Hi guys!
Much to my consistent surprise, this year just seems to keep flying on by and we are now well over the halfway mark of 2018!
2018 has been by far the hardest of my degree so far, and I've been dealing with a lot of frustration over not feeling like I know enough or am making enough progress, with a good dose of imposter syndrome thrown in as well. I think a lot of us sometimes focus so much on where we want to be and what we haven't achieved, that we forget to press pause for a second and take some time to realise what we actually have achieved.
In an attempt to remind myself to do just that, I've put together a list of 5 things that I've achieved already this year that I'm quite proud of.
Banishing My Phone Call Fear
I will admit that this is a continual work in progress and I still get palpitations when thinking about the possibility of having to make a phone call. However, I think an important distinction to make is that this fear no longer disables me. This is mostly due to me having no choice in the matter (when you're on a rural placement and the doctor asks you to ring and book an urgent CT for a patient with a head injury, you don't have time to find excuses!) but also down to my active efforts to stop avoiding things I'm scared of. Exposure therapy totally works, and the more times you can do something and have it turn out ok, the more you'll be able to decrease that ingrained fear response of sweaty shaky hands!
Blogging More Consistently
Unfortunately the nature of my degree means that my blog can simply never be my highest priority, except when I have an occasional holiday and attempt to speed-write 50 posts ahead of time! However, I've managed to post at least 2 times every month this year, and although that probably doesn't sound like much at all to anyone else, I'm quite proud that I've managed to stay relatively consistent without any big gaps like those in previous years. That said, I'm just heading into the most crazy part of my year now, so I make no promises that you'll hear from me again until my exams are done in November...
This is another big palpitation-inducing fear that I've managed to knock on the head this year! I had a bit of a bad experience when I tried to sign up for a free trial at my boyfriend's gym last year, as it was a really male dominated space and I felt super intimidated and uncomfortable there. Ever since I've sworn that the gym life is just not for me, but that changed when my friend won a gym subscription for 6 months that she wasn't able to use. She gave it to me, and I had no excuse whatsoever to not go when I was getting it free for 6 months! I'm quite proud that I've managed to conquer my fears in this area so well, being really brave and trying lots of new classes all by myself! A good friend has since joined the same gym and we're often able to go together which is lovely. My free 6 months has run out and I've now purchased my own membership so I'm fully committed now! I really hope that this endeavour continues to go from strength to strength (literally, haha!)
Kept On Track With My Goodreads Goal
Despite my busy-ness, I've been trying hard to make time for reading lately. I set myself a smaller goal of 40 rather than 50 books for this year, as I knew aiming for 50 again just wouldn't be manageable with my uni workload over the next few months. This is a good example of how sensible goal setting can really help- the key is to formulate a goal that is high enough to push yourself, but not so high that you feel discouraged and hopeless. I'm currently 4 books ahead of schedule for achieving my goal, and I have been at least one or two books ahead for most of the year. It's nice to feel like I'm making real progress with something!
Travelled Across The Country Twice On My Own
Despite the multitude of trips I've been on previously with my family and boyfriend, this year has been the first time I've travelled alone within the country and navigated new places! I was pretty proud of how I handled myself when I travelled to Sydney recently and managed to navigate the train systems with no hassles at all...until they knocked out the signalling system on the day I was supposed to fly out and I sat on the tracks in a train that wasn't moving for about an hour and a half, but that's a story for another day! I was still impressed with how calm I stayed in that stressful situation where I was pretty much powerless, and through being assertive I was able to make my plane in time, thank goodness!
So, there's just a few things that I've achieved this year. I hope this reminds you to stop and give yourself a pat on the back for what you've achieved so far this year as well!
I'd love to know what you've achieved this year in the comments!
Kate x
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