Dear 2016,

Hi there, 2016! Let’s be friends.

I spent last night in bed, with 2015, and we thought we should all have a little chat about the year ahead. We don’t have an agenda though, we’re just gonna talk, openly about what we’ve learnt together and if we forget anything, we can chat at anytime!

Just because it’s 2016, doesn’t mean that 2015 doesn’t matter anymore. Just like when we get our tomorrow, our yesterday still exists.

Here’s what 2015 and I realised:

Being In Your Thirties Is a Whole New Ball Game

I know I still feel like I’m in my twenties, and enough people tell me I look like it which makes me feel great but having spent 2015 firmly in my thirties I realised its a new chapter. In the Health & Fitness x Blogging x Social Media world, you can make it “BIG” at 17, at 20, at 25 years old. And I am none of those ages.

I come with qualifications, experience and passion. I can’t turn it all off, because it is who I am! It was my career before social media and it still is. I don’t get to go to a 9-5 in a completely unrelated world. THIS, right here what you are reading is my 24/7. So, I’ve already made it big. I’m still here and don’t plan on going anywhere!

My Body Goals

…are not the same as they used to be. I remember a particular holiday photo from when I was around 18yo – in a bikini with abs for days. I don’t aspire to be that girl in the picture… any more. I aspire to learn about my body with each new day I am granted and I aspire to be the best version of myself at any given time. Because…

Comparison Is The Thief Of Joy

…and comparing myself to twenty something years olds will just prevent me from enjoying being a thirty something! So I won’t be comparing my blog to yours, my goals to yours, my progress to yours or my results to yours but I will be your cheerleader if you will be mine?

The Mind Is A Powerful Tool

…and if you think it, you can achieve it. Six months ago, I had no real intention of becoming an entrepreneur. Well, actually, that is kind of a little white lie. I had it in my ten year goals to run my own business and I had it in my five year goals to complete a Masters in Business Administration but I had nothing in my 1-5 year goals to actually make any of this a reality.

Stumbling upon The Princes Trust just happened, and bringing Borrow My // Blender into the real world just happened and sometimes, allowing life to just happen is great! It’s liberating in fact! I have no idea where 2016 will take me but as I posted on Instagram recently, “Uncertainty is key to creativity” (Danielle La Porte)

No Doesn’t Mean A Thing

Getting a no is nether good or bad; when you add meaning to it is when it becomes “something”. You just got to believe that if you get a no, it just wasn’t the right time!

Don’t Waste Your Precious Time

…on things and people that don’t deserve it. Bad sh*t happens. I know. Allow yourself a specific period of time to sulk (we all know it makes us feel good, and yet bad at the same time) then make a conscious decision and effort to keep going.

Don’t beat yourself up if you fall backwards every now and again, just acknowledge it, you’re human, and then keep climbing. I read a really lovely article about aging in The New York Times; when Mr. Mekas was asked if he was an optimist he said:

“I would say, that I am applying the ‘butterfly wing’ theory to my everyday life,” he wrote. “It’s a kind of moral dictum, moral responsibility to keep in mind that whatever I do this second affects what the next second will be”.

“So I try not to do anything negative, which is my best insurance that the world will be better next second, or at least not worse. But of course, my positive action may be undermined by 100 negative actions of others and so it may mean nothing. But I still have to follow that dictum. You can call it optimism.” 

(extract taken from nytimes.com)

So dear 2016, not much will change but that isn’t a bad thing, right?! I’m gonna keep doing what I did with 2015 and hopefully just do it “righter”!!

See you around! 

Elle