2018 Rewind: Looking Back on my Resolutions

Do you set resolutions? Have you even looked back on them over the course of 2018?

I am a religious goal setter – every year without fail I sit and plan out exactly what major steps I want to take to grow and develop in the new year. These are goals I put a lot of thought into. Since last year I’ve started to truly hold myself accountable on these goals, and evaluate them and how I did at the end of each year right here on this blog. Follow the jump to see just how I got on with my 2018 goals…

 

1. Start and launch my own business-on-the-side
I spent a lot of my younger years talking about all of the things I’m going to do “when I’m older”. This year, at 23, I realised I needed to stop using that excuse. Whilst I won’t delve too much into things (and with a lot still in-the-works), please do check out DAME and keep up with what we’re doing via our social media accounts (sign up to the mailing list, too)!

 

2. Learn to be more rational, learn to worry less and learn to breath when I feel my emotions start to run away from me. Start meditating at least a few times a week to facilitate this
I actually meditated a grand total of *drumroll please*… zero times this year. I know, very successful. But at the same time, I think I have made steps to be a lot more rational – just in the sense that, whilst I still do have my irrational panics, I’m now able to tell myself that I’m being totally irrational and it subsides, rather than allowing it to engulf me like I did in the past. Levi brought it up at some point this year and I agreed – essentially I didn’t need to meditate to get to this point. It was more just training my mindset that I needed to do. That said, I still do want to start fitting even just 10 minutes a few times a week of meditation into my schedule, as I genuinely do think it’ll have benefits for me and my lifestyle.

 

3. Start to focus on growing income streams outside of my monthly paycheck / yearly bonus
My blog is one that has always provided a little bit of extra money. One good thing is, since starting work full time, this has also given me the flexibility to be more choosy with what jobs and collaborations I take on, as it’s not like I necessarily really need the money right now. Increasing the monetary aspect is indeed something I’d like to continue to grow over time, but more so than anything I’m invested in growing the platform – both here and via social media – as time goes on. Next year, one of my goals will be to invest more (more on this in my round up post coming up) – this year I had some existing money sitting in cryptocurrencies (which still sits in there), I also invested a huge chunk into a property, and of course some into my blog and other ventures (gotta spend money to make money). Next year, I want to do even more with my money – and this is something at the forefront of my mind.

 

4. Become more organised with blogging and treat it like a job – I fell off towards the end of the year with this fact and I don’t want that to happen again
Somebody asked me this year how much time I put into my blog – “30 minutes every weekend?” I actually laughed at the idea. It takes time, thought and planning, and that goes into this platform and social media platforms also. I’d say this year, for the most part, I was pretty consistent with my blog and posting 2x a week. I fell off a little towards the end of the year but that was because I genuinely became fatigued with the industry; with more of the focus really on Instagram, and many OG bloggers abandoning their platforms for this, I definitely had to take a moment to re-evaluate where I stood and where I wanted to take things. Meanwhile, last year when I “fell off”, it was due to being a generally disorganised mess – which I’d say is a little worse. For the most part, I’ve found it fairly easy to keep up with my blog this year.
 

5. Be in a position, financially, where I’m ready start looking at my own property to buy
Your girl is indeed a landlord! Actually I had planned to spend this year and maybe 3-6 months of next year saving (adding to 2017’s savings), to then buy my own property in the first half of next year. But my dad came up with the suggestion of himself/my mum, my older brother and I each putting our money together to buy a place. So, within a few months, we’d secured a fabulous new build (not on help to buy (not that there is anything wrong with this)), with great amenities, which is more than anything an investment for the future. A family investment if you will. I’m renting out my room which makes me a landlord – talk about adulting, I drew up a contract and all!

 

6. Grow my social media presence and at a minimum double my followers across platforms
Well – this was an ambitious one. Actually, my growth on social media this year has definitely fallen short of hopes (hopes, more so than expectations). The first six months were a real drag, then I decided to focus a bit more on Instagram and since then I have seen a lot more encouraging growth. Twitter was meh, but I didn’t really care (need to restrategise around that for 2019!) And on Bloglovin’, more than anything I love that they give you a notification when someone has read your post via the platform, it makes me feel somewhat warm and fuzzy inside to see returning readers (honestly, I love ya’ll). Considering all of this, I will say this year I actually started to focus a little less on the numbers. Most of the time I don’t even check how many Instagram followers I have (for example) as the number tends to fluctuate so much – sometimes it’s a party up in there and sometimes it feels like everyone’s going home! I want to recoup and reboot here next year and I do hope things take off more – but at the same time I’m very appreciative of the c.7k there are of you across platforms!

My final 2018 roundup post – the 2018 roundup post – will be coming on January 1st rather than tomorrow, as it’s one I really want to fine tune!

 

Shop This Look
Playsuit: Hidden Fashion*
Shoes: Hidden Fashion*
Bag: Gucci mini marmont matelassee

 

2018 Rewind

➣ 2018 Rewind: Fitness
➣ 2018 Rewind: Travel
➣ 2018 Rewind: Looking back at my favourite posts
➣ 2018 Rewind: How did my 2018 resolutions go?
➣ 2018 in Review and 2019 Resolutions