Motivation Monday: Evaluating 2017 and Setting New Goals for 2018

I know it's the end of January, and goals and resolutions and whatnot are typically a start of the year thing, but it's taken me a few weeks to figure out what I want my goals for this year to be. It took me nearly a month, but I'm definitely motivated now and know what I want.

But before I get to my goals for this year, I want to go over my goals from last year and see how I did. I surprised myself with how I completed some of them but definitely had a lot of work to do with most of them.

Evaluating 2017 Goals

I've color coded the goals I set by whether I accomplished them and/or by how much I did/didn't accomplish them.

Green means I successfully completed the goal!
Yellow means I somewhat completed the goal.
Red means I definitely did not complete the goal.

Professional/journalism

Get a job

This one's pretty simple. I don't have a job, so I didn't meet my goal. I do contribute to the popular gymnastics website, FloGymnastics, and get paid for it, but freelancing isn't what I was thinking of when I set this goal.

Be more active/consistent with my blog

The first half of 2017 was pretty stagnant in terms of blogging, because my last semester of school was super hectic. There simply was no time to blog, and it was not a priority. But once I graduated, I was pretty active and consistent. I published over 30 blog posts in 2017 starting with May and posted at least a few times a month.

Vary blog content more

I'd still like to switch up my blog content a bit more every now and then, especially since I feel a lot of my fashion posts are kind of the same, but I do feel I added some new kinds of posts last year that prevented my blog from being so much of the same. I introduced monthly favorites, which adds all sorts of aspects from entertainment to food, and I did get to do more travel and photography posts last year.

Get an article published in print outside of yearbook (not online)

I finally have a byline that isn't online or in a yearbook! Thanks to Chris and Christy from Inside Gymnastics and to Nancy Thies Marshall for helping this dream come true!

Was excited to find this in the mail today! Finally got to see a physical copy of my first professional byline! 😄 pic.twitter.com/xXrQBghsZS
— Amanda Wijangco (@amanda_carmela) April 17, 2017

Learn more about gymnastics skills and Code of Points

While I did learn the names of a few skills last year, that's not enough to warrant even kind of accomplishing the goal. It's something I really do want to do, but it's harder than I thought, and I had more important things to be doing.

School

Get mostly A's in spring semester

Honestly, I can't remember if I got straight A's my final semester of college, but I know I got mostly A's, so yay me for finishing college strong!

Enjoy last semester of school ever!

I definitely enjoyed the non-academic part of my last semester of school ever, and I even enjoyed some of the academic part. I play around and make cool things in my final journalism class and did some fun research for a sports media class. Of course there were things I struggled with and just did not enjoy, so let's leave this at a somewhat completed goal.

Other

Read 20 books

I actually went above and beyond my reading goal for 2017 and read 36 books! (Feel free to check out my Goodreads to see what I read last year.) I love not having any required reading now that I'm done with school and clearly made the most out of being able to read whatever I want.

Be even more active!

Last year was probably my most active year since my senior year of high school, where I was required to exercise and walk a lot because of gym class and school in general. During my last semester of school, I had a schedule that allowed me to get a lot of exercise in. For many weeks from January to April, I either ran on a treadmill or used another lower body exercise machine on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Sometimes I even did some weights, usually a leg press.

Then over the summer and early fall when it wasn't unbearably hot, I did something I used to never want to do: ran outside. But with no access to a gym, no exercise machines, or someone to play a sport with, it was my only option. I didn't run as much as I'd like to, but I'm proud of myself for getting out there and being active, running nearly a mile several times during the latter half of the year. It's definitely harder to get up and go out to run than it is to stay in the comfort of being indoors and exercising.

Stop shopping so much

This is hard to judge but I do feel I didn't shop as much as I normally do. However, I still shopped and bought a lot, so this was not a completely successful goal.

Clean my closet/get rid of clothes I don't want/wear anymore

I did get around to cleaning my closet and can fit more clothes than in the past few years. I did get rid of some stuff, but I honestly didn't get rid of that much, so this is another goal that wasn't a complete success.

Start saving money

I knew saving money was something I really should start doing, especially now that I finally have to pay my student loans but haven't saved very much, if at all, which is really bad on my part.

Reduce student loan debt

Technically, I was successful with this goal since I have been paying my loans, which reduces my debt. However, my thoughts with this goal were to reduce it as much as possible, which I haven't done. If I actually saved my graduation money and put some of it towards my loans, then I probably would've made this green.

Setting 2018 goals

Professional/journalism

Get a full-time job

I was really hoping I'd have a job by now. Granted, there were unforeseen circumstances that prevented me from actually job hunting for a few months, but still. I'm ready to move on to the next chapter of my life, and I sincerely hope it's not sitting at home, making hardly any money.

And despite my mom's insistence that I need to be looking in non-media areas for a job, I want a job in my field and know I can find one. It's just a matter of finding the right match. But if I find a job that isn't totally in my field that I really enjoy, I'll be happy with that as well.

Keep blogging

No matter what happens this year, I want to keep blogging. I want to keep sharing my experiences and writing about whatever I want for fun.

Keep writing about gymnastics

Again, no matter what happens this year, I want to keep writing and reporting about gymnastics. I probably won't be writing about gymnastics full-time this year, but I still want to keep doing it part-time as a freelancer because it's what I love to do. It's what I want to do. And even if it isn't going to my full-time job right now, continuing to do it on the side will only help me get to it full-time.

Other

Read 30 books

Even when I do have a full-time job, I want to keep reading a lot. This is 10 more books than what I set out to read last year, but I think it's a manageable jump considering I actually read 36 books. Setting it between what I set and what I read last year gives me some wiggle room in hopes that I'll have a full-time job taking away from my reading time.

Take better care of myself

This is a pretty broad goal, but I like it. Sure, I could put "exercise more" or "lose weight" or "drink more water," but this encompasses a lot of things I want to do, like being healthier, both physically and mentally. 2017 definitely wasn't my healthiest year. I was in the hospital twice, still got dehydrated despite increasing my water intake, and reached an unhealthy weight as a result of me sitting at home all day doing nothing for months.

So this year I just want to take better care of myself. Don't eat so much sugar (but I'm still going to treat myself, of course!). Drink more water. Wash my face even when I'm lazy and it's 1 AM. Don't use my phone in the dark without my glasses on. Reach my Fitbit goal more. Work towards being fit.

Stop spending and start saving

This goal is getting real, realer than ever before, because school is so expensive and student loans need to be paid off. Plus, I've pretty much gotten to that point in my life where if I want something, I have to pay for it myself unless it's my birthday or Christmas. So I want to figure out a balance between saving money for loans, the future, etc. and having money for myself and the occasional thing I don't need but deserve to treat myself to.

What are your resolutions or goals for the year, and how are you doing with them?