Intentionally Planning your Year with ME/CFS/Long Covid

Hello and welcome to Believe in ME with Rhona Barton.

This podcast is about all things Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) related!

I'm Rhona and I lived with ME for almost 10 years during which time, I was bed-bound and wheelchair-bound, welcome to my Podcast.

Hello and welcome to Believe in ME with Rhona Barton. In this week’s episode, the first for 2023, I’m going to be chatting about intentionally planning your year with ME/CFS and Long Covid.

You can head to www.rhonabarton.co.uk/media for more information about me and my story.

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Ok, let’s jump straight in!

First of all, Welcome to 2023! Happy New Year to you all! I hope you managed to enjoy the transition from 2022 into 2023. I stayed up to hear the Bells at midnight, then headed to bed! I don’t function very well on lack of sleep and I had a family gathering on later in the day, but I do like to ring in the New Year. I usually make it to about quarter past midnight before deciding that sleep is much more inviting than fireworks or TV shows. What about you? Did you manage to see in the New Year? Or were you tucked up, all cosy and warm, in the land of nod?

It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of the festive period and, in having a good time, go a little overboard. I’ve done it myself so if it’s happened to you, don’t feel bad about it. Don’t blame yourself. You’ve been making memories with family and friends and that’s lovely to look back on.

Now that we’re into the New Year, lots of people may be start out with great intentions and may have made New Year Resolutions. I’m not a New Year Resolution person! I don’t believe you have to wait for the New Year to decide to make a change. I don’t believe you need to jump on the bandwagon with the latest trend just because it’s a New Year. I do believe, that if you’d had something in your mind for a while that you’d like to try, then get started and try it regardless of the day or date.

And that’s what this week’s episode is about. It’s about thinking about what we’d like to work towards in 2023 and intentionally planning for it. It’s about planning the year according to what is important to you.

I know it’s easy to be influenced by what others are doing and what is trending but take some time to consider if what they are doing is right for you.

Have you ever been asked what your 5-year plan is? It’s thought that it takes about 5 years to achieve tangible long-term success in anything such as building a career or a sustainable business. Nobody is an overnight success! We just don’t see the years of hard work that goes into overnight successes!

But how do they do it? And how can we do it?

The usual way to approach a plan is to break it down into goals. There are short-term goals, medium term goals and longer-term goals. New Year Resolutions set in our minds, the idea of a year’s worth...