My Goals for 2020

Happy 2020! I hope you all had a great time celebrating the new year. We spent the new year with my parents, ate Chinese food, talked a lot and watched the fireworks on TV. Classic stay-at-home New Years plans and just what we needed last night.

I have a really good feeling about 2020 and this year, I am setting myself some brand new goals! Looking back to 2019, I achieved two of my most important goals: to buy a new car and consider myself successful. I also made an effort to do more and be more pro-active and for that, I'm proud of myself. I plan to continue being as pro-active as I have been and though I might not have reached all my goals I set myself last year, I do believe I did a good job of making an effort with them. No, I didn't read all my books, but I started reading more and I have read some of them. No, I didn't get there with my body goal, but I've begun to make the effort and that's all that matters.

By setting my goals and sharing them, I'm making myself accountable for the goals I have set and their success. This year, I have one main goal. It's not unrealistic but it will require a change of lifestyle and a lot more effort. On top of that, I have a few little ones that are more realistic and manageable.

In 2020, I want to...

Reach my confident, happy body goal.

My main goal of the year is to finally, finally, finally reach the goal I set myself year after year. Every year I fail but I refuse to let it happen again this year which is why it's my only main goal of the year. The other reason it's my only main goal of the year is that I've achieved quite a few of my main life goals over the last few years and this is one I feel has become really important to me now.

Over the last few years, I've not taken care of myself as much as I should. I don't really exercise or think about what I eat and this year I want to pick up some healthy habits. I want to develop a healthy attitude towards what I eat and I want to make exercise a part of my weekly routines. I have set myself a goal to reach and I've organised how I'm going to get there but it's all about dedication and willpower from now on. I'm using the app Happy Scales to track my progress and the app gives you small manageable milestones to aim for and a target set by yourself to meet each week. It's a really positive way to look at goals and an app I'm excited about using to help me track things. #notsponsored

Be a consistent blogger.

Over the last couple of years, I strayed away from blogging quite a bit down to a few struggles I was facing. I lost touch with it and at one point I genuinely thought I'd give up blogging for good. I was torn with the idea because it's been such a big part of my life and I couldn't imagine not doing it anymore. Towards the end of last year, I decided to come back and having had regained my confidence and finding myself in a happy place, I started blogging more frequently and really enjoying it the way I used to. So much has changed in the blogosphere but I'm always happy to learn what's new and I'm excited to see what blogging will be like for me in 2020.

Blogging for me is just for fun, but I can't lie and say that I don't love the opportunities when they come, because I do! But this year, I want to give my blog a lot more structure so that I can plan and dedicate time to doing something I want to and really like to do. I want to be more consistent and so I've set myself a goal of 2-3 posts per week with my post days being Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. Blogging is a little self-care for me too because otherwise, I spend all my time working and not doing anything that I like for myself.

Hit the blogging stats.

I know... why are you setting yourself statistical goals? I'm not all for the numbers but it does suck when the numbers drop and sometimes it's nice to give yourself a numerical goal to work towards. Having a few numbers in mind that I'd like to reach by the end of the year is more to help me learn a little more about the behind the scenes of blogging which I seem to glide over all the time. I don't really understand it but it's something I really would like to understand and teach myself. I want to know how Pinterest is going to help me drive people to my blog, I want to learn about why DA is so important and I want to learn how to make my posts reach a wider audience. Giving myself statistical goals just means I'll need to teach myself about these things and so it's more of an 'educational' goal. If I reach my stats then I'll be over the moon and might have learnt a thing or two about running a blog properly!

Read 12 books.

Last year, I said I was going to aim to read every book that I had and some and boy, what a ridiculously high bar I set myself. It was completely unreachable for me and so I decided to set myself a smaller target this year. 12 books. One for each month of the year. And if I read anymore? Bonus.

Spend more time with loved ones.

Now that I have flown the nest and been living away from home for over a year, I've realised that I don't spend as much time with my friends and family as I should do. John and I have both decided that we need to spend more time with our families and make more of an effort to see our friends too. I definitely haven't spent enough time with friends over the last year and can count how many times I've seen certain people in one hand. It makes me sad and I want to change that. That's why this year I want to make sure I see more of the people I love.

Be a kinder person.

Last year, I consciously made more of an effort to be a kinder person to the planet. I buy recyclable wrapping paper, I recycle anything I can at home, I donate money to WWF monthly, I buy only cruelty-free cosmetics, I check my shopping for sustainable palm oil, I feed the birds in my garden every couple of days and I tell every cashier and retail worker I come across to have a good day or evening no matter what. These things may be small, but they're little acts of kindness that lead me to be a kinder person to people and the planet. This year, I want to be even kinder and see if there are any other acts of kindness I can add to my daily, weekly or monthly routines. If you have any suggestions, leave them in the comments below!

I'm so motivated to get working on my goals. I love them because they're manageable and possible. 2020 is looking good so far and I can't wait to catch up with you in a few months and let you know how I'm getting on so far.

What goals have you set yourself for 2020?