New Year, New me, Old cliche

So I've not blogged in forever, sorry about that but my real life got in the way. I used to have two blogs this one which was fun and pretty frivolous and then a more secret one in which I talked about my health problems so I'm going to combine the two. Don't worry I won't go on and on just be a bit more realistic. I'm trying to take a lost of more positive steps this year though and have set myself some goals. So keeping up this blog will be a good way of documenting them.

My goals all stem from my brother who has been setting himself 5 goals for the past two years and they have made a massive positive impact on his life. he literally buzzes with life so following a Christmas spent with him and watching Yes, Man. I have made some myself.

1. Exercise more and be able to run for 30 minutes by year end.
I plan to join the gym for health reasons and think this will a good way to measure it. hopefully I'll hit the goal early.
2. Host a charity event
this is influenced by my mother who every Christmas hosts an evening at home where people come and see her Festive Grotto and donate to St. Kentigerns Hospice, a charity very close to our hearts, which she volunteers for daily. This year sadly due to the snow she didn't make as much as she'd like so i thought I'd help her out.
3. Have a monthly movie night
This is simply because I love going to the movies and watching them and want to make it a more regular thing and more social.
4. Say yes to one thing a week I would normally say no to.
Inspired by Yes Man but not so literally. it could be when asked for a drink to say yes when i want to say no. But also its about living in the now and not putting off things that I say I want to do in the future do them now!
5. Read the top 15 books from the top 100 Telegraph list
I love to read and always say I want to read more so this is one I'm very excited about. I've always meant to join Bethnal Green Library and now I have. Here is the list -

15 The Code of the Woosters by PG Wodehouse

14 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

13 David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

12 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

11 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

10 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

9 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.

8 Disgrace by JM Coetzee.

7 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.

6 In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust

5 Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

4 The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.

3 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

2 Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

1 Middlemarch by George Eliot

So these are my goals and I'm really excited about them. The one that's probably going to be toughest is the gym one. But I really want to do this for the health and positive reasons so I'm hoping that I push on through with this one.

Last year has some pretty big lows in health wise so I am going to really try and focus this year, be more positive, get out more and not let my health rule my life.

Here's to 2011...I mean if Britney can...