I have always been a huge fan of creating lists. Lists about literally anything. Every day I have a to-do list which is ordered by priority, and I also set myself lists of goals to achieve – in a month, a year or five years. This hyper-organised style of living I’m sure isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I personally love to mark my progress and my achievements and to know that I’m always being my most productive self. At the end of December 2016, whilst others were making New Years resolutions, I decided to compile an Undo List for 2017.
So What is an Undo List?
I got the idea off Pinterest when searching for some Bullet Journal page inspiration. The idea is to recognise your bad behaviour and to make a conscious effort to correct it. It ranges from the silly little things to actual bad habits which should have been kicked long ago. Although my Undo List hasn’t been on my mind everyday, I’ve made some progress to be proud of over the last four months so I thought I would share this fantastic idea with you all. So here it comes, my Undo List – things I want to STOP doing…
Smoking
I’ve smoked since the age of 17 – so five whole years. I would absolutely dread to think what my lungs look like. I’ve always meant to quit but never really ‘got round to it’. In February I bought myself my very first Vape and although I still haven’t completely kicked the habit, smoking one or two cigarettes a week as a treat – that’s such a huge difference to my previous 10 a day and I’m so proud of myself.
Mood swings
Having PCOS (you can read about my condition here and here if you haven’t already) has a horrible effect on my moods. Before I was diagnosed I was angry all the time, about literally nothing. Since being diagnosed my medication took away the anger and left me with tears. Although emotion is normal and mood swings are just a fact of life, mine were getting to the point where I would spend entire days up and down like a yo-yo and it was totally exhausting not being able to predict my mood in the next five minutes. I feel like recently I’ve improved simply by taking a few minutes to try to recognise what I’m actually upset about and trying to dissect it. Is it really worth the tears? No? Move on.
Blaming others
Do you ever catch yourself trying to blame other people for your bad behaviour? This annoys the hell out of me when other people do it, but then I realised that I sometimes do it too! When I noticed this about myself I made a conscious effort to stop it dead in its tracks.
Holding grudges
Life is just too short to care about all the people in the world who have ever wronged you. If it’s not worth confronting them about, it’s not worth holding it all in, poisoning your brain. Just let it go.
Sugar
I mean, I don’t want to give up sugar all together, but do I need a chocolate bar and a lucozade EVERY DAY? Probably not. I’m not actually sure if this one has improved or not to be honest. My sugar cravings come and go – I suppose now I try my best to have something which is a better sugar – like fruit or a smoothie… Madness right?
Comparing myself to others
There are a lot of ways I do this. In blogging, social media, work, my appearance, my finances, my lifestyle. What is the point? We’re all winning at life in one way or another! What I’m slowly learning is that I can only ever me the best me. No one else can do that. So what, I may not have the best Instagram feed in the world? As long as I love it – that’s all that should matter.
Neglecting friendships
I really, really struggle with this. When it comes to my evenings and my weekends I can be a total nightmare to get out of the house. I just love my own company or curling up with Dan and a good movie. I suppose there’s nothing wrong with doing that because it’s what I enjoy, but I need to make sure that my friends feel like I give them enough time too! Whether it be a night on the town or a random text on a Monday morning.
Being lazy
I have definitely improved on this by miles! In my previous job I was totally shattered all the time and didn’t really have a chance to do anything other than eat, work and sleep. Now I’m immersing myself in something I love I have found that I have so much more energy!!! I go to the gym after work twice a week, I’m buying a bike in the next few weeks to travel and as a hobby, I’m taking dance lessons once a week! I feel so much more active and energised!
Wasting money
In January 2017 I started to track my expenditure in my bullet journal and I realised how much money goes on random crap in a month? Just stupid trips to Tesco on my way home picking up junk and … yeah it’s mainly on food. I’m getting better at this but with my surgery last week, I’ve started treating myself again. I need to remind myself to put my blinkers on and only buy what I NEED.
Being so hard on myself
HA! I love that I wrote this after a long list of things to improve. Yeah. I am a really analytical person, I love to analyse other people, their behaviour and my own. Maybe I’m just a bit weird like that. Being the way I am I notice all the flaws about myself, and not only do I notice them, I can be pretty tough on myself until I change my ways. Ironically, making this list has actually helped! I’ve made some huge changes to the way I am/ the way I live my life and it really required no effort at all. I just wrote a list of the things I wanted to change in my bullet journal and reminded myself every now and then. This was so much better than my usual process of dwelling on one little thing until it almost drove me crazy.
So there you have it! I think I’ve done pretty well to achieve so much change in four months, if I do say so myself. I loved creating and working on myself with my Undo List as it was something different! Instead of setting myself a ridiculous unachievable New Year resolution – I made a list of little things to work on, and I’ve made at least a dent in every single one.
Don’t Forget to Pin this Post!
I hope you enjoyed reading my Undo List as much as I enjoyed creating and writing about mine. Have you ever tried to create your own Undo List? Have you ever heard of one before? Can you think of a few things you’d add to yours? Please comment below and let me know what you think!
Thank you so much for reading! Don’t forget to follow me on my other social media accounts, and feel free to comment below or message me for a chat. I’d love to talk to you.
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