Setting Intentions - The Plan 2023
Once Upon a Time…. I used to write enormous lengthy goal lists on January 1st every year. I mean 15-20 goals for the year type enormous. And every year, undoubtedly, by the time we hit February 1st… I had de-railed the entire list.
I can only assume I used to goal-set this way because it’s what you were taught to do in school, and it somewhat was expected of everyone? But along the meandering way of adult-life, I’ve realised that it’s not productive, it only leads to inevitable disappointment and self-shame when you don’t achieve anything, and the cycle perpetuates year after year.
Around New Year’s about a month after my father died (Jan 2019), I decided to make a change. I constantly had his voice in my head saying “Just get on with it” because I had (have?) a nasty habit of procrastinating even the tiniest of tasks for absolutely no reason whatsoever, and he would always tell me to just get the job done and stop dithering about it. So that year, I tried something new. Instead of writing an enormous list of unachievable goals, I wrote down a single, intentional phrase to guide my year instead.
That year I wrote “Just Do It” on a piece of paper, and stuck it on my work pinboard. Every time I started faffing, I looked up, kicked myself in the arse, and just got on with it. Did it mean I achieved specific goals? No. But did I achieve a lot more that year by not wasting time on inane details that didn’t matter? Yes.
From that year on, I have instead always picked a word or phrase that will define the following year - a mantra if you will - that guides and focuses my energy into something productive. Last year, having just given birth to our 3rd child, I failed to figure out that phrase and as I look back, my year was indeed misguided and I felt very unintentional about everything I did. I achieved precisely zero of what I set out to do in 2022, which although very disappointing, has at least helped me to determine my word / phrase for 2023. And that is……
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M A N I F E S T
~ M A N I F E S T
After watching a motivational video or 12, I noticed I had been stuck in a negative rut. Ironically (and to many people’s surprise), I’m a rather internally optimistic person; I always hope for the best in situations and people. But I’m also practical and cynical, assuming plan B is probably what will happen, which is at distinct odds with my optimism and as such most think I’m actually pretty pessimistic. It’s also not uncommon for me to find myself in a rut as someone who is prone to bouts of depression too, and I believe I may have even had some undiagnosed post-partum depression as well from George that led to my spiral last year. But I digress, my point is that I was stuck in an endless downward whirl of nothing. There weren’t really highs or lows, just not a lot of anything. And so this year, I’m aiming to make my dreams happen through sheer power of will and positive thinking, MANIFESTing that destiny into existence.
By seeing the word MANIFEST each day, I can remind myself that getting stuck in the nitty gritty or thinking about what I haven’t managed to accomplish is not going to help me. I have to keep looking forward, making things transpire, setting actions in motion that get me to where I need to be, and expecting that I am going to succeed rather than worrying about how I will fail. So this year….
I WILL land a big fish design client and establish my style & design business @brooksandstudio
I WILL finish a design illustration / painting once a week, most of which I hope to sell
I WILL grow my blog presence by being consistent with regular posts and helpful information
I WILL establish what I stand for on our house Instagram account and pick a bloody niche to concentrate on
and
I WILL finish this damn kitchen. Ha!! Or rather, more accurately, I WILL stay accountable to our house project list (below), finish projects that have been started, and ensure I prioritize new projects that desperately need to be done
So there we have it, my intention and my accountability statements. The blog post I’ll be referring back to (personally) each month to see where I am, and the word I’ll stick on my pinboard to remind myself that if I don’t MANIFEST it, and drive myself towards these dreams, it will end in nothingness again.
For the house, I am aiming to MANIFEST the below projects (to the extent that one can do that), and be realistic about the time they will take. I especially want to keep in mind what we can achieve while maintaining a BALANCE of family life. Balance is more of our family phrase for 2023. I mentioned on Instagram in this reel about 2022, that while I achieved very little, we did in fact have a year full of memories, experiences and fun with our children. I tried to soak up all the moments of my third child being a baby and I certainly did that. Childhood always goes by in the blink of an eye, and its important to both of us that we ensure the children always come first. That their memories aren’t Mummy and Daddy saying “not right now, I have to build this” or “just help me clean that” or “let’s change these things” but involving them where we can in a non-chore like way, encouraging their creativity and imagination, or otherwise getting outside for hikes, playtime and new adventures.
Nevertheless, here is what we are setting out to do this year in summary - click on the + by each month to see a little description of the projects we intend to tackle each month. Spotted between here is also me trying to catch up on a very long overdue blog post list including lots of DIYs from the Kitchen, Boot Room, Kid’s Rooms etc.
2023 Project List in a Nutshell
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Repainting all cabinet doors, installing pantry doors, reorganizing & labelling pantry, creating coffee area, structural engineer for fridge space/wall, fixing dishwasher space, ordering roman blind fabric and all other minor elements!
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Part 1 of a big bedroom renovation, including wall repair, painting, upholstery projects, possible dresser builds, DIY roman blinds, structural engineer and beginning plans for the bathroom / closet suite
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Finishing a whole bunch of projects we started last year. The potting shed won’t get a roof, but we will still pave and put up the fencing. We’ll finish building the kid’s outdoor mud kitchen and some minor updates to their outdoor play-spaces like sunshades & chalkboards. And we’ll hopefully get parts of our formal garden on the go too.
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Recreation of our front pathway, adding a second pathway, rebuilding the porch and fixing the pond. Will get all our beds planted up and ready for spring veggies /flowers too!
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Our kids’ bedroom was originally just for our daughter, and now it is for both our daughter and eldest son. We want to make & upholster beds, and adjust their living space to include more storage. TBD on how big this project might get and whether we tackle it ourselves or hire it out along with the bathroom renovation.
We also plan to get the dining room painted, maybe paneled and wallpapered too. But we’ll be working with an architect soon to plan our dining room door additions.
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We fully expect June to be non-stop trips to the grandparent’s pool, so it’ll be light on projects and we’ll aim to perhaps plant some trees, seed some new grass, and fix some planting beds. If time is on our side, we might build some cedar arbors for our formal garden area behind the house.
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A big kahuna - we only have one functioning full bathroom currently, and really need a second one. Our guest suite requires a lot of demo work removing 3 inches of concrete, walls of tile and a cast iron tub (which we hope to reuse versus break). This demo is going to be back-breaking, arduous work and we expect it to take forever.
On top of that, the bedroom needs some very old & smoke stained wallpaper and liner removed, wall plaster repaired, and possibly some changes to the closet too.
While we have the wallpaper removal tools out, I’ll probably also set to work getting our Harry Pottery cupboard de-lined and walls repaired. A small but annoying project that will remove yet more smoke smell.
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Once all the demo is done, we’ll be prepping & waterproofing the guest bath for a zero-entry grandparent friendly shower, and a new vanity area. While it’s a tiny space, this will be our first time doing a shower ourselves so we’re leaving plenty of room for learning & error!
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Taking the full prepped guest bath and making it pretty, functioning and usable! We’ve got Cotswold delft tile, limestone, some beautiful kingfisher blue tile and live edge wood in mind at the moment.
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Once we’ve got the bathroom done, we’ll focus on the guest bedroom itself. What is currently a small bedroom with Stu’s desk shoved in one corner will transform to more of an office for us both, with space for a Peleton bike, storage for my many design samples, and throwing the bed up on the wall using a murphy contraption to free up space. Panelling, wallpaper, roman blinds & curtains are all part of the grand plan, but at minimum we want to get the building work done this month.
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For 3 years running I’ve missed the target on getting some Christmas projects done, so planning it early this year. I’ll be hand-painting (& selling) Christmas cards and ornaments, taking commissions for Christmas door / portraits, and also finally properly making my kids’ advent calendar. We might have some big external Christmas ideas too involving old skis and giving the Halloween witches some more festive outfits for the holiday season.
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Just like June will focus on our kids, so will December. But we’ll take you along for the ride and share any mini projects that come with it. We do aim to take our internal & external holiday decor up a notch this year though and I’m sure there will be a DIY Christmas gift we make for friends & family too.
And that’s it - the year plan. Question is, will we get there? Will life seem a bit easier this year with the two little kids and a toddler instead of a baby? Will I manage to MANIFEST all the things??? Time will tell. But thanks for joining us on the journey to finding out. One of my favourite things about sharing everything on Instagram definitely has to be the people and the connections I’ve made along the way - that more than anything spurs me to keep sharing and plugging away.
Let us know if you have any big plans for this year in the comments, and we can hold each other accountable too!
And they lived happily ever after…in year 3 of owning a large old house with a never-ending to-do list!
Love & Cuddles,
Lex
Typically at the beginning of each year, I try to pick a word that I’ll cling to with false hope for precisely two months before abandoning with no reckoning as usual. But for 2025, I didn’t even do that much. No word was selected, and the year that followed has been nothing short of a disaster - personally, mentally, parent-wise, work-wise, house-wise. Not a single thing went to plan - and while that’s fairly typical for this madwoman - this year proved to be a special breed of shit-show unto its own and I have ended it in much the same way I started it - lost, confused and wondering who the hell I am in all senses.....