We have reached that time again where one year comes to a close and we look ahead to how we can make the new year better in some way, setting goals or resolutions to try and conquer in the next 12 months. It is also a great time to reflect on how the past year was for you individually, providing the opportunity to pause and truly think back on everything you have (or perhaps haven’t) achieved that you had hoped to. No matter how ‘successful’ or ‘accomplished’ your 2021 felt, simply making it to the end of the year is something in itself to be proud of. Here, each of us at Red Tiger have decided to revisit the resolutions we set a year ago, and to establish new goals (or not) for 2022.

Steve’s 2021 Objectives Reflections

1. Book week (every week) – poor show – according to my book list I read about 20 – so not even half!
2. Look smart, feel smart – started well but slipped into old scruff habits!
3. Write a book – book is progressing and it will be finished in 2022
4. Do a podcast – not done but plans have started to launch one in 2022
5. Tell (more of) the world about how Red Tiger Coaching can really help individuals achieve their business goals and see that come to fruition with more tangible testimonials on the value we provide
6. Go to a live gig (again) – complete – been to over 10 gigs since September
7. Sit at a bar and chat with friends – done! Many times!
8. Learn how to SUP (that’s Stand Up Paddleboard) – completed – after practice in Lancashire and the Lakes
9. Spend more quality time with my kids – I’d give myself a 6 out of 10 on this – despite my best efforts I’ve realised they are now of an age that they would rather not spend time with me!
10. Feel the warmth of the sun somewhere, preferably on foreign shores – unfortunately not!

Paul’s 2021 Objectives Reflections

1. Spend more quality time with my daughters by finding things that they like to do (and some of which I don’t like to do) – schedule some days even if shopping and lunching with one, learn to draw with my arty daughter and go out for beers with the eldest two. Room for improvement here – I have spent more time with them but feel I need to find more things in common we can do
2. Go to a live gig – hopefully more than 1 – 3x festivals lined up but have my doubts they will go ahead – if they don’t make sure I go to at least one gig before end of year. Smashed this one with Latitude Festival, saw The Charlatans recently, Wolf Alice next week
3. Sit at a bar with the dogs/dog and family/friends – make sure I visit 2x Beer Dens. Smashed this one also – so much that I am trying to have a “drier” January
4. Finish learning to swim so that I am at the level required for triathlon (i.e. able to swim a mile front crawl without stopping). I did the Tri but I am not happy – swim was awful so I need more experience of this
5. Cycle over 100 miles in one day. Sad to say not done – I focused on the ~60 miles needed for the triathlon
6. Relax more – I felt close to burnout towards xmas – make more ME time. I have to say I have done this more and mainly due to training for the tri – just need to keep it up as we are on for a v busy Jan and Feb at least!
7. Work more efficiently rather than longer – find ways to cut corners without losing quality, make sure effective meetings. I must say I haven’t worked ridiculous hours – I do long hours but we hired Chloe to help resource the company better – if we do well in next few months I am sure we will look for an additional headcount
8. Yoga and/or meditate each day. Not done this but re-visiting – I learnt CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) – which I want to keep front of mind so that I can notice when I get stressed or get patterns of worry
9. Look at news/twitter a lot less – I find myself expending too much time and energy looking at news feeds. V poor on this – need to crack it
10. I need to be more strict with work and down-time – switch phone off, check emails less (have say 2 times a day to check emails) don’t constantly think of thing to do, try not to work weekends. 50% there on this – linked to no 9 – I am better during films to switch off phone and not get distracted

Ruth’s 2021 Objectives Reflections

1. New book – published my second book of poems by end of March 2021
2. First book – promote my first book with some giveaways for the new year
3. Run and walk into 2021 – ran less than usual but managed to walk over 700 miles in 2021
4. Get on top of sleep – still not sleeping great but working on it
5. Meditate daily – this helps me so much. Managed to keep to this and will continue.
6. Yoga – managed to do yoga for 150 consecutive days in 2021 and just started a January challenge
7. Read more! Read over 30 books in 2021 and set myself a target to read 50+ this year
8. Self care focus – becoming a pro. Probably my key focus for 2022
9. Focus on my skin – keeping on healing from topical steroid withdrawal after a tough end to 2021
10. Get a mentor – still not found a mentor but would like to find one for 2022

My plans for 2022 are to not really set any objectives. I’ve decided this year New Year’s Resolutions are bollox and I will be just working on letting go, being where I am in the healing journey and not setting any expectations. Having said that there are things that I do that I want to continue doing because they really help me, including reading regularly, yoga, meditations, and self care. My thoughts on this are in my latest blog: https://whatallergy.com/2021/12/why-im-not-writing-any-resolutions/

Chloe’s 2021 Objectives Reflections

1. Do yoga for 30 days in a row – I completed this at the start of the year using Yoga with Kassandra’s 30 Day Morning Yoga Movement challenge on YouTube from 2020, though I have to say I let my yoga practice fall to the side for most of the year
2. Workout more regularly – This was a tale of two halves – I didn’t workout much in the first half of 2021 as I was solidly in ‘university final year head down mode’, but towards the second half of 2021 I really kept at this and am now a regular gym-goer!
3. Read 25 books – I only just managed to complete this goal, with my final book of the year being Last Tang Standing by Lauren Ho (a 5 star read though so it was worth cramming into my 2021 reading)
4. Read 5 non-fiction books – A complete fail here as I only read 1 NF (Reasons To Stay Alive by Matt Haig which I would recommend), though I guess this doesn’t count the many academic journal articles and research papers I read for university, which is partly why I was never in the mood to read NF in my spare time
5. Be active and consistent on my book Instagram account (@readswithchloe) – unfortunately I wasn’t as active on here as I’d liked to be, as I started to lose my motivation for posting especially as I wasn’t reading much some months
6. Graduate with at least a 2:1 – I was underestimating myself with this as I knew deep down I was striving for a First, which I’m pleased to say I did get!
7. Get a job – after a stressful few months post-graduation, I, evidently, now have a job!

Photo by Julia Larson from Pexels