My new years resolutions and goals for 2018

The last blogpost of 2017 is going to be a post about my new years resolutions and goals for 2018. I’m also going to reflect on the past year and tell you all the highlights of 2017. This year has been a great year, but also quite a struggle. Though, I think that 2018 is going to be the year a lot is going to change in my life.

Highlights of 2017

To be able to make goals and New Years resolutions for 2018 I feel like I need to review the past year first. When scrolling through Instagram I saw a blogpost from Dear Diary with worksheets to reflect on 2017, make a mission statement and set goals for 2018. I really liked this idea and I’ll use the questions of their review 2017 worksheet in order to review 2017.

What highlight, moment or event (big or small) will you tell your grandchildren about? This is definitely a hard question, because a lot happens in 365 days. Though, the first thing that pops into my mind is the invitation to the Beauty Trade Festival in Utrecht by Emani Makeup and Dr. Spiller. During this event I also got the opportunity to interview Michelle Doan the founder and CEO of Emani Cosmetics, which was an absolute dream!

What’s the biggest life lesson you learned in 2017? I think this has to be the lesson I’ve learned during my whole thesis research and writing process. Which is to express my boundaries and be really clear about what is fair and what isn’t (in my opinion).

What big or small goals did you achieve this year? I completely recovered from my ACL injury and surgery this year. In May 2016 I torn my ACL during gymnastics practice and I had to recover a whole year from my surgery. Right now I’m completely recovered after a whole year of hard practice and a lot of patience.

What new habit did you cultivate? I’d like to talk about a positive habit I’ve cultivated during this year, which is to trust myself and my instinct more. I used to doubt myself a lot and not trust myself this resulted in lots of doubts during daily life decisions. As of right now I feel like I’ve created the habit to think about what I feel/think and not doubt myself first. I hope this makes sense, because I find it hard to explain.

What new things did you discover about yourself? This year I feel like I’ve experienced a lot of growth. I discovered the fact I can achieve something if I really want it (and before thought that I couldn’t achieve it). I also discovered a way to be able to practice gymnastics at my age (25) on quite a high level and not get injured all the time. The last thing I discovered this year was the amazing community of the blogging world. Although I started my blog in November 2016 I really got into blogging during 2017. Through social media I got into contact with the blogging community, which is so lovely positive and helpful!

List the things you did for the very first time in your life. That’s quite a lot actually: I collaborated with a brand, I got invited by a brand for an event, I hit 1k on both Instagram and twitter, I did my very first blogmas this year, I made my very first youtube video, I went to Edinburgh, I wrote my master research thesis and I feel like there’s loads more I did for the first time this year.

Who or what are you most thankful for? 

Write down in a few words how you would describe 2017. Through struggles and learning processes, I can become the person I want to be and accomplish what I want to achieve.

New Years resolutions

I have mixed feelings about New Years resolutions, because I feel like everyone tends to do them just because. Though, this year I feel like my New Years resolutions are habits that I’d like to cultivate during 2018.

I’d like to create a daily routine for myself. Right now in uni I find it very hard to create a steady daily routine, because classes are very random during the day.

Set reasonable goals for myself and enjoy the process. I tend to set goals for myself that are sky high. I know that being ambitious isn’t necessary a bad thing, but being too ambitious can create a lot of unnecessary stress. Therefore I’d like to set reasonable goals (while still being ambitious) and enjoy the process of getting there.

Seeing the positive in things instead of the negative. Another thing I tend to do is be negative or only seeing the negative things. I’d like to see more positive things during the day, which is why I asked the positive journal for Sinterklaas.

Goals for 2018

There are many goals I’d like to set myself. Some are more obvious than others, but I think that a goal is never reached without reaching it first (if you get what I mean). I split the goals up in personal, blogging and university/career goals.

Personal

I want to create more me time. During 2017 there were a lot of moments where I was completely stressed out, which I want to prevent from happening in 2018. One of the things I can do to prevent it is take more me time, where I can rewind and recharge.

I want to play the piano more. I really love playing the piano, which is one way for me to relax. During 2018 I want to take more time to play the piano and teach myself more pieces to play.

Blogging/Youtube

I want to upload a Youtube video once a week and upload a blogpost twice a week in 2018. My ideal upload schedule is going to be Wednesday (blog), Friday (Youtube), Sunday (blog).

I want to take the free online Google Analytics courses they offer. I really want to be able to make more use out of Google Analytics, but as of right now I have no clue how to use it. I’m quite a nosy person and I always love to teach myself new skills. This is one of them.

I want to improve my social media and photography skills. Talking about improving skills… I would really love to improve my photography skills to make my Instagram and Pinterest account more professional. Improving this skill will also help to make my blog to look more professional. Besides that I have experienced that social media is really important to improve blog traffic. That’s why I would like to improve my skills in social media.

I want to revamp my blog website. I love my blog website, but I’d like it to look more clean and minimalistic. So that’s one task on my to do list for 2018.

University/Career

I want to graduate my masters degree. This might sound obvious, but it’s not official until it happens. I hope to graduate in June 2018!

I want to get a job in data analysis. After I graduate the adult life is going to start and I’ll have to apply for jobs. ideally I’d like a data analysis job in the fashion or beauty industry. This is the industry that I have most affinity with and interest in, so that’s why I’d like to work for a beauty or fashion related company.

I want my thesis to be approved and presented. Writing my masters thesis has been one of the biggest struggles I had to overcome in 2017. Right before the Christmas holidays I submitted my first version of my master thesis. I got a lot of useful feedback, but it wasn’t approved yet. I’m going to work on approving it during the second week of Christmas holidays and hope it will be approved when I submit it the second time.

I really liked sharing my review on 2017, new years resolutions and goals for 2018. I’d love to know what you have planned for 2018, so let me know in the comments below! For now I want to wish you a great New Years eve and Happy New Year