My Goals for 2019

So. Light, easy question here: How do you beat the best year of your life? 

No biggie right? 

Ah, 2018. I am genuinely sad to see you go. 

2018 was truly the best year of my life. 

It wasn’t all perfect, it wasn’t free of struggles (I mean I moved to Iraq for goodness sake), but overall, given the massive, life changing events that took place… 2018 is a hard act to follow. 

There was our amazing, beautiful, dream wedding, and all the fun trips and planning that led up to it. There was the life changing task of leaving home for the first time, finally living with my new husband after 3 years of long distance dating. There was buying and putting together our first home, such a huge source of happiness and pride for us.

To cut a long story short, there were a lot of big BIG moments in 2018. The kind of moments that shape your life, that you treasure and remember forever. The kind of big moments that are pivotal, massive milestones, and totally change every thing about, well, every thing. 

So how do you go about topping the year that topped all the other years? 

I think the first thing I’ve had to come to terms with is- you don’t. I can’t. I simply can’t. 2018 was a wonderful year (for many, many other reasons as well that I haven’t even got into above), but maybe it’s time to face the it was one of those years that doesn’t come around often. 

That doesn’t mean 2019 can’t be a wonderful year too, it just doesn’t have to have all those pivotal, big moments. 

So- you don’t. You don’t top it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make a year that’s beautiful all on it’s own merit. 

I love fresh starts (give me a blogger who doesn’t right?!), and so I’m trying to take the turn into the new year as simply that, no comparisons, no pressure, and appreciate it for what it is.

A good old kick up the butt. 

I’ve probably binge watched a good 20 or so YouTube ‘new years goals’ videos at this point (and it’s the first of the month people!). 

I’ve been soaking up all the inspiration I can, even though, in fairness, I’ve had a note on my phone running for the last few weeks with a growing, changing list (we’re up to over 15 right now, and it’s being added to trust me #enthusiasticmuch!). Some are a little private, but most are ones I would love to share. 

So here they are- my little list of goals, hopes, dreams, whatever you want to call them, for 2019. 

Create a ‘Job’ With My Blog 

I know that this is an incredibly ambitious goal. And to be honest, it actually makes me feel a little awful about myself, as though I’m being far too presumptuous and full of myself to assume that I could actually achieve any thing in the realm of making a ‘job’ (I use that term really, really loosely to indicate any kind of financial stream, or any kind of regular work), from my very humble and very run of the mill blog. But still. Time and again I hear bloggers, established bloggers I really admire, pushing new bloggers to plough on and go for that goal, and so I am going to put my all into it and believe that in some small way I can realize this by the end of the year. Even if its just one paid job I’m going to consider that a success and use this goal to push myself as far as I possibly can. 

Start a YouTube Channel 

I am frightened out of my mind at the thought of starting a YouTube channel. To be fair, part of the why I got back into the world of blogging and fell in love with it was how much I love the YouTube channels I follow.  I’ve always wanted to do it, feel like I may actually find that it’s more more than blogging (unlikely but you never know), but taking that first step is so frightening. Plus I’m absolutely convinced no one will ever, and I mean ever, watch me. But whatever, that isn’t the point is it. You have to do it for the sake of doing it. And that’s pretty much what I want to work myself up to doing at some point this year. I’m not putting too much pressure on this, I’m leaving it to stew in my mind till I’m ready, because there’s already a lot on my plate, but I intend to get that first video up before the end of the year, even if it’s just me, my mom and my husband (under duress!) who watch it. 

Travel to Five New Countries

This is a pretty ambitious one (are you seeing a trend here?), but I’m trying to push the boundaries nevertheless, because for the last three years I’ve kept my travel goals modest and luckily, very luckily, always surpassed them. So this year I’m aiming high. I’ve already got a couples trip, with four friends of ours, planned for the summer to Vienna, and a wedding to attend in Belfast this May, so that’s two countries already ticked off. I just need to work on the other three! 

Start Saving Money 

I’m pretty ashamed to admit that I’ve got a home, a husband, and am working my way up towards having a family, and yet my savings habits are quite dire. It’s not that I have no savings, but it’s definitely not something I’ve thought about or worked on half as much as I should. I love a new dress and a new bag as much as the next person, but I really am starting to feel guilty about not saving more of my own personal finances each month. This is the perfect time to put aside some money and I really want to be proud of my self control and savings by the time December rolls around. 

Do a Deep Clean Once a Week 

This sounds odd. This sounds like I never clean. Quite the opposite- I’m pretty obsessive about cleaning! But since I clean every day and can be a really really bad neat freak, I tend to forget to do a proper old deep clean of the entire apartment, and I really want to make sure I do to get that crisp wonderful clean feeling at the start of each week. In Iraq we’ve got a Friday/Saturday weekend and since my husband works on a Saturday, I’ve decided to put it aside as the deep clean day of the week. Do I really need to clean more? No. Do I want to? Yes. 

Exercise Four Times a Week

This isn’t exactly a goal because I kind of already do this, at least when I’m not traveling or nothing pressing is keeping me from keeping this up. But it’s definitely not something I want to risk slacking off on. Keeping physically fit is really important to me, and it makes me feel so much better about myself and so much more disciplined, and discipline in something I value in myself. I don’t have any particular fitness goals for the moment expect maybe just better health and stamina in general, but four solid gym sessions a week, experimenting as I go along, should be sufficient. Anything else will be a bonus.  

Read 75 Books

Alright, I know. I’m crazy. I’ve got some pretty shocked reactions when I’ve announced this one. I definitely love reading but I wouldn’t say I’m an amazing voracious reader, so 75 books is very ambitious for me. I attempted 50 last year and didn’t get there, but I did get very consumed by the wedding and all the traveling, and so I know I had a tough reading year. But I also know in the first three months of 2018 I did manage to read 30 books. Which is a lot for me. Which is a lot in general. So I feel l can do it. And I mean, I’m often alone in our apartment in Iraq- I can definitely do it. It’ll help me from going stir crazy. 

Go For a Walk Every Night 

With four gym sessions a week I know this isn’t totally necessary, but there’s nothing like a bit of fresh air, especially when you live on the 17th floor of a tower, and especially when you work out indoors in the desert. A good brisk walk is great for a good restful nights sleep. And it’s a lovely time to take a few minutes to chat to my husband, just us, one on one, no phones or work messages or Netflix. 

Start Dancing Again 

I have such a fraught relationship with dancing. It used to be my entire life for a long time there, and since giving it up as a regular every day thing, I struggle to find the time and space for it in my life and that makes me feel sad and guilty. Dancing isn’t the easy thing to pursue as an adult when good classes are few and far between, especially in Iraq. But I’m often traveling, I’m often in Dubai where the dance scene is growing, and so I will try my best to bring it into my life as often as I can. 

Work On My Digestive Health 

This is a fun one isn’t it? As someone whose borderline celiac, with ridiculously low iron levels and all the other wonderful absorption issues that come with the condition, I do need to get more serious about my digestive health. I don’t enjoy the second guessing, restriction, and effort that sometimes comes with this but it must be done, and maybe there are ways to make this a little more fun. We have so much access to information and help out there, there’s really no excuse not to take care of our particular health issues anymore. And I can’t find excuses for myself to put this off longer anymore either. Besides great skin is always worth it right?! 

Be A Better Wife, Family Member, and Friend 

This sounds like a really ambiguous goal and it totally is. I don’t usually go for ambiguous goals because how do you measure them? How do you know when you’ve got them down? But I feel like in many ways, 2018 was a year that was a lot about me, what with the wedding and moving and what not. People I know may not agree with me on that, they always tell me I’m doing my job where this is concerned, but I know I could be doing better. I could be reaching out to people more, I could be putting people before me more, and that’s something that I value and want to do. It’s about a balance and I want to work on that balance and rework it a little. I don’t know how I’ll measure this but I feel like when I’m doing a better job, I’ll know I’m doing a better job. 

Make New Friends 

I don’t need new friends. I have wonderful friends. I have wonderful friends and amazing family and amazing in laws. But I also live much of the year in a country where I don’t really know a single soul apart from my husband, and even if that weren’t the case, I do think that each new person you meet opens up new worlds for you, and that’ something you should never abandon. I’ve made some of the best friends of my life by deciding to go out and make an effort to make new friends and follow it through to something new. I jot down this resolution year after year and to be honest, I don’t always put much work into it. The friends I have are enough for me, my husband and family take up a lot of my social space for me, and I know I don’t need this resolution as much as some people do, I’m lucky. But it’s here again because I know it’s good for me and I know what it can lead to. So there you go.

Start a Personal Project: Ready, Steady Novel 

I love personal projects. My blog started as one and still is one despite my first resolution. Not every personal project of course has to make it to job status or anything near that. And I always feel like once I’ve got one up and running and it’s chugging along nicely, I’m always ready for another new challenge. Recently I picked up a super cute book called “Ready Set Novel”. Isn’t it every blogger whose kind of a super girly cliche’s background dream to write a piece of chick lit one day? No, just me? I didn’t think so! So I doubt this will be seen to fruition, and I definitely don’t intend for it to go anywhere, but just to get my brain working and keep me busy I intend to dive into this little book and experiment and see where it takes me.

Prep For A Family 

And then for the big, big one. I love babies. I know I want one sooner rather than later. I also know our living situation what with being in Iraq for the foreseeable future means we have a lot to consider when making this decision, but nevertheless I want to start prepping mentally, financially, and also prepping body for what I hope will come sooner rather than later. I have no idea where to stat with this, but following mommy bloggers and YouTubers has already been a big part of it. It’s never too early to be prepared right?

And there you have it: the goals I’ve got down so far for 2019. I am sure I will add more as the month progresses, and I am sure I will add more as the year progresses, but for now, I’m feeling happy and positive about where this is going, confident I can do my best to see them through.

What are your goals for 2019?