blogger, blogging, bloggers, 2019, 2020, new year, happy new year, new years resolutions

Happy New Year people! I have had the most relaxed week+ at home. Sleeping in, eating lots, spending quality time with my loved ones and watching lots of YouTube videos and TV with my fam (perfect timing for the latter as my dad just purchase a new TV, somewhat of an OLED TV – what is OLED TV?* For the movie lovers… it achieve images with a higher perception of brightness, perfect if you’re into a bit of action 😉 ).

As per every year – I always like to reflect on the year just gone and make some goals for the year ahead. This is going to be a lengthy one, so I’ve got some links to navigate below and… is it too cliche and totally not me at all if I say grab a cup of tea? Probably (I don’t even drink tea).
 

Navigating this post

 

Breaking down the decade

2010: GCSE prep starts; I opened up my own webdesign shop and it went very well
2011: I achieved 9 A*s and 2 As in my GCSE exams
2012: I got my first job, it was in a cafe! But I quit after a month… I had my first proper crush! But he turned out to be a bit of a player. I applied for Head Girl! But only made it participation stage and got really bitter… it was an emotional year
2013: I got into LSE! And walked away with 3As at A Level
2014: My first first year at university. I moved out to Central London, partied a ton, and met my current boyfriend Levi
2015: I had a HUGE friendship bust up. But learned a lot about myself and self development
2016: I graduated with a 2:1 and started my first full time job in investment banking. I moved to East London with a friend/colleague where I’ve been ever since
2017: I started to take my health & fitness seriously. But comparison also became the thief of joy in my life. I became over consumed with trying to prove to the world that I was doing more than just fine since graduating
2018: I became a landlord! I started working on a business and I became a frequent traveller, getting to see more of the world than I ever had before. I was also featured on BBC & Gymshark – my most exciting features to date
2019: …See below
 

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Start of decade (late 09/2010) vs. end of decade (recent)

 

What went down in 2019

I travelled 19 times to 12 different countries
I sometimes can’t even believe how much I travel these days, sometimes I look at my calendar that I could end up travelling every week for a month. I didn’t go on my first holiday until I was 8 years old, and from then on I’d travel an absolute maximum of once a year. I was never a traveller.

A lot of my travel these days is due to work, most of it actually, but I’m also able to take a lot of personal trips just due to the fact that I’m older, on a stable salary and have no major responsibilities. My favourite trip this year was to Croatia, travelling with Levi is always the best and our summer holidays are always a dream; but very close up was New York, my first cross-continental trip in 3 years (it was for work, but I extended the trip for “play”), I had lots of fun, ate lots of junk food, sipped lots of alcohol and spent too much money. Barcelona with my OG girls earlier in the year was tons of fun – one of my closest friends I went with I’d never even been away with before, and we’ve been friends for 13 years! And, of course, we can’t forget Paris, where me and Levi celebrated 5 years together. My next trip (booked this week) will be skiing! I haven’t skied in >1 year so will be nice to get to the alps again and take on my very basic green slopes.

 

blogger, blogging, bloggers, 2019, 2020, new year, happy new year, new years resolutions

Croatia

 
blogger, blogging, bloggers, 2019, 2020, new year, happy new year, new years resolutions

Paris

 
blogger, blogging, bloggers, 2019, 2020, new year, happy new year, new years resolutions

New York

 

I opened up my own fitness blog which grew to 3,500+ followers in 8 months
I would have never guessed this time last year that I’d end up making my own fitness page on Instagram. It had certainly been an idea that had flown across my mind now and again but I thought for me to create my own fitness page when I don’t have abs and an obnoxiously tiny waste would just be some absolute audacity. Anyhow, I decided to go for it because I came to realise that most fitness influencers don’t actually look like what they seem to look like anyways – so why should that intimidate me? And plus… I just felt like it… so I did it! I’m not getting any younger. It feels so refreshing to have a new project to focus on (I’m one of those people that likes new challenges and new things to dig my teeth into), at the time of writing I have 3.5k supporters, since starting my page 8 months ago – which is amazing!
 

 

I redesigned Skylish.co.uk and rethought my vision
For a lot of the year, I lost both motivation and direction over here. Blogging isn’t really what it used to be – most bloggers have shifted to Instagram as their main platform and it’s not as easy to come across thoughtful pieces these days (not easy, but certainly possible). This was one thing that niggled away at my motivation, along with trying to do 100 things at once and also forgetting what I even want to really portray over here – was it fancy outfits from PLT? Or real thoughtful pieces (as I say, pieces written by a women in her 20s for women like me)? Mid-year, I paid a PeoplePerHour worker to implement this new design for me. Whilst I can code up a website myself, having not followed the world of coding since 2012… my skills were a bit outdated. Once this new design was implemented, I wrote a whole post detailing my new vision for Skylish – refocusing, taking off some pressure (bringing it back to just being a hobby), and making my focus for the blog fit me, as I am right now, a little better again. Whilst the blogging landscape has changed, I do want to shout out a few of my favourite blogs – The Little Plum, Beth Sandland, Fashion Slave – where I can still settle for some thoughtful pieces now and again.
 

My confidence took another leap
There have been many years over my life that I’ve set gaining confidence as a goal for the following year – if you grew up shy… you’d get it! This was actually one of the rare years I didn’t, I guess I felt I was on a good trajectory and I’ve seen it come through this year. Whilst I’m not the loudest in the group, a lot of newfound confidence has just been due to being forced in different situations. Such as – flying abroad alone and having the host a client without the support of my boss. Having to present my views off guard to a room of people. Or, just being older and coming across new people, everyday, that are usually very different to myself, and learning that I’m able to hold a conversation with people from all different walks of life and also all ages (unless you’re just too dry, to be honest). Recently I found myself in a situation which called on confidence, and instead of feeling nervous before hand, I just said to myself “you’ve got this, to be honest”, and well… I did. I look forward to continue to run down this road of development in 2020.
 

Honourable mentions

 

 

2019 in lessons

In 2019, I learned to take the good from the bad: This year, I learned how to extrapolate the good from situations that may have left me feeling… less than good. We will all run into bad situations sometimes, and sometimes these situations will last for prolonged periods of time, but having the capacity to recognise what’s positive from these situations makes them easier to deal with (is that ambiguous enough? 😉 )
 

In 2019, I learned even more about focusing on myself: This time I wasn’t comparing myself to my uni peers or people that I “know about” (for example), but… to people I sit amongst daily. And I’ll leave that on periodt. I overcame this greatly as the year went on, it literally felt like I had bulldozed through a door holding me back suddenly at some point in the year, and I hadn’t even realised when exactly. In a nutshell, I went from feeling like a bag of crap to feeling amazing once I decided to only worry about myself. Learning from others is good – but comparing yourself too much to others and focusing on what they’re doing is simply unproductive.
 

In 2019, I learned to breath a bit: I went through a stage in 2018 where I’d feel guilty even going out for a drink as I felt like if I wanted to be successful, I needed to spend every last hour working on some sort of side business. It’s one of the reasons I’d stay up until 1am and get 5 hours of sleep, but be so exhausted that whatever I was working on until 1am would be of poor quality. Now I still am a believer in the side hustle, and I know that I am still quite a productive person, but I’ve also learned to relax more. I’ve been going out more, enjoying myself more because please, I’m still young. I’ve been sleeping in sometimes, and I haven’t been feeling guilty about any of it. I do want to turn up the gears on productivity a tad again in 2020 – but I’m just fine tuning and getting everything right.
 

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Revisiting my 2019 resolutions

1. Do more with my money – I want become more savvy when it comes to the art of investing
This came to fruition in a different way than expected. At some point during the year, I sat down and decided I was going to invest in a fund (actually, I still plan to do this but by way of using the app Nutmeg soon). I asked my older brother what funds he had invested in and he actually recommended I look to pay down my student loan instead. I actually pay 6% on my student loan (in my world of work that would be considered a high yielding bond from a risky issuer… basically, 6% is h’alot), and given uncertainty in the global economy right now (given trade wars, Brexit, global growth concerns…) and that many people are expecting a minor recession soon, it seemed more sensible to put my money towards paying down a loan with huge interest (or – at least kicking off this process first). So, this is what I started to do this year. I put my money to work, but not how I thought I would when I first wrote this resolution.
 
2. Focus more on myself and what I’m up to – stop comparing myself to others
It’s funny to see this on my resolutions list as this literally isn’t even a concern of mine anymore at this point in time. I used to compare myself to others all the time – my blog, my instagram, my life, my relationship… but I can honestly say this isn’t the case anymore in the slightest. I think I’ve reached a point where I really am, for once… just happy with who I am and what I’m achieving (this doesn’t mean I’m getting too comfortable though 😉 )
 
3. Seek out opportunities more vigilantly – stop waiting for things to always come to me (if you don’t ask – you don’t get)
I think this one needs to be rolled over to next year. I started off on a good stride on this point at the start of the year, but definitely got lazy once the first half was done.
 
4. Make strides with my career
This point may have seemed quite vague, but it came to fruition – again in a different way than I had anticipated. I moved up from Analyst to Associate in 2019, and in this second half of the year, I feel like I made some really good strides just in my job itself, I’ve definitely had some great opportunities.
 
5. Take 1-2 cross continental trips
My cross continental trip this year was to the states – I spent a week in NYC back in Apr/May time, 40% work and 60% leisure. It had been a hot sec since I’d been out of Europe – so was good to find myself across the Atlantic again.
 
6. This sleep thing – it needs some tweaks
I was sleeping barely 5 hours a day this time last year, at times due to pure procrastination, but what forced me to finally make the necessary tweak was early morning gym sessions. Since I wake up at 6:00am to get ready to workout, I just need the sleep, and that forces me to sleep earlier. I go to bed around 10:30-11:00pm these days during the week, which gives me 7-7.5 hours of suweeet sleep.

 

blogger, blogging, bloggers, 2019, 2020, new year, happy new year, new years resolutions

 

My 2020 resolutions

And finally – what I want to achieve in 2020. Resolutions aren’t for everyone… but personally, I love setting them!

1. Put a lid on my irritation – I get heated really quickly (I calm down just as quickly too). Basically – I want to learn to breath though the bullshit better.
2. Start using my weekends more productively again.
3. Continue to pay down my student loan significantly but also put some money somewhere where it can be managed to make a return.
4. Get back to more frequent blogging.
5. Again, stop waiting for opportunities, put in the work to grab opportunities more frequently.

 

blogger, blogging, bloggers, 2019, 2020, new year, happy new year, new years resolutions

 

And – with that hugely lengthy post… I say, Happy New Year! Looking back on my year in review posts from recent years, I can say that I’ve been on a good trajectory. I haven’t really had a really crappy year since 2015. That’s not to say that my years don’t have crap periods – that happens every year really, but I think my mind is in a stronger place such that I am able to dig myself out of the dirt and readjust better than I was able to 4-5 years ago. What can I say, my life is good. But it can be even better ;), so here’s to 2020!

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6 Comments
  1. This was a great read. I think many of us go through those times of comparison, doubt, ups and down. I know that’s how I viewed the last few years of my life. I look forward to following you and reading future post.

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