and finishing a jigsaw. New Year was very similar, as my friends had either gone away or were working. I think I just had a quiet evening and an early night. If anything, it was the perfect time for reflection and a bit of self love.

Since then, a lot has changed. I made the decision to move back up North and have been trying to figure out what’s next. This Christmas was back to ‘normal’, with the addition of my nephew who has just brought so much joy to my entire family. I felt very lucky to be able to have four generations together for Christmas Day and that we got to spend so much quality time together. Unfortunately I ended up cancelling my new years plans due to being ill, but there’s always next year!

2023 Focus:

I’ve set myself some realistic goals for the year ahead, but my main focuses are cutting down on my social media time, and trying to be more positive. We may only be three days into the year as I’m writing this, but so far both of these are going well. I’ve started turning my phone off around 8pm and spending quality time with my family and reading for at least an hour before going to sleep. I’ve also set limits for different social media apps, though I’ve been nowhere near my limits on any of them. With regards to the positivity side of things, this is something I’d started to work on a lot towards the end of last year. I’d began to see a shift in so many different areas of my life, so wanted to give it even more focus going into this year, I’ve continued my daily journaling and gratitude lists, but also started ‘The Magic‘ – a 28 day gratitude process (I’ll give an update at the end of the month).

Challenges:

Over the last few years, I’ve walked away from a lot. From relationships, people, jobs, situations and for all sorts of reasons. Looking back, I honestly feel that every single one of those decisions was the right one. I am usually a very ‘what if’ person, but over these few years I’ve followed my heart and the ‘what ifs’ seem to have subsided somewhat. It doesn’t mean that looking back or seeing where people are now doesn’t make me emotional, but it’s not with regret or sadness – it’s just odd.

All of these choices have led me to where I am, and to who I am, today. Someone who feels so much joy and freedom, who is surrounded by incredible, like-minded people, who tries to see the positives and enjoys life. If someone had told me a couple of years ago that this is how I’d describe myself, I wouldn’t have believed them.

With a new year, comes new challenges and the first of those is finding a job and somewhere to live. Since moving back up North in September, I have been staying with my parents. I am extremely grateful to them for letting me disrupt their retirement and take back over my childhood bedroom temporarily. It’s given me the space to figure out both where I’m at and what I really want to do next. It’s helped give some clarity over what kind of jobs I want to apply for and meant that I can take the time to wait for the right job, rather than having to accept the first thing that comes along. It’s been a bit chicken and egg with the whole job/house situation, as I know I want to be in the Lakes, but I’m confident things will come together.

Adventures:

I am incredibly lucky to have met some amazing people over the last few years and already have some pretty exciting things happening in 2023 with a bunch of them.

At the end of January I am going to Finland with some of my favourite humans, through a company called Sidetracked Adventures. We’re going to be chasing the Northern Lights, dipping in ice holes, snowshoeing through the forest and driving our own team of Huskies. I have never done anything like this before, but don’t think I’ve ever been so excited for a trip before!

In July, me and my friend Gab are all signed up to take part in the Highlander UK 100km Lake District event, thanks to the Highlander team. This is something I am super excited for and it will definitely push me out of my comfort zone, There are still tickets available, so definitely check it out if you fancy a challenge! I am hoping to do a multi-day hike before July too, but this will depend on my job situation in the coming months.

Due to everything that’s been going on, I had decided to postpone my proposed group hike for January. I will definitely be looking to reschedule this in early Feb. I want to host many more group walks throughout 2023 and give people the opportunity to meet and come together. If you want to keep in the loop about future group hikes, then you can sign up to my mailing list via the form at the bottom of this page.

On reflection, most of these things are both challenges and adventures, they seem to come hand in hand with all aspects of life.

Here’s to 2023 and what an amazing year it’s going to be!

Happy Adventuring x