2017 Highlights & Goals


2017 has been both wonderful and terrible. For me, it's been amazing and one of my best years so far. 2017 has been life changing and full of happiness despite all the ridiculous and rubbish things that have happened globally in this year. This year I have learned an awful lot, I have appreciated, I have loved, I have smiled and I have been happy. Genuinely and truly happy.


IN 2017 I...


 Graduated & Got My Dream Job

This year I graduated from the most important year of my life. I finally have all the qualifications I need to do what I said I wanted to do with my life since I was about 9 years old. I'm in the job I always dreamed and imagined I would be doing and I am loving everything about it. Whether it is the most satisfying parts of the job or the most challenging, it's all worth it in the end and I leave work everyday happy. It's a rare feeling to come across for so many and I appreciate how lucky I am to feel like this about the career I'm in. I worked so hard to get here and it was totally worth it! This is what 2017 has been all about for me. This is what 2017 bought me and probably 75% of the reason why it's been so amazing.

Developed Friendships

You might have noticed through my blog and Instagram over the last year that I have developed some of my friendships in a positive way. I have made my bonds with friends stronger and I have met some more amazing people through blogging mostly. I'm going to list a bunch of amazing friends, new and old that I'm so happy I got to spend time with (even if it wasn't enough time or just online) in 2017:
Ana, Tanya, Abi, Leila, Ema, Hannah, Maria and Isobel.

Went To Kos On Holiday

Kos was an amazing holiday for John and I. There was something about it that made it special. We were relaxed and happy, we didn't do much exploring but we spent lots of time on the beach and we truly enjoyed each other's company. We were in an all inclusive hotel with the most amazing and beautiful grounds. It was honestly such an amazing holiday and one that we've added to our top 3 holidays ever. You can read about that holiday here actually.

Spent Time With Family

This year, lots of family came over from Portugal and France. I was so lucky to have spent time with my cousins, aunts and uncles on more than one occasion. The first was in March for my aunt's 50th birthday and the next was in November just because but it was lovely having seen my family over here this year, especially because I didn't manage to get over to Portugal this year. I'm going to try and make the effort to go over there in 2018 because I have new family members to meet and I'd really love to see my grandmothers too.

Didn't Spend Enough Time On My Blog - But Maybe It Was A Good Thing?

Despite all the lovely things that happened this year, one thing that disappoints me is the lack of effort I put in my blog in 2017. My efforts were atrocious and I'm sad about it. So much so that I don't think I have enough outfits posted to create a What Cat Wore Outfits in 2017 post! But I'm starting to wonder if that was a good thing that I didn't blog a lot. Firstly because I think I might have been losing my way a bit and becoming less myself with it. And secondly because I think I got to rekindle my love for blogging again through Blogmas, blogging more like myself and being myself. Through  spending less time on my blog, I think I got to spend time rekindling love for games again and also for crafts. I managed to start a bullet journal and I also read a couple of books I wouldn't have before. All things I didn't do before because I spent most of it blogging or worrying about what to blog about next. It's a strange concept to think of but I truly think that divided my time better this year because I didn't spend all my spare time thinking about just my blog.

It doesn't sound like I did a great deal in 2017 to make it amazing but it's the little things in those highlights that has made it. It truly has been a great year full of positivity and love.


Every year, I set myself some goals for the year ahead and if you read my blog often, you might have read my 2017 goals update back in November and if you've been here a while you might have seen the goals I set myself back at the beginning of the year too. There are lots of goals I did reach but some that I flopped at too. I wanted to look back at them and see how I did with all of them and how many I can honestly tick off.

This year I can tick off my goals to:
Graduate, get my first teaching job, care less, be more social offline.

Graduating and getting my job sat hand in hand this year. I graduated having my job lined up for me months before, and I managed to stay where I trained. I graduated knowing that I was set for September and I couldn't have been happier and felt more successful than the day I graduated. It was truly the most amazing day for me.

Caring less was to do with all the rubbish that came with the previous couple of years. I endured a lot that stressed me out and caused me a lot of anxiety whether it was with work or friendships. It wasn't healthy for me and more so, I cared too much about it all when it really didn't matter. I focused 2017 on caring about the important things in life. The people that do care back, the people that love back, family and the things that will matter still in 1, 2 or 10 years time.

Being more social offline was all about socialising with my blogging friends and new friendships I began to form properly in 2016. I spent a lot of time this year with my best friend Ana, and also her sisters who have become my good friends too. I spent time with some blogger friends at events and now we're planning to spend some time together in 2018 not at events too! I've definitely been more social offline than ever before and this makes me smile a lot.


The ones I didn't tick off were to:
Lose that tummy fat, save, be more social online, reach 1.5k on Bloglovin and write in my One Line A Day journal.

Though I can't say that I achieved these goals, they weren't the most important ones so it doesn't bother me at all. Losing tummy fat is probably the only one I'm annoyed about because it was the only other important one to me. In 2017, I made a little effort to eat better and exercise but I can honestly say not enough to make a difference. I do need to get my head around this goal because it's one I am taking with me to 2018 but I'm thinking about how to re-word it to support my motivation. I honestly don't know how to tackle this one but I think  I should at least give it another go in 2018.

Being social online wasn't a winner for me. I think towards the end of this month I've definitely been more social online but I wouldn't say I've been working Twitter and Instagram hard to gain any more traffic towards my blog or to network and connect with other bloggers. It's a little disappointing but this happened because I was working on being more social offline. It was kind of a win/lose situation but I do want to work on this in 2018 again.

As I mentioned, I have been less focused on my blog than ever before and so it means that I didn't focus on growing my followers. This year I didn't get very far with followers but I'm not upset about it because it isn't all about numbers is it? I think that it was nice to set this, but next year I want to focus more on my content and hope that in turn it reflects through followers and views.

I completely forgot about my One Line A Day journal in 2017 from about April. I got so busy with things that I just forgot. And when I remembered it was way too late to catch up. The problem with this was that it was so hard to put it down to one line and also I'd started to think about a bullet journal too which I would use to do this but on a more creative scale. I'm not bothered about this goal but I do have a 5 year One Line A Day journal just sitting there now half filled. Maybe I can try again in 2018 and use Time Hop and social media memories to fill in the 2017 gaps?

So that is all that happened with goals in 2017 and all the highlights of the year too. What made your year good this year? I love focusing on the good. It really does outweigh the bad when you look back. 2017 has been amazing to me, but I know 2018 is going to be even better.

To all my followers, readers or even if you're new here:
I wish you a Happy New Year and the most amazing 2018.

2 comments

  1. aw it sounds like youve had a really positive year! huge congratulations on the job, thats amazing and so important! :) im hoping to do a line a day throughout 2018 as well actually, think it will be such a lovely thing to look back on!

    wishing you all the best for 2018 lovely!

    katie. xx lacoconoire.com

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    1. Aww, I have had a great year and I just hope 2018 is the same. Thank you on the congrats and good luck on the one line a day! I found it so hard... I don't think I'll be doing it - because I haven't been so far!
      Have an amazing 2018 Katie :)

      xx

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