Looking Back On My 2018 Goals.

Where has this year gone? It’s crazy to think we’re nearly down another year! I know for a fact there are things that I wanted to happen, that haven’t. But I also know things that I didn’t think would happen, did. So I thought it would be interesting to look back on the goals I set myself at the beginning of the year and see where I am in achieving them before I set next year’s.

One thing I’ve learnt this year, is to be a lot more gentle with myself and flexible with the things I want from life. Sometimes the bold goals are not what are best for you, sometimes your goal can be no bigger than simply making it through the year, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that!

Write More 
I wanted to write more this year, and I don’t think I’ve been unsuccessful, at least not entirely. I will admit that I haven’t in effect written MORE than I did last year, but I have been writing. I’ve written draft blog posts, planned chapters in my novel, but I haven’t put a lot of it into practice. Blog stuff hasn’t been posted, and I haven’t finished a single chapter in my book. But I have started. And that’s more than last year. I also think I’ve had a bit more of a need to write, especially towards the end of the year. I’m hoping this continues into next year and that I can slowly chip away at bigger projects like my novel and my poetry collection.

Be More Present 
I do think this is something I have managed to really achieve. I wanted to focus on spending less time this year on worrying and in turn being more in the moment. While I have still done my usual worrying and hiding away when I’m having a tough moment, I have had a fair few stress free moments which led to me having the absolute best time. For instance, travelling to Vancouver on my own, sharing a hotel with someone I’d never met before and walking around a new city was stuff that should have stressed me out and cause me no end of problems. But the reality is that I had the absolute best time. There were of course a few moments of ‘oh my god, what is happening, what am I doing?’ But on the whole, the feeling of being independent yet surrounded by friends, taking in a beautiful city and spending my time doing things that made me happy, meant that I was pretty much anxiety and stress free for a whole week. I’m hoping that making more plans like this next year, and taking control of the things I want to do, will mean this continues.

Get a Foot In
I think this is one of the only things I wanted to achieve that I haven’t in some capacity, but that’s 100% my fault and I know it. I haven’t really put myself out there. I’ve not been applying for anything, talking to people, writing enough to talk about. It’s still something that I really want to achieve, because being somewhere in the publishing industry is where I believe I belong.

Improve my Photography 
I am still not proclaiming to have the best photography skills in any sense of the word. But I do think there’s an improvement and in actual fact I’ve been enjoying it a lot more. Not only am I taking more time and patience with my blog photos but I’ve really enjoyed taking pictures at the convention I went to in Vancouver as well as just snapping photos of places like Stanley Park. I think a lot of it came from getting a new camera at the beginning of the year and then I got a new lens just before Vancouver which is primarily what I used the whole time I was there. I’m hoping that it continues through to next year because it really has been something I’ve enjoyed this year.

Read More
I wanted to read 50 books this year. Which was, realistically, never going to happen. However, I have read a fair few, which makes me very happy! I’ve already made plans to partake in the Popsugar Reading challenge next year, I’ve planned the books I’ll be reading and I’m actually excited to try and do them all! My realistic goal is to try and read more than I did this year, which I think is a little more doable.

What about you, are there any goals you set for this year you haven’t achieved? Or did you tick off all the goals on your list? Or let me know in the comments if you feel you’ve just been semi-successful like me!