Well, 2016 is over. If you're to believe the mainstream media, it's been the worst year ever, and it's fairly easy to see why. With Britain voting to leave the EU and Donald Trump now President-elect of the United States, many liberal-leaning people will have found this a fairly disasterous 12 months. Even if you're a right wing Euroskeptic, there have been so many celebrity deaths that it has at times felt like a sick joke. That said, there have been many positives too. I'm not a huge sports fan, but even I think TeamGB having their most successful Olympics to date is pretty cool. Globally, carbon emissions have stalled and poverty has fallen. The tiger population has increased for the first time in a century. Hyperbole and drama may sell newspapers, but they're unlikely to reveal the full story.
For me personally, 2016 has been a pretty successful year. I (finally) passed my membership exams, started working at registrar level, graduated from my MSc and moved in with my boyfriend - can't complain at that! Of course, some things haven't gone quite so well. I didn't record my resolutions last year, but no doubt they'll have included weight loss, which hasn't happened to any significant level, and increased exercise, which has happened on occasion but hasn't really been sustained. Nonetheless, on the whole, it's not been a bad year for me.
So, will I be making resolutions this year? It's difficult not to, but it seems silly making the same ones I've made (without much success, obviously), year on year for over a decade. Whilst I'd love to be slimmer and fitter, they're relatively superficial goals. Instead, I'm going to set myself some other challenges:
- I am someone who looks after other people, both in my work as a doctor and at home when I like to feed and generally "mother" my friends and family, however I'm pretty bad at looking after myself. Therefore, I am going to try much harder with self care this year. There are lots of little things I can do, but mostly it's about remembering that I'm actually worthy of being looked after.
- I tend to be quite a negative thinker. I assume the worst in most situations, and almost always assume that I have done the wrong thing, annoyed people and am generally a terrible human. Linked in with my self care resolution, I'm going to try to think more positively, particularly about myself. There are plenty of things I'm probably good at, and believing in myself doesn't make me a dreadful person.
- I compulsively apologise for everything - sometimes I even say sorry when I'm not sure what I'm sorry for. It's silly and to be honest, probably quite annoying that I basically apologise for existing. So, I'm going to stop saying sorry unless it's actually warranted.
As I've stated on many occasions before, I've struggled with my mood for a long time, and I'm hoping that these resolutions will help with that. We live in a world where we are constantly shown how well everyone is doing. One of the lovely things about social media is that we are able the share our friends' good news and happy occasions quickly. Engagements, weddings, graduations, pregnancies, holidays and nights out are all photographed and shared within minutes. It's therefore easy to believe that everyone else is living a perfect life whilst we're barely holding it together. To borrow an excellent quote from a friend's daughter, the problem here is comparing our friends' "highlights" with our own "outtakes". So the next time I scroll through facebook and feel miserable that everyone else is partying, holidaying, succeeding and being perfect, I need to remember that my own profile looks just the same. Anyway, there's nothing wrong with watching Netflix in your onesie with a cup of tea - it just doesn't make a great photo!
Showing posts with label Resolutions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Resolutions. Show all posts
Sunday, 1 January 2017
Saturday, 31 December 2011
End of the year...
So, 2011 is finally drawing to a close. It's been a rather interesting year for
me and so I feel compelled to join in with the corny reflective blog entries,
and then I'll probably continue with the corniness and make some resolutions of
some kind.
2011 didn't start off in any particularly exciting way - my then-bf's uncle died on New Year's Eve and so the first event of any significance in the New Year was a funeral. I suppose that did mean that things really could only improve!
My first placement after the holidays was in general practice. I hadn't really expected to enjoy it much but I had a fantastic time. The staff were all lovely and I've kept in touch with one of the nurses and one of the receptionists. I was also able to do an audit whilst I was there, which was probably pretty good for the CV/job applications. Plus, it was on one of my "favourite" (read "favourite thing to rant about") topics - MMR vaccine uptake.
The rest of the academic year went fairly well, if uneventfully. Fourth year was rather stressful in the sense that, GP aside, we were only on most blocks for a week at a time so by the time we'd worked out who and where everyone/thing on the ward was, it was time to move on. On top of that, as anyone silly enough to have read my blog will know, in June we had our final written exams. From about March time I spent most evenings and weekends studying. Rather sad, but it paid off when I passed. A little scary to know that the next written exams I take will probably be my membership exams - eek!
Over the summer I had two wonderful weeks away volunteering. I won't go into details as I've already blogged about them, but they were lovely experiences and even now, months later, I still smile when thinking about them. I very much hope that I can squeeze in at least one this year.
This academic year has been rather up and down. After something of a dull start (professional practise block - yawn!( I had a wonderful experience on my elective in New Zealand. As well as enjoying the travel and change of scenery, my placement was fantastic and only reinforced my absolute love of paediatrics. After getting back to the UK, my gastroenterology placement was slightly less to my liking. However, I do feel like I came on a lot in terms of my knowledge and clinical skills, so overall I'd say it was successful.
Uni aside, I have of course got my job for once I've graduated. Rather exciting and terrifying at the same time. I'm still waiting to find out the exact details of my contract but it's nice to know that, providing I pass my OSCEs in June, I will have a job to start. After 7 (!!!) years of studying I'm rather looking forward to joining the real world.
Ignoring a lot of trivial and banal things which really don't matter, I'd say overall 2011 has been a pretty successful year for me - I hope 2012 continues in a similar way!
Now, resolution time! These are largely unrelated to work so don't really belong in this blog, but I thought it would be good for me to write them down somewhere so that I felt accountable!
- Get fit again. This is a major one for me because I know when I'm fitter and exercising more regularly my mood, energy and sleep are all much better. I was going to the gym at least 3 times a week until exams started taking up too much time. Then with elective and a placement out of town I haven't really had the chance.
- Start eating properly again. This is another "again" as it's a good habit I'd managed to get into which has lapsed recently. Ideally I'd like to lose weight but my primary goal is to eat properly and stop using food as an emotional crutch.
- Sort out my finances. Rather dull but as I'm now in my 7th year of student life, I am rather skint. This isn't an immediate thing but I'm hoping that if I'm sensible now and start working (hopefully!) in August that by the end of the year I will at least have cleared my credit card and overdraft...
- Attempt to be more positive. This is something I say every year and I'm not very good at it (look what I did there, self deprecation in action!) so I'll have to keep on trying.
Right, those are my little aims for the next year. And to graduate and become a doctor of course!
Happy New Year everyone! xxx
2011 didn't start off in any particularly exciting way - my then-bf's uncle died on New Year's Eve and so the first event of any significance in the New Year was a funeral. I suppose that did mean that things really could only improve!
My first placement after the holidays was in general practice. I hadn't really expected to enjoy it much but I had a fantastic time. The staff were all lovely and I've kept in touch with one of the nurses and one of the receptionists. I was also able to do an audit whilst I was there, which was probably pretty good for the CV/job applications. Plus, it was on one of my "favourite" (read "favourite thing to rant about") topics - MMR vaccine uptake.
The rest of the academic year went fairly well, if uneventfully. Fourth year was rather stressful in the sense that, GP aside, we were only on most blocks for a week at a time so by the time we'd worked out who and where everyone/thing on the ward was, it was time to move on. On top of that, as anyone silly enough to have read my blog will know, in June we had our final written exams. From about March time I spent most evenings and weekends studying. Rather sad, but it paid off when I passed. A little scary to know that the next written exams I take will probably be my membership exams - eek!
Over the summer I had two wonderful weeks away volunteering. I won't go into details as I've already blogged about them, but they were lovely experiences and even now, months later, I still smile when thinking about them. I very much hope that I can squeeze in at least one this year.
This academic year has been rather up and down. After something of a dull start (professional practise block - yawn!( I had a wonderful experience on my elective in New Zealand. As well as enjoying the travel and change of scenery, my placement was fantastic and only reinforced my absolute love of paediatrics. After getting back to the UK, my gastroenterology placement was slightly less to my liking. However, I do feel like I came on a lot in terms of my knowledge and clinical skills, so overall I'd say it was successful.
Uni aside, I have of course got my job for once I've graduated. Rather exciting and terrifying at the same time. I'm still waiting to find out the exact details of my contract but it's nice to know that, providing I pass my OSCEs in June, I will have a job to start. After 7 (!!!) years of studying I'm rather looking forward to joining the real world.
Ignoring a lot of trivial and banal things which really don't matter, I'd say overall 2011 has been a pretty successful year for me - I hope 2012 continues in a similar way!
Now, resolution time! These are largely unrelated to work so don't really belong in this blog, but I thought it would be good for me to write them down somewhere so that I felt accountable!
- Get fit again. This is a major one for me because I know when I'm fitter and exercising more regularly my mood, energy and sleep are all much better. I was going to the gym at least 3 times a week until exams started taking up too much time. Then with elective and a placement out of town I haven't really had the chance.
- Start eating properly again. This is another "again" as it's a good habit I'd managed to get into which has lapsed recently. Ideally I'd like to lose weight but my primary goal is to eat properly and stop using food as an emotional crutch.
- Sort out my finances. Rather dull but as I'm now in my 7th year of student life, I am rather skint. This isn't an immediate thing but I'm hoping that if I'm sensible now and start working (hopefully!) in August that by the end of the year I will at least have cleared my credit card and overdraft...
- Attempt to be more positive. This is something I say every year and I'm not very good at it (look what I did there, self deprecation in action!) so I'll have to keep on trying.
Right, those are my little aims for the next year. And to graduate and become a doctor of course!
Happy New Year everyone! xxx
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