2020 has been a crazy year for everyone… and one that no one could ever have predicted. Although it’s not been the greatest year, I do feel quite lucky that I’ve been able to work from home indefinitely and my family and friends are healthy.
Of course there have been a few hiccups along the way in this weird virus journey we have all been on. My sister is a Band 6 Physiotherapist and has been working with COVID patients throughout the pandemic. Unfortunately, she contracted the virus very early on in around March/April time and had to quarantine. Despite being the healthiest, fittest 24 year old I know, COVID has left an impact and she now has an inhaler to assist with her breathing and combat wheezing and shortness of breath… symptoms she has never experienced before COVID. I’m thankful that she’s been able to make a fairly full recovery and I’m proud of everything she has done this year and all the people she has helped. She’s a true hero, as are the whole of the NHS.
Like most people, at the start of 2020 I set myself a list of goals I wanted to achieve in the year and although I’d like to say I smashed them, I definitely haven’t. With some I’ve not been able to due to the complete change in lifestyle and others I just haven’t got around to. Life this year seems to have gone super quickly but at the same time it’s been so slow and I haven’t made as much progress as I’d planned. I’ve definitely taken more time for myself and made some progress in different areas of my life which is always a win.
I shared my goals for 2020 in a blog post last year (you can find it here) but these are summarised below:
1. READ MORE BOOKS
I used to be a bookworm when I was younger but before 2020 it was rare I picked up a book. So one of my goals for 2020 was to read more. I love buying books but hardly ever read much of them.
In 2020 I did continue to buy books… but I did read more than the previous year which I’m happy with. I read a total of 16 books including The Secret, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Everything Is Figureoutable and Essentialism. All of them were non-fiction books and those which make me feel super positive after reading. My goal was 30 books but I’m pleased with how much I improved.
2. BE MORE CONSISTENT POSTING ON MY BLOG
I think I definitely achieved this goal! At the start of last year I bought two notebooks, one for blog post ideas and another to plan posts, content and schedules. I found this really helped me keep on top of my blog and publish more content. I’m hoping to keep this up in 2021.
3. EXERCISE MORE
This is the generic goal that most people have for the New Year… and as expected I started well… but lockdown definitely played a part in me enjoying food and drink a little more than usual. And with working from home, not leaving the house for anything other than shopping for essentials, I can in fact say that my exercise declined…
4. SHOP LESS…
Again, this one started really well. I think by February I had only purchased one pair of jeans (which is much less than a few months before!) but then lockdown happened and I found myself saying hey to the Hermes and Amazon delivery driver on a regular basis.
I also branched out into shopping for home bits. We currently rent this property so we have never purchased decor pieces to make it our own space because we didn’t know how long we would be here for… but lockdown changed that and I found myself checking the ‘New In’ section at The Range, Dunelm and Next Home instead of PLT and Missguided.
5. MINIMALISE THE HOUSE
This was a 50/50 success I think… During lockdown and spending so much time in the house, I started to rearrange things, make space for new things and in the process do a bit of decluttering. So whilst I was shopping a little more, the decluttering was still happening even if it wasn’t having an overall impact on the house.
6. USE MORE MAKEUP/SKINCARE
Yes! I definitely did this. I gave my makeup room a bit of a re-jig at the start of the year and separated everything into categories and began using more of my collection. I created skincare routines for morning and night and learned a lot more about skincare in general over this year.
7. START A YOUTUBE CHANNEL
This was one of those goals I wrote down because I wanted to achieve it… but I never thought I’d actually do it. But in August I finally sat down and filmed my first Youtube video and I loved it! I’m so happy I finally took the plunge and started filming. It did feel super weird sitting on my own talking to a camera at first… but I’ve got used to it now!
8. START A GRATITUDE DIARY
I bought the CGD London 365 Days Gratitude diary at the start of 2020 and planned to write in this everyday and… I didn’t. I filled it in a few times but never actually stuck to this unfortunately!
So it was a bit of a mixed bag for those goals! Now onto 2021… obviously the start of this year is still a tricky time and the world definitely isn’t back to normal yet but nonetheless I’m setting my goals as normal and just seeing how things go.
1. READ EVERYDAY
Since I’ve started reading more over the past year I’ve really enjoyed it and the niche of books I’ve been buying have definitely helped keep my mood positive in these strange times we are living through. I’ve made a list of all the books I have on my bookshelf that I’ve not started yet and there are currently 36 books on the list. Let’s see how many I get through!
2. 10 BLOG POSTS PER MONTH
A continuation of last year’s goal again, regularly posting on my blog however I’d like to post more general posts too instead of just unboxing beauty boxes which seemed to have dominated my content over recent months.
3. EXERCISE DAILY
Even if it’s something small I’m going to make the effort to do something each day to keep myself fit and healthy and try and get back into pre-lockdown shape!
4. GRATITUDE DIARY
The diary is back out and I’m going to make the effort to write in it every single night before bed. I do believe that gratitude opens doors and I want to start reflecting more on what I’m grateful for in my life.
5. USE MY LOA PLANNER FULLY
Mid way through last year I bought the Law of Attraction planner and whilst it was undated I was waiting until 2021 to use it. So the past couple of days I’ve spent completing the beginning pages, reflection on my life goals, where I am in each area of my life, my beliefs and what I need to do to achieve my goals. And I plan to stick to this and complete it every day/week to keep track of my life.
6. INCREASE SOCIAL FOLLOWING
Whilst numbers aren’t the be all and end all of posting on social media, they do have an impact. The numbers are a reflection of my content and the higher they get, the more they confirm that my audience likes my content. It’s the same as Youtube views and analytics… I can use those to determine which videos are liked and what type of videos I should create more of.
And obviously, the part most content creators don’t talk about… the higher the following and engagement, the more brand collaborations I can work on, the more I can share products I love and recommend, and the more content I can post. It’s like a positive cycle where one thing causes a positive outcome with the next, and so on.
So those are my goals for 2021 and hopefully, no matter what state the world is in, I should be able to accomplish them. I purposely didn’t include any travel goals because although I’d love to travel more, that’s not something that’s guaranteed to be on the cards this year. We can all still hope that the world gets back to normal as soon as possible and we can plan some exciting trips to beautiful places.
Have you made any goals for the new year? Let me know in the comments!