7 Life Lessons Learnt In 2016

Happy new year everyone, I can't believe 2017 is here, its just blows my mind a little and I feel that 2016 literally has just whizzed past and I haven't even had the time to sit down and process everything that happened, so I thought trying this post up would give me the perfect chance to do so. Last year is definitely a year that I won't be forgetting about, it was life changing and one of the most amazing years of my life. So I thought this post would give me the perfect chance to reflect and share with you the things that I have learnt during the past year. 

Mums the word; 2016 was magical, special and will be a year that I will cherish for the rest of my life. I became a mum for the first time in March and its been a life changing experience and one that has shaped the whole of my year and every year to come as I will never ever stop being a mum. Archie has changed my life for the better and I've learnt so much from him and so much about myself in a short space of time. My boy makes my life complete and when Archie was born my whole world changed; Being his mum has been the best job in the world and I've tried to embrace and cherish every second of it. I always try to explain this to people, but it's difficult and unless you've had a baby you might not understand. What I'm trying to say is, I don't think you can know what love is until you've had a baby. I know that sounds crazy as we all have love in our lives, whether that people family, friends or pets. But this year I've experienced a whole new and different kind of love and it's a love that I can't put into words. If you're a parent you'll know exactly what I mean and will be nodding that theres nothing like the love you have for your own. I just get so overwhelmed when I think about how much I love Archie and for me he's just made my year perfect, he is perfect.

You can become a super human; I've always prided myself on being pretty self motivated and a hard worker, filling my days up with as many things to do as I possibly can, but this year I've learnt that you can become a super human. In fact I think anyone who is a parent is. Every morning I have a list longer than my arms of things to do and most of the time I get it all done. Not only I'm I achieving personal things, but I'm looking after my baby at the same time who is extremely demanding and my day revolves around him. At least 80% of my day is looking after Archie, but I still manage to do nearly everything I did before having him in my days too (apart from exercise). I feel that I deserve a medal or a badge for becoming one of these super humans and I'm pretty proud of everything I've achieved. 

Getting by with little or no sleep; I love my sleep, I love it so much that going day to day without it is a struggle, but in 2016 I probably spent the majority of my time awake. This is through no fault of my own, when you have a baby, you completely have to work around their patterns even if its during the middle of the night (hello 2am club) It's not ideal for me, but it can be done. In the past if I was tired, it was an easy excuse to get out of doing things, but not anymore. Things can get done on no sleep, although its not easy, I've learnt how to push past the tiredness stage. Although I'm a mum, I still have personal goals, dreams and aspirations and I plan on achieving them, not matter how tired I get.

Little life treasures; Life is all about those little treasures and special moments they give you. This year I've learnt all about living in the moment and really treasuring everything for what it is. Everyone told me before I had Archie that he would grow up so fast and time flies and it really does. Every time life gives me one of these special moments, I try to take it all in and lock it in my memory permanently. I really wish I had a Dumbledores pensive as that would be super handy, but instead I've made do with taking lots of pictures and reliving those precious moments in my down time.

Family are my world; I have a very small family and sadly for me I don't have my family on my front door step, my mum and sister live an hour away in one direction and my dad an hour away in the other, my nana is all the way up north. We've all always been close, but this year I've realised just how important family are and there is a closeness thats even stronger since the arrival of Archie and Thomas (my sisters baby who also arrived this year). Before Archie was born it was hard to see one another on a regular basis, but everyone makes so much effort since the boys were born. Since my little bubble came on  the scene I feel such a stronger connection with all my family and they are my world, 2016 wouldn't have been the same without them.

It's ok not to have 'influencer' status; During 2016 I hit a brick wall with my blog on more than one occasion. It's something that I've been doing for four years and sadly its not what it used to be. I just feel that theres so much pressure with a blog these day; the pressure to do well and become an 'influencer' can sometimes get a little too much and zaps the fun out of things. I have struggled to blog this year, purely because I've been adapting and adjusting my life as a mum and my blog is no longer one of my top priorities (even though I love it). There were times I got really down about not having the time to produce the content I envisioned and of course its so disheartening when you see the page views dropping down. Towards the end of last year I realised that I needed to put the sparkle back into my blog, I started blogging for me and I think I lost sight of that. I just want to have fun with it now and not put too much pressure on myself. It's ok not to be an 'influencer' as I blog for me. 

What you feel is what you are; What I mean by this, is that whatever you're feeling inside, whether that be happy, sad, excited etc its whats projected on the outside too and I've learnt that it's really important to take care of myself. Last year I saw my patience being tested, I was sleep deprived and  I was so hormonal thanks to pregnancy. If I didnt tackle these negative feelings I found myself projecting them outwards to people that I'm close to and it was generally having a negative effect on people around me. I learnt that I had to talk and take some time out in the day for myself. Even if it was just taking a bath, or going for a walk, I found it really important to take some me time and think about why I was feeling the way I did and learnt how to do something about it. My quiet time made me think about all the things that are truly important to me, and in my own way I learnt how to work though my feelings. 

I think I've had a pretty memorable year and I've learnt a lot about myself. I can't wait to see what 2017 brings. What life lessons did you learn in 2016? Let me know.