Wednesday 10 January 2018

Goals For 2018

Can you believe that it is now 2018? Christmas and the new year seemed to pass by in flash! Like most people I always get a bit reflective at New Year, I always think of things I would like to achieve and things I would like to change. I never, ever stick to resolutions though, so I thought that I would make myself some goals for the year ahead instead. I have 10 personal goals and 10 blogging goals, I have tried to keep things simple, then hopefully I will actually achieve what I want to during 2018. 



Personal Goals 

  1. Stick to Slimming World.  I am constantly battling with my weight and it is starting to really get me down. I am always starting and failing 'diets', I must have joined Slimming World about five times now and each time I last a few weeks and then stop going. This year I am determined to stick to it and make myself go to group each week. I am getting married next year and I really want to feel comfortable and look nice for my wedding photos. Fingers crossed I can stick with it this time. 
  2. Be More Organised. I am so disorganised, I am always forgetting things, misplacing things and leaving things until the last minute. This year it needs to stop. I need to be more organised, start planning and stop leaving everything until the very last minute. 
  3. Have a huge de-clutter. We have so much stuff. Everywhere you look there is clutter and I hate it. I am such a hoarder and have kept so many things that we just don't need, I have bags of the children's old clothes and a cupboard full of their old toys. I really need to start decluttering and it is my aim this year to get the whole house decluttered and in order by the end of the year. 
  4. Sort wedding out. I am getting married in June 2019 and I have hardly anything organised. We have set the date, booked a venue, booked a registar and DJ and that is it. We have not written a guest list, we haven't booked suppliers, we haven't picked menus or looked at dresses. I have organised nothing at all. I really want to have the whole day planned and organised this year so we can enjoy the build-up without worrying about anything. 
  5. Travel more. I have always loved travelling and was very lucky that I travelled a lot as a child. However, I have not had a holiday for years and the little two have never been abroad. However, now they are a bit older I want to travel more with them. We are going to Majorca in May and hopefully, we will get to visit a few more places this year too. 
  6. Monthly date nights. Being parents to young children myself and the other half rarely get any time together. In the past we made an effort to have monthly date nights, normally just a nice meal out, however last year we hardly had any. This year I want to try and spend more time together, just the two of us. 
  7. More family fun. The other half works shifts, so planning days out is often tricky. Now the two girls are both in school and Jacob is in nursery school we only really have weekends and holidays together. This year I want to make the most of the time we have together, I want to go on more days out, travel and make the most of the little time we do get together. 
  8. Time with Jacob. My little boy Jacob will be four at the end of August and just two weeks after he turns four he will be off to full-time school. I have mixed feelings about him starting school, he is so young to be starting and I will miss him. However, he is so smart for his age and I think he is ready for school. I want to try and spend as much time with him as I can before he starts and I lose my afternoons at home with him. 
  9. More 'me' time. As a mam I find I always put myself last, I am always looking after the children, cooking, cleaning, working and keeping everyone else happy. I never spend time on me. I never buy myself new clothes, or get my hair done or go out with friends. This year I plan on changing that and I am going to make sure I put myself first every once in a while. 
  10.  Have fun. This year I want to have fun. I want to enjoy time with children, making memories and having fun. 

Blog Goals


In the past when setting blogging goals I normally get hung up on numbers and don't make any clear goals. This year I am planning lots of changes to my blog, I am currently doing lots of behind the scenes admin. At times my blog has been constant reviews and sponsored posts and I want to change that for 2018. So here are my 2018 blogging goals.

  1. Get organised. Just like in my personal life I need to get more organised in my blogging life. My email inbox is shocking, I have thousands of unread emails that I really need to reply to. I have dozens of half-finished blog posts sitting in my draft file, the list goes on. This year I plan on getting my emails in order, implementing a blogging schedule, scheduling social media and blog posts in advance and generally being more organised and not leaving things until the last minute. 
  2. Be more social. When I first started blogging I used to spend hours on social media chatting with people, commenting on other peoples blogs, attending events. I have really let this slip so much over the years and I really want to start being social again. 
  3. Get better at photography. Photography is such an important part of blogging and I really want to learn to be better at it. I love taking photos of the children and would love to be able to take nicer photos. I think I might look into booking a course at some point. 
  4. Make Videos. I will never be a vlogger and have no interest in being a one, I very rarely watch them myself. However, this year I want to start making more videos of days out, as I think they will be lovely to look back on someday. 
  5. Blog more regular. I blog anything between 1-5 times per week, most weeks. I want to start blogging more regularly on set days at set times, as then my readers will know when to expect a post from me. Some of my favourite blogs do this and as a reader I much prefer it. 
  6. Share more local content. Local content such as days out, theatre reviews, restaurant reviews etc all do so much better on my blog than any other content. I want to start sharing more of our days out and showcasing what a lovely part of the country the North East is. 
  7. Start sharing recipes again. I used to share lots of recipes on my blog and they were so popular on Pinterest, especially the Slimming World ones. Now I am back on Slimming World I want to start sharing these again. 
  8. Set up a wedding blog. Since getting engaged last summer I have been wanting to set up a wedding blog, as I don't think wedding content would work very well on my current blog. I have a domain name and ideas for the blog, I just need to get everything set up and then I can share all my wedding planning. 
  9. Turn blog into a business. I do already earn a part-time income via this blog, I have filed a tax return for the past few years, so I suppose you could say it is already a business. However in 2018, I want to turn it into a proper business, I want to earn more (naturally) but I also want to grow my brand and turn it into a proper business that I work on full-time. Hopefully, I can start earning a full-time wage by September or I will be heading back to traditional work once my youngest starts school. 
  10. Enjoy blogging again. I used to love blogging, however, every now and then I fall out of love with it a bit. Sometimes it feels like a chore, or I don't want to sit and tap away on the laptop all night. I was taken on too much work then getting stressed with looming deadlines, I was sick of chasing overdue invoices (the worst part of being self-employed). I also found lots of other bloggers really bitchy, so many are nice to your face then not so nice behind your back. You would never believe it from their online persona but sadly it is so rife, it kind of made me avoid other bloggers a bit and keep to myself. Not all bloggers are bad though, some of them are so lovely and I know I can message them for advice anytime. This year I have decided to keep away from the nasty bloggers, stop taking on so much work at once and just enjoy blogging again. 
So those are my goals for the year ahead. Have you made any goals for the year ahead? 
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