The start of the year means it's time for goals: evaluating how I did with my goals from last year and setting new ones for this year. Some people may do new year's resolutions, but I like goals, and lots of them. Setting lots of goals helps me strive to become a better person and be accountable for my actions. What also helps me is physically going over and seeing my goals, which is why I like to dedicate a blog post to them every year. Even if no one reads or cares about this post, it makes me accountable for what I set out to do.
Evaluating 2018 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 full-time job
Unfortunately, I did not get a full-time job last year. However, I did accept a part-time job with a school district doing communications, and I did increase the frequency of my freelancing with FloGymnastics, so combining those, it's like I have a full-time job. Technically, this should be red, but since I have made progress, I made it yellow.
I am upset and disappointed that I still haven't found a full-time or more permanent job yet, especially since it's been one and a half years since I've graduated, but I just try to keep reminding myself that it will happen when it's time. I can't force it. I just have to keep looking, keep trying, keep adding to my portfolio. I am glad that I'm writing more for FloGymnastics, though. It allows me to keep doing what I love, add more to my portfolio, and keeps me writing. I also don't mind the increase in monetary compensation. I also do feel I could do great things and make an impact with my part-time job working for a school district, and it could grow into a bigger and more permanent role with time.
- Keep blogging
I definitely continued to blog on here, which I'm happy about. When I looked back at my posts from 2018, I realized I was more active on here than I thought I was. I blogged at least twice a month. I even did some new kinds of posts that I hadn't done before, which is good.
- Keep writing about gymnastics
I'm so thankful for all the opportunities I've had that allow me to continue writing about what I love. In addition to contributing to FloGymnastics last year, I also wrote a story for Inside Gymnastics online, which I loved doing. I didn't get to do as many features as I would have liked, but I did end up writing more as the year went on. In addition, I got to work on my preview and recap writing skills, two things I didn't enjoy writing as much, as well as my general news writing.
Other
- Read 30 books
I was close to reading 30 books this year but fell short at 26. If I had maintained a consistent reading schedule and read every month, I would have made it. But there was a time around late spring to early summer when I didn't read much at all because I didn't have any new books to read and didn't have much money to buy more books. I really should've just reread books I haven't read in a while, but I didn't.
- Take better care of myself
Looking back at this, I liked this goal, but it was too broad. I know I said I liked that it was broad last year, but now I don't like that. I did take steps toward being healthier, both physically and mentally, last year, so that's good. I did exercise when it wasn't winter and even ran my first race. I bought a foot roller and body roller so I could roll out and prep/rehab my muscles before and after running. However, the last time I ran or made an effort to exercise was September 28. So that was a lot of time where my only exercise was walking around the house or the mall.
I wanted to eat less sugar last year, but I don't think I did that. I don't think I ate more sugar, but I didn't make much of an effort to decrease my sugar intake. I did a pretty good job at drinking more water, but for some reason, I had trouble reaching my water drinking goal at the end of the year, and it was evident with my skin. I didn't always wash my face when I was lazy and it was 1 A.M. So that needs to change. I did, however, stop using my phone in the dark without my glasses. So my eyes should be happy about that.
- Stop spending and start saving
I didn't save as much as I hoped, but I did make an effort to not spend my money as much. I can remember several times when I was debating whether to buy something and decided not to in order to save money and stop spending so much. And that's a start, so that's good. My sister and I also started a Broadway bucket that we put money in every time we make a Broadway reference. We've started making Broadway references too much that we realized we needed a way to decrease it. So that's been a small way we've both been saving a bit. But I don't have much of any "savings" like I wanted, so I didn't exactly meet the goal.
Setting 2019 Goals
Professional/journalism
- Get a more permanent or full-time job
As nice as it is not having a lot of work to do, I can't really afford it nor do I feel very accomplished without a more permanent or full-time job. I have student loans to pay and places I'd like to go but need money to do that, and that means a more permanent or full-time job. I also just want to keep advancing my career and feel this is a necessary step to do that. Most of the experience on my resume is with the same two companies and is from my college years, so I would like to be able to add newer and different positions.
- Do more photography and videography
When I was still in school, I used my DSLR camera for photos and video quite often for at least one semester a year. Now I hardly ever use it and haven't shot video in almost two years. I love all the ways journalists can tell stories and share information, but all I've really been doing for the past year and a half is writing. I did a little bit with photography for the first assignment at my job, so I'm hoping I can do more with my camera there.
I'd also love to shoot more gymnastics. I took gymnastics photos all the time when I was in school and did at least one video feature every gymnastics season. I only took gymnastics photos at one meet last year and miss taking gym photos so much. I also miss doing video features on gymnastics, so maybe I can do a few video features for FloGymnastics this year.
- Blog on here 2-3 times/month and once a month on others
I actually have three different blogs now: this one, The Twin Trio with my sister and best friend, and The Adventures of Amanda and Ashley with my sister. Now that I have a few different blogs, it can be difficult to be active on all three of them. Since this is my main blog, I want to be the most active and consistent on here as I'm the only one creating content. For my other two blogs, I have other people working with me who can create content, so I want to contribute to those at least once a month. I blogged on here at least twice a month last year, so I think 2-3 times a month is manageable. On The Twin Trio, we do monthly reading reviews that should make blogging there once a month doable. My blog with my sister, Ashley, is the newest, so we haven't quite established a rhythm or series of content, but I still think we can do something once a month.
- Keep writing and learning about gymnastics
I never want to stop writing about gymnastics for as long as I am able and have time to. After all, it's what I want to do for a living, so why would I stop? Even if I never end up doing that full-time, gymnastics is what I love, so I want to keep writing about it. And writing about it helps me learn more about the sport, and I never want to stop learning about what I love.
Health
- Exercise twice every month
Obviously I do some sort of exercise every month and don't spend an entire month sitting or laying down. What I mean by this is to make an effort to exercise every month, whether that be go out for a run when the weather's nice out, run up and down my house stairs when it's too cold or rainy out, do dumbbell exercises inside, yoga, or whatever. I'd like to exercise once a week, but I don't want to be too ambitious and make too big of a jump.
- Eat better
I eat terribly and pretty much always have. The difference is that it didn't matter too much for the first 18 or so years of my life because I had a fast metabolism. I could eat all the sweets and all the sugar that I wanted, and it didn't make much of a difference. That's no longer the case. So I need to eat less sugar, eat less carbs, and eat more vegetables. Overall I just need to have a more balanced diet. I don't need to cut anything out.
- Lose weight/be more fit
I've never been one to worry about how much I weigh or the number on the scale, but that's probably because I had such a high metabolism for the first 18 years of my life. I've definitely paid more attention to my weight these past few years because I know I haven't been as healthy. In my 23 years of life, I've been told I'm "so skinny" as well as "you're gaining too much weight." So I know weight is just a number on a scale and it doesn't define who you are or determine your worth. But I don't feel as healthy or as fit with the weight I've gained in the past two years or so, so I know something needs to change. I know weight is a factor in my health and fitness, but I don't want to focus entirely on how much I weigh. So this goal is a combination to take into account how weight isn't everything and how I physically feel is important, too.
Other
- Read 30 books
I didn't meet my reading goal last year, so I'm keeping it the same for this year. Even if I do end up with a more permanent or full-time job that takes up more of my time this year, this should still be doable. I know of people who have full-time jobs and side hustles who read like 50 books a year. It's just a matter of time management. And I love to read, so I would make time for it.
- Save for the future and trips
As nice as it is to live at home with my parents and to not have to pay rent or always have to cook for myself, I can't live with my parents forever nor do I want to. I think it's important to learn to live on your own, pay your own rent, cook for yourself, and everything. But I think I need to do that beyond the living on my own at college and feel like a real adult. Returning to living with my parents after being on my own at college for four years is tough, but I need to save the money so I can afford to not live at home. Plus I don't I'll be able to continue to grow personally if I keep living at home with my parents. I doubt I'll move out this year, but I really should start saving now.
Besides saving to be on my own, I want to save to travel. There's so much I haven't seen in the world, and there are so many places I want to go to and see. And I don't want to wait to see it. You never know what's going to happen, so I want to travel while I can. My sister and I want to go back to New York because there's so much I have yet to see. My mom and aunts are actually going at the end of the year, and my mom said I can go if I save for it. So I need to save for New York. Plus, my sister and I want to go back to Disney World and Disneyland because we love Disney more now than before, and there's so much we haven't done or seen there yet. And then there are my friends who live all over the country, from California to Colorado and Virginia, who I'd love to visit.
- Maintain a cleaner room
Even though I'm hardly ever in there, my room is usually quite messy. I never put my clothes away right away after doing laundry. My closet ends up having a big pile of clothes at the bottom. I have a lot of stuff and nowhere to put it. So I want to have a cleaner room this year and keep it that way. Part of that means getting rid of stuff, particularly clothes, so I have less stuff and can organize more. It I can organize more, I can keep it cleaner. And I don't know about you, but I feel better when my room is clean because even if I myself am not feeling particularly great or things aren't going my way, at least my room isn't a mess.
What are your goals for 2019?
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