A year to change my life, anyone want to join me?

[OneYearLater]

I’m 3 years away from 50 and have had a mental list of things I’ve wanted to change for so long but never really got round to doing anything about them. I’ve read/watched so much self-help stuff but never seem to actually put any of it into practice. I’ve had enough of just bumbling along and doing not much so going to spend the next year putting in as much effort as I can to make things happen.
I’m posting here for accountability but also happy for anyone who wants to join me. I plan to update weekly, if anyone is interested. Below is my list of where I’d like to be in a year:

• Regular strength training, really noticed myself getting weaker as I get older
• Joining a running club and having completed a half marathon
• Fit in a pair of Levi’s that I bought over a decade ago
• Decluttering my house and making it feel more like home. It’s not in a terrible state but we’ve lived here nearly 5 years and done some work but it really needs some extra love and care.
• Start building more of a social circle. I WFH and haven’t put much effort into getting to know too many people where I live and have really felt that in the last few years.
• Find a way of making a second income
• I have 2 DDs and I’d like to find a hobby I can do with each of them
• Improve my relationship with DH, we’re still happy but life has got in the way the last few years and I miss the connection we used to have
• Stop wasting time on rubbish, mostly doom scrolling
• Get refocused at work and get better at my job
• Change my style, it would currently be described as middle aged frump!
• Deep down I’ve never really liked myself and the way I look. I want to at least not hate what I see in the mirror and accept myself for who I am

That’s the list, I’ve started by joining a gym I just need to make myself go. Not sure what’s next but will see what I can improve on each week.

Thanks @hotSunnnyWeather!

This is a 10min one

this is a 20min one

I’ve slowly upped my weights to 7.5kg dumbbell in each hand from 3kg quite quickly

Can I join. I need to write a proper plan over the weekend and aim to start on 1 July.

Morning all, just checking in. I’m sitting outside with a coffee before I head off to the gym. It’s going to be 30 degrees here today so I’m making the most of the cooler morning.

Going to be making some proper plans today, I think trying to tackle the exercise first along with reducing my time on social media.

Im going to try not to look at my phone again today until later, other than my workout plan and putting on some music. Will check in again later or tomorrow.

How is everyone else doing?

This sounds great, I might pinch a few of your ideas. I've been doing a bit of strength training lately and and added more protein to my diet. I'm seeing slow changes but I need to be stricter.
I have a 5yo DD and would love us to have a shared hobby.
I also want to do a big declutter and start redecorating the house. I'm not too bad at the decluttering but need to make more time for it.
I've started running 5km once a week and would like to join a local women's running club, mainly for the social side. There's also a free outdoor yoga class in thr park I want to try.
I also really need to get better at trying new meals for my daughter, she's a fussy eater and we've got stuck in a rut of giving her the same few meals.
I also have a ton of things i want to do with her over the summer holidays but i'll save that for another post. Got to get in the shower now as we're heading to the beach today and got snacks to pack!
Excited to come back later and read about all your plans.

Morning OP and everyone - still thinking about this this morning.

My weekend plans include 4 hours of decluttering and trying to find a class to do in the heat, roll on tomorrow when we have a pleasant 21 degrees forecast.

I've got five boxes of books to take to the charity shop and am planning on dealing with three cupboards today.

Re scrolling time, I am not a huge scroller and try to read proper books when I can but then I have to get rid of them (hence my charity shop trip). I'm thinking of buying a Kobo Elipsa (already have a really old smaller Kobo), just because it is books/pdfs only and I can download library books to read on it. I know I can read the same books from the library on my phone/ipad but it introduces whatsapp, messages, emails etc. and I like my reading time to be interruption free.

Good morning.
I am volunteering at an event today. Last year my big overhaul centred around finding some friends, I was so desperately lonely and was really struggling. A lady put a post on spotted looking for people to do meet up walks with, and I went along, and we are now friends with a group of maybe 4-5 similar and there’s over 600 people in total who have joined!! It definitely leads to other things. It’s amazing how many women were feeing the same and were just too shy or too busy to get to know anyone. But it’s honestly made a huge difference to my life, and this event today is run by the sister of that lady who happens to be someone I worked with years ago!

That’s lovely, good for you.

This morning I’m going to spend an hour or so going through all the finances and look to see if we can save money anywhere.

Also taking the dogs for a long walk.

I will fill up my water bottle and remember to drink it.

I'm already on this journey. Start anywhere and its easier. I hit 50 and realised I was just putting myself second/making myself smaller as a person to just ride out an easy life. No more!

Lost 60lb weight mainly through walking and balanced calorie restrictions
Taken a 3 month unpaid sabbatical to travel - this cemented that indeed my husband is a grumpy bugger and part of the 'problem'
Gained additional professional qualifications in a topic unrelated to my job
Become an international judge on the topic area as an amateur but even so ... international level
Met new people and actively stayed in touch with them
Travelled several times independently
Just lead 3 x trips for paying groups in another country for my extra subjects area - i love sharing my knowledge with others

Now I need to deal with the H issue and face starting again on my own at 53. It'll be tough and different and difficult - the hardest part is H will genuinely be shocked ...

I’m in! I’ll be 45 in October and I’ve felt generally dissatisfied for the last few years - not unhappy, but feeling like life is just passing by instead of being lived, if that makes sense?

I love the idea of twelve changes and tackling one per month. I’ve thought of my first 7 and will spend some time today thinking up the last five. Here they are!

1. Reducing the time I waste on my phone. I can easily waste an hour or two doom scrolling after I wake up on the weekend and wfh days which means despite waking up early I’m being unproductive.
2. Recommit to work and stop coasting
3. Cut down on drinking - I’ve got into a bad habit of 2-3 drinks 3-4 times per week which is far too much to be healthy.
4. Audit my finances and stop wasting so much money - I’d like to start saving an additional 50% per month on top of what I’m currently saving.
5. Address my erratic eating patterns.
6. Find a hobby with youngest daughter - I go to the gym with eldest and that shared interest and time together is lovely and I want to have it with both of them.
7. Train my dog to stop barking when someone arrives home or knocks on the door! Might sound silly but it’s a point of tension with my partner.

Im going to use ChatGPT to help me build out incremental actionable goals for each change - thank you so much for starting this thread!

Great thread.
can I recommend creating a vision board? Gather pictures that represent the things you want to do/become (eg a strong woman lifting weights, a platter of delicious looking vegetables, an attractive looking journal etc) and make a collage and put it up somewhere you’ll see it often. Gives you a gentle psychological nudge in the right direction every day. You can use AI to generate the images (quicker and easier than finding pictures in magazines)

Sounds brilliant, OP. I have been doing similar since October 2024. I have lost 5 stone, started a new hobby (art class), been very consistent with yoga and done quite a bit of decluttering but have more to do. My only comment would be to pick 2 or 3 things to do now and save the rest til later. It’s a lot to achieve in a year.

I've never heard of Spotted so googled and came up with an app that says it's a local dating app that provides a place to socialize and meet new people based on social interactions... sounds interesting! Is it more of a friendship rather than dating focused app from your experience?

I need to join you. I want to get back to a healthy BMI as currently overweight.

I need to find new exercise routines as I badly injured my wrist which has left me unable to do the three things I love most.

I like the sound of 12 things @clareknight81- I’ll have a ponder.

I've thought about this.

I would be so happy if by the end of this year I had:
lost 10lb in weight
got back my exercise mojo
decluttered the house
completed a creative project that is almost finished but I never make time to do the final touches
found a new, active hobby - anything that doesn't involve sitting down
had at least one new good friend

Where/how do you access Ai to generate vision boards? I'd like to give this a go.

Love this!

What brand?

Does it have a motor? I have seen that some are just foot-powered 🤔like, you walk on them and they move, rather than there being a way to make it move and then you walk on it....as you can see, I am a technical expert in these things 😂

I've no idea what brand it is, it doesn't have a logo on it and the person I bought it from said it was an unwanted gift so she didn't know either. It does have a motor, plugs into the wall. It goes upto 6mph which is fast enough for me! I generally use it at 3mph. I spent ages looking on amazon trying to decide did I want one with a handle, one with an incline, one that folds, one that's really quiet. I had one for £150 in my basket, but it felt too expensive to spend that on myself. I got fed up of researching and basically just putting off making a start. So Facebook market place to the rescue! I spent £50 to suck it and see and I'm very happy!

I'm happy to report this is the first time I've been on my phone today. Had a lovely day with family today. I'm trying to decide to work up the motivation to lift some weights this evening. My excuse is that it's too hot and I can start tomorrow when it's cooler. My brain tells me I should stop thinking and just pick up the weight. Ho hum...

I used ChatGPT. I did it on my laptop - just go to ChatGPT.com but I expect you could do it in the app on your phone.
I told it I was creating a vision board, said what sort of images I wanted, tweaked it a few times, and asked it to put it in a format I could save to get printed (though I haven’t actually done that yet!)

I'm trying to think of what I'd like my twelfth goal to be and chatgpt.siggested to push myself out of my comfort zone by doing something once a month to grow my confidence.
I really like the sound of that. Maybe not necessarily going outside my comfort zone but doing something new once a month. Whether that's going to a new place or doing a new thing.
I think I'll make that my twelfth goal.

Stop coasting at work is exactly how to describe my goal. I feel like I'm doing the bare minimum which I don't like at all

Oh, I love that idea @12things - do you mind if I do this as well? Maybe we should all do it 😄

Great thread OP, I'm in.

1. Lose weight and get seriously fit
2. Step up in my career
3. Get really organised
4. Become part of my local community
5. Finish decorating my home