We are well and truly into 2019, but most of the time I find January is a bit of a write-off. It is summer in Australia so I spend a lot of the time outside at the beach, day drinking and all that fun stuff.
Always reflect
But this year I have also done a lot more reflection than normal, especially with all the goals I had written down in 2018 – because really what is the point of having a goal if I’m not going to try and achieve it? So how do we actually determine a good year? Well, when you look back, do you think you have made improvements?
Explore!
Obviously, we go through moments in life and sometimes we aren’t always going to “be happy”, you never actually get to “happy”. It is a journey, there isn’t an end destination where you are happy forever and you never have bad days. The end destination is when you leave this world and if you are waiting until then to be happy, well that definitely isn’t ideal.
Live in the moment but always have a purpose, ask why!
Anyway, I thought I would give some ideas on how I have categorised my 2018 and as I said in my podcast, episode 9 – if we actually make a list of all the things we achieved in the year before, it will amaze you all the amazing things you have done and how many memories you made.
Enjoy the moments
What I want to do is list all my goals to you and give you a whereabouts on these. No one has ever seen these goals apart from me, obviously I talk about them, but I have never shown my full list. To be honest, no I didn’t do everything on the list, so does that mean I failed 2018 and I had a “bad” year? Hell no! I did a lot of other things not on my list and I am more than okay with that. Plus these goals shouldn’t define if my year was a success!
Happiness is a journey, not a destination
So…. my list:
- One second video every day
- Start a podcast
- Do something every day for 30 days
- See a kinesiologist
- Do three “fun” runs
- Complete the work triathlon
- Increase flexibility
- More freelancing work
- Start social netball
- Read and edit my book (How do you solve a problem like Mariah in book form)
- Travel
- Improve blog
- Work on Spanish
- Explore more of Melbourne
- Skydive
- Make the most of summer (beach, picnics, bike rides, BBQ’s, Sunday sippers, rooftop cinema and markets)
- Take a step further into a travel writing career
- Get to 20% body fat
- Do an exercise activity every day for 30 days
- Invest
- Achieve bar squats without assistance, dips and chin ups
- Start Harry Potter books
- Go to an NRL game
- Go to a soccer game
- Do more travel videos
- Get more workload a work
- Need less approval/changes on my work communication
- Do more writing courses
Push boundaries
Yes, I know that is a lot for one year. So not only am I going to tell you how I went last year on my goals, but I am going to talk about what I did wrong and how I kept focused on my goals, which I think can help you with yours!
Be grateful
But then I want to show you what you can do to easily manage and keep track of your goals. But before I do that, do you know what is the most important thing? You should always remember to prioritise, that way if you don’t achieve all your goals but you get the most important done, you will feel a lot happier by the end! Then when more form along the journey, you won’t feel so unaccomplished because life gets in the way!
Always smile
With each of my 2018 goals, next to it I wrote how or when I was going to achieve this. I wrote these in my 2018 diary, which I used daily and I also had them on my phone so I was always aware of them. Once I worked out what my goals were I added some to my “to-do list” – a section I made on the reminders app on the iPhone, when I felt like I could achieve one.
Never stop on your goals
So what ones did I achieve?
- Complete the work triathlon – 400m swim, 10km ride and 4km run (was so proud about this)
- More freelancing work – focussed on getting more jobs and in the end had over 20 in 2018
- Start social netball – big tick
- Travel – went to the Gold Coast, Byron Bay, Cambodia, Vietnam and on road trips to Mornington Peninsula and The Great Ocean Road (very successful travel year)
- Start a podcast – one of my proudest achievement for 2018, worked on it every day for 30 days as part of my below goal and recorded my first podcast, now I have 11 episodes
- Do something every day for 30 days – some include saving some money every day for 30 days, exercising for 30 minutes every day for 30 days and it made me very productive
- Skydive – twice!!
- Make the most of summer (beach, picnics, bike rides, BBQ’s, Sunday sippers, rooftop cinema and markets) – went to the beach at least once a week and made the absolute most of summer by doing everything on that list
- Do an exercise activity every day for 30 days – exercising to help me towards my goals like increased flexibility and chin ups etc
- Get more workload a work – put my hand up for more work, also volunteered for my local community sporting club as a communications officer
- Need less approval/edits on my work communication – improved my writing skills to ensure my writing was rarely corrected (Grammarly is my recommendation on assisting towards better writing skills)
- Do more writing courses – ticked, through work
- Achieve bar squats without assistance, dips – ticked!
- Start Harry Potter books – now up to book 4 – Goblet of Fire
- Go to an NRL game – ticked, State of Origin and Melbourne Storm game
Find happy places
What did I make a start on?
- One second video every day – this started out great until my phone deleted half of them and then I gave up – technology hey
- Do three “fun” runs – ended up doing two (8km zoo run as part of Sun Set Series and Run Melbourne 10km, I’m okay with only doing two because one was in 35-degree heat and the other I got a PB on)
- Read and edit my book – started this, got to the second last chapter and realised it needs reworking, so 2019 goal it is
- Take a step further into a travel writing career – emailed a few companies about writing for them, would love to push this more (if you know of any opportunities please contact me)
- Achieve bar squats without assistance – chin ups – these are hard
- Work on Spanish – did Duolingo for a long time, need to do a class when I have more time and $$
- Explore more of Melbourne – will always need more time to explore Melbourne. Highlights? Concerts, football matches, exploring my new hood (Fitzroy/Brunswick/Northcote/Thornbury), loads of dinners and bars
- Improve blog – 200 likes on Facebook was achieved, 400 likes on Instagram achieved and improved views (need a more numerical measurement on that one) but also revamped my page and started producing one blog a week instead of one a month
- Invest – started with Raiz but aiming for more
- Do more travel videos – produced a few (see below) want more in 2019
- Increase flexibility – yoga flexibility training but I would like to do pole fitness to increase this, ran out of time
Set your sights
What didn’t I achieve?
- See a kinesiologist – not enough time or money to do this
- Get to 20% body fat – never got the scan to see if I did (maybe too scared, I’ve learnt not to be anymore, it’s called self love)
- Go to a soccer game – ran out of time
Moving to Thornbury
My overall thought on my 2018? I achieved a LOT! On top of the goals, I moved house, met some of the most amazing people and pushed myself harder than I ever have before. Also, I had a theme word, which I also recommend. Pick a work for the year, one that can relate to one particular goal or many. For 2018, mine was SAVE, save money, save time, save memories. My thoughts on how this went, okay but I think my 2019 one is even better…. GROW!
Love yourself
So what made 2018 great? I started doing a Miracle Morning to get the most out of my days and most importantly I had so much fun! Saw some beautiful people in my life express their love through new relationships, marriage and engagement, became a maid of honour, donated blood for the first time, saw Kendrick Lamar (personal highlight) along with many other amazing acts, had some crazy fun nights out and stepped out of my comfort zone to see what I was capable of. Follow my Instagram below, to end 2018 I did a post every day of my favourite moments, this is just one!
Practice self-care
I learnt to be grateful for what I have, not focus on what I don’t have and most importantly I learnt self-love is the most important thing you can do for yourself. To end 2018 I also realised we all need to relax. Take a step back and as my parents say “smell the roses”, live in the present moment and don’t get too worried if you miss one day at the gym, if you mucked up your routine because you went did something spontaneous or if you got a bit off track with your goals – that’s life! Don’t be hard on yourself for living.
Be happy
You know what else to remember? If you don’t achieve all those goals you set yourself, it doesn’t mean you haven’t had an amazing year! If you end the year feeling happy, content and proud of yourself – then who cares!! We all develop, grow and change over the course of the year, so what may have been important to you at the beginning of the year, might not be so important to you at the end.
Aim high
But, we all know that to be the best we need to reflect. What can I do better in 2019? Well in terms of my goals, I can make them more measurable, have a more specific approach to my goals, instead of “travel” it should be where exactly I want to go and when. For any one major goal I have, they need to be broken up into little steps. This might not work for everyone, but it definitely works for me!
Give back!
To ensure I am on track I picked categories (for example career, fitness, podcast, blog, friends, family etc), made goals, described what I needed to do to achieve it and have put a reminder in my phone every three months to check in and write an update. Want a copy of this template? Email me and I will send it to you. If this doesn’t work for you, don’t stress you will find what works for yourself – you also may not be as over the top as me, but I know what works for me.
My 2018 review
Also, to get these goals as a daily reminder, I made a vision board so I am always looking at it and always set on where I want to head for 2019. It is also important to realise, at the end of the day, goals make us happy, they give us a sense of purpose and give us direction.
Adventures
However, these do not define who we are, we might not always be on track to make these goals 100% a reality when we hope to, but you know what? I have a secret to share with you….
Push comfort zones
Life will take you in a direction you will never ever predict. If you don’t always go the path you set, that doesn’t mean you won’t be happy. Stick to your dreams, but always remember it is okay to let life take you on a journey – it is called living!
Meeting new people
Have anything you want to share? How do you review your 2018? Drop a comment and let me know!
Love your loved ones
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