New Blog Name For A New Year

As 2016 draws to an end, most of us start to look back and reflect on the year we had. We also take this time to think about what we want to achieve in the upcoming year.

In my last blog post I spoke about my year and how it really wasn't a bad year at all, despite so many people having a terrible 2016. So, how do I make sure 2017 is an even better year than 2016?

There's always room for improvement and it takes some time and HONEST reflection to work out what areas in your life you can improve on. 

Being true to yourself is so important, only you know how much effort you have put into something or how many sacrifices you have made. 

It's natural to be protective over your accomplishments and defend your character to the outside world. This often leads to us making excuses as to we didn't do x and y, for example "I didn't go to gym as much as I wanted this year because I was too busy at work". We use these excuses to protect ourselves and that's fine because at the end of the day no one should be judging your decisions except you. The problem is, once we use these excuses we start to believe them and our 'truth' is lost. 

You don't need to justify your decisions to anyone but yourself and now is the time to do that.

These are the areas upon which I did some reflection:

1. Eating habits: My diet consists of eating low carb meals (as I am diabetic) with high fat elements (as I struggle to put on weight). Whilst my home cooking has stuck to this way of eating, my dining out habits have not. My 2017 goal is to be more strict and have better control of my glucose levels.
2. Exercise: I finally started some formal exercise this year and have been going to bio-kinetics twice a week which has helped me build some general strength. Next year I'd like to add in a bit more informal exercise and just be a bit more active on the weekends. 
3. Work: 2016 was a great year for me work wise and I am so proud of what I have achieved. That said, towards the end of the year, like most, I started to lose my passion for what I do. In 2017 I'm going to make an effort to 'find the passion' again which means starting new projects and stretching myself creatively.
4. Love: I've always said that you need to be happy in your own life before you can share it with someone else, and when you do it should add to your life without taking anything away from it. When I met Travis, I was a very happy person and he has only added more happiness to my life. We both still do the things that we love and allow each other the freedom to do whatever it is we need to do. We work so well together and in a world where there is so much stress, it's great to know that this is an area that gives me absolutely no admin. 
5. Friends and family: With my parents in Zim and no family except my brother in Joburg it's hard to improve this part of my life. My brother lives down the road from me and I have spent a lot of time with him this year which has been great. I haven't spent enough time with friends this year, despite being busy with something every weekend! Next year I'll make sure I get to see all my friends more and make an effort to organise more things with them. 
6. Home: We've worked hard on our little home and spent quite a bit of money on it, even though we are only renting. It's so important to love the home you're in and I can honestly say that I love our home so much. A home is a living thing so there is always work to be done but we're 90% there!
7. Giving Back: Looking after yourself and achieving your goals is important but there is nothing more rewarding than giving back. This year myself and 3 friends started Love Life : Gift Life which is an NPO dedicated to raising awareness of organ donation in South Africa. This year we had to get all the ground work done, registering as an NPO, bank accounts etc which takes so much time but needs to be done. We have BIG plans for 2017 and I can't wait to continue to make a difference.
8. Me time / hobbies: Making sure you set aside some time for YOU is something we all put last and this year I have been guilty of that. I haven't blogged or done any 'me projects' and in 2017 I intend to change that. This brings me to the name change of my blog... I decided that my blog needs a mini 'facelift' to inspire me to get blogging again, Along with a few minor changes I also decided to change Deer Delights to Deer Diary, and focus my posts on my thoughts rather than 'delights' which is where my blog seemed to be heading. 

I'm also going to be going a lot more GREEN which will give me something to write about, so look out for those posts :)

How did you 'score' on the different aspects on your life and what areas need the most work?