Kate Bohdanowicz

Happy New Year!

So, out with the old, in with the new and it’s time to talk about resolutions.

I don’t make resolutions per se. Yes, I bought some scales last night and yes I’ve vowed to lose weight* (I know I can do it: I’ve done it so many times before). But resolutions always make me think you want to change your life and I’m happy as it is. Plus, they serve to inject a daily dollop of misery into an already difficult time of year. That’s why I don’t do ‘Dry January’. The one thing guaranteed to cheer me up during this skint cold month is the occasional glass of red.

All the old chestnuts: healthy eating, running and novel writing (more of which later) are things I try to embed into daily life.

However, I am making a resolution of sorts this year. I want to be less stressed (easier said than done) and take time to smell the roses and appreciate the good things in life.

As the two followers of my blog will know, I have changed my life recently. I left the full-time job, retrained as a teacher, launched a hybrid career of freelance journalist and part-time English teacher. Also, my father died and I met a man with whom I now live. That all happened within the space of 15 months.

All these changes made me much more content (er, excepting the death of my Dad of course). I feel more in control of life, I’ve freed up time to focus on what I enjoy, blah de blah. But I get stressed over little things. Light bulbs go and I have to fix them right there and then. I took a wrong turn on the way back to London at Christmas and find myself stuck in a traffic jam on the M62, seething at the wheel with two pensioners. I could feel my blood pressure rising even though I was in no mad rush to get home.

So, that’s my resolution: to relax (those who know me, please laugh now). I’ll never be laid back, but I want to enjoy life and appreciate the changes I spent so long dreaming about. Work is ticking over. Sure, some months I earn more than others but as long as I can pay the bills and have a meal out with friends every now and again, who cares? I’m not buying any new clothes at the mo as I’ve got a wardrobe full of old clothes I can’t fit into* (hence the weightloss).

So, back to the novel. Remember my blog post a few months back about how I write 500 words a day? Well, pride, fall, whatever but after a while I stopped writing. I mean, I’ve dipped in and out but for some reason I lost my way (I blame the crazed stress of being a new teacher: of course in 2014 stress is a thing of the past).

I didn’t know where it was going and I just stopped. So, now I’m back on – but 500 words a day is too much for me to write every day. I’m setting my limit at 250. Anyone can do 250 right? Let me get back to you in 2015.