Hello 2019 and happy new year to you all!
I am back here after a bit of a break so I could make most of the time I had with family and friends over the holidays.
I also used that time to look over what 2018 has been. And while I am grateful to the people who helped make parts of it lovely (and better in some cases), I am really glad to say au revoir to it. I am welcoming 2019 with wide open arms, bring it on, let’s see what it is made of!
And like every year, I also looked at how my goals went. As I have mentioned here over the past two years, I am all about goals rather than resolutions. While a resolution to me has a sense of having to be absolutely done or else it is a big fail, a goal that you set feels more reachable. If it is not achieved by the 31st December, it is not the end of the world because it is a work in progress.
To be honest, in terms of not achieving goals by the end of the year, 2018 has been pretty much that for me.
I am back here after a bit of a break so I could make most of the time I had with family and friends over the holidays.
I also used that time to look over what 2018 has been. And while I am grateful to the people who helped make parts of it lovely (and better in some cases), I am really glad to say au revoir to it. I am welcoming 2019 with wide open arms, bring it on, let’s see what it is made of!
And like every year, I also looked at how my goals went. As I have mentioned here over the past two years, I am all about goals rather than resolutions. While a resolution to me has a sense of having to be absolutely done or else it is a big fail, a goal that you set feels more reachable. If it is not achieved by the 31st December, it is not the end of the world because it is a work in progress.
To be honest, in terms of not achieving goals by the end of the year, 2018 has been pretty much that for me.
I had started 2018 with a nice list of goals: not too long, but not too short either, a mix of work, life, creativity and personal things. I had even printed Beth Kirby's Intentional Goal Setting worksheet and had planned it properly (it is more of a 10-year goal project rather than just focussing on the next year and not thinking too far in the future).
Believe me, it was going to be an amazing year the way I had it set.
Flash forward to not even two months in the new year and my focus got all put aside because of something I could not control.
What did I do? I shifted the list of big goals and smaller ones to mid-year instead. And whatever I did not achieve, I pushed it onto a fresh list for 2019. Who said a year had to be exactly from 1st January to 31st December? Maybe sometimes you want to get started on specific goals at another time (for example, I moved all my Intentional Goal Setting worksheet to start mid-July instead).
So, rather than talking in too many details about goals that did not happen in 2018 (they are in progress though as I said), let’s see what did:
- I continued my good habit of grabbing a book and reading every night. This involves turning off data and wifi on my phone so I do not get distracted by the impulse to scroll endlessly my social media feeds (I have been applying this for the past 4 years now and it has been one of the best things I did for myself in terms of mental health).
I would get through a few pages or a small chapter some days or a lot of the book when I could not put it down. Here is a list on Goodreads of what I read in 2018. I already have an ongoing ‘to read’ list for 2019 but I welcome suggestions in the comments (you can probably see via the link the type of books I read).
- I kept going to Pilates at the start of 2018 but because of health issues I had to stop (I tried to persevere but the pain I have been experiencing, not caused by Pilates whatsoever by the way, made it worse every time). To be honest, it really annoyed me because this was something I was looking forward to every week.
I decided not to let it defeat me and found a way to relax my mind instead. To do so, I have been using the Headspace app for the past 6 months. Practising mindfulness for 10 minutes every day has been quite helpful and calming, especially on days when the stress of feeling out of control of my own life was getting to me. I have not tried yoga yet but it might be something to look into for 2019 before I can get back to Pilates.
- I created more content for the blog by sharing travel stories, delicious recipes, every day little things and It’s Saturday! links here and there. This is probably my best achievement of 2018 since I had been wanting to be more present around here for a while.
- I finally went to a workshop for something I had been wanting to learn for a long time: pottery. I was interested with the one at Arran Street East and kept delaying enrolling for the class until a friend mentioned she was going to the October workshop and I was motivated to go too. I had a great time there learning throwing techniques for pottery and I will hopefully tell you a little more about it here soon.
As I wrote earlier in this post, the other goals started mid-year are a work in progress so I will see how 2019 goes and they might get a mention next year. Or not, who knows!
Believe me, it was going to be an amazing year the way I had it set.
Flash forward to not even two months in the new year and my focus got all put aside because of something I could not control.
What did I do? I shifted the list of big goals and smaller ones to mid-year instead. And whatever I did not achieve, I pushed it onto a fresh list for 2019. Who said a year had to be exactly from 1st January to 31st December? Maybe sometimes you want to get started on specific goals at another time (for example, I moved all my Intentional Goal Setting worksheet to start mid-July instead).
So, rather than talking in too many details about goals that did not happen in 2018 (they are in progress though as I said), let’s see what did:
- I continued my good habit of grabbing a book and reading every night. This involves turning off data and wifi on my phone so I do not get distracted by the impulse to scroll endlessly my social media feeds (I have been applying this for the past 4 years now and it has been one of the best things I did for myself in terms of mental health).
I would get through a few pages or a small chapter some days or a lot of the book when I could not put it down. Here is a list on Goodreads of what I read in 2018. I already have an ongoing ‘to read’ list for 2019 but I welcome suggestions in the comments (you can probably see via the link the type of books I read).
- I kept going to Pilates at the start of 2018 but because of health issues I had to stop (I tried to persevere but the pain I have been experiencing, not caused by Pilates whatsoever by the way, made it worse every time). To be honest, it really annoyed me because this was something I was looking forward to every week.
I decided not to let it defeat me and found a way to relax my mind instead. To do so, I have been using the Headspace app for the past 6 months. Practising mindfulness for 10 minutes every day has been quite helpful and calming, especially on days when the stress of feeling out of control of my own life was getting to me. I have not tried yoga yet but it might be something to look into for 2019 before I can get back to Pilates.
- I created more content for the blog by sharing travel stories, delicious recipes, every day little things and It’s Saturday! links here and there. This is probably my best achievement of 2018 since I had been wanting to be more present around here for a while.
- I finally went to a workshop for something I had been wanting to learn for a long time: pottery. I was interested with the one at Arran Street East and kept delaying enrolling for the class until a friend mentioned she was going to the October workshop and I was motivated to go too. I had a great time there learning throwing techniques for pottery and I will hopefully tell you a little more about it here soon.
As I wrote earlier in this post, the other goals started mid-year are a work in progress so I will see how 2019 goes and they might get a mention next year. Or not, who knows!
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What about you?
Do you prefer goals or resolutions as you start the new year?
What goals did you achieve in 2018?
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What about you?
Do you prefer goals or resolutions as you start the new year?
What goals did you achieve in 2018?
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