Happy New Year! I’m so excited to be in 2018, last year wasn’t a terrible year personally but it did feel a little bit ‘meh’. I still had a lot to be thankful for but I am looking forward to moving my life forward in new ways in 2018.

I am a big planner / organiser type of person so I spent a good few hours working on my intentions for 2018, if that’s not your thing then I don’t think anyone should feel bad about not having intentions. Likewise I don’t think anyone should feel bad about setting themselves intentions if that helps them.

As I said in this post, I’m not into the whole ‘New Year New You’ crap, but I am channeling New Year Upgraded Me’ instead!

I wanted to share a few of my 2018 intentions to keep myself a little more accountable by announcing them publicly but maybe also to give you a bit of a peek into how my brain works and maybe inspire you too!

Word of the Year

My word for the year is QUEEN. Yep, I am a Leo after all, and as ego filled as that might sound I’ve chosen that word because it brings together feelings of confidence, leadership, self worth, embodiment, self mastery and to me, kindness. I’m really inspired by the Queen cards in the Tarot and that’s what led me to that word.

My Core Desired Feelings

The concept of core desired feelings comes from the fact that whenever we set ourselves a goal, it’s about wanting to feel a certain way when that goal is reached. Identifying your core desired feelings helps you not only choose goals that will help you feel the way you want to feel but also help you see how many different ways you can reach those core desired feelings without becoming fixated on a specific goal.

The words I’ve chosen this year are quite different to last year which I think is a reflection of how much I’d like to change up the pace this year. I’m still pinning these down but at the moment my core desired feelings are: creative, abundant, embodied, strong, boss.

I love connecting into my core desired feelings, check out The Desire Map for more on this.

My intentions

I split my intentions into 4 key areas:

Myself – I’ve not been feeling my best lately and I’m close to hitting that point of being sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. I know I feel my best when I eat well and exercise, but something has really blocked me from making this consistent in 2017. I’m not in a place where I feel good in my body and that needs to change, I’ve felt guilty about wanting to change how I feel but I deserve to feel good in my body.

My intentions are to make my wellbeing my number 1 priority in 2018. That looks like addressing my own blocks when it comes to eating well and exercising, really connecting into how good I feel when I have a solid routine and just doing it!

In addition I’m working on creating my dream wardrobe which is fun too!

Home and money – We moved into our home 2 years ago and have done a lot of work to it since but there’s still a lot to be done. My home environment has a big impact on me so having some intentions around this for 2018 is important to me – I’d like to get our garden tidied up and sorted, a new kitchen floor and some paintwork updates.

On the money side of things I want to work diligently to pay off debt and save more. I’m working on the patterns I have of all or nothing spending and mindless spending and I’d really like to see some process around those behaviours this year.

Adventure – I feel like this was maybe one of the things missing from 2017, I want more adventure in my life! This looks like maybe a trip abroad, more weekend activities like visiting the beach, mountains and forests we have so close by. I’m already booked on a Lakes Hiking Retreat in May too. In addition for me as someone who works from home alone all day, adventure for me is more working outside my home office, from coffee shops, co-working days and more.

My business

Business planning for me is a different kettle of fish from the other areas of my life. I’ve joined a high level mastermind group this year which is very exciting and having a VIP 1-2-1 with my coach has helped me come up with a plan for 2018. Ultimately for me it’s about planning out the main areas of work and what I need to do to make those happen. I’ll probably share more on this in a separate post / video but some of the things I hope to be offering this year include:

• The quarterly Wholehearted Journal in print and digital
• Self study version of the Mindset Makeover Course
• Wholehearted You Mastermind Programme – a 4 month wellbeing intensive
• Wholehearted Business Mastermind Programme – a 4 month business intensive
• Your Business Done – my complete 6 month website, brand and mentoring programme
• Possibly – a book!

Very excited about getting these things out into the world!

What I want 2018 to look like

Finally in my journal I asked myself what I really wanted 2018 to look like, this is what I came up with:

• Eating well
• Working out in different ways and feeling like a badass
• More time outdoors / walking and running
• Working from coffee shops
• Music gigs
• Yoga at home and classes
• Cocktails and gin with my friends all dressed up
• Backyard fires
• European city breaks
• Trips to London
• Beaches and forests
• Quayside Sundays
• Playing with Finley outside
• Listening to records
• More quality time with James
• Reading books and listening to podcasts
• Gorgeous clothes and feeling amazing in them
• Volunteering for charity

I love asking myself this question because it really helped me visualise how I want life to be on a day to day basis (eating well and yoga for example) and the bigger things I might want to plan in (like a city break)

So my intentions aren’t so much a list of goals but a roadmap with lots of different dimensions to help me get to where I want to go. My plan is to review this every couple of weeks and to use the Wholehearted Journal to set specific quarterly and monthly intentions and actions to help make it all a reality.

What are your intentions for 2018? How are you going to make sure they happen?