I’ve never been one to set New Year’s
Resolutions but, like most other humans, I welcome markers in time as a
chance to refresh my mindset or kick myself into gear, whether it’s
simply a new day, week, month or, in this case, year.
So, though I won’t be setting myself any
personal resolutions or taking on any major lifestyle changes, there are various
things I want to achieve, projects I want to start and places I want to go
before the end of 2017, and setting these out in writing somehow makes them feel more feasible and less overwhelming.
Reflecting on 2016
Generally, 2016 was a bad year for the
world, and this will definitely taint the year in our memories, so it is important to reflect on the positive things, however big or seemingly menial they may be.
2016 was a year of big changes. Having
graduated in July 2015 and taken some time out to travel both the US and
Southeast Asia, January 2016 marked the beginning of adult life. I started my
first graduate job in London, which in turn meant I could move to London come
August. Though the job wasn’t exactly what I wanted to be doing and I struggled
with it at times, it taught me a lot both personally and professionally, and
ultimately led to my new job. Very unexpectedly, I began my new job at the
beginning of October and am much happier now that I’m working within a field
that I enjoy.
One of my main goals for 2016 had been to keep
up my blog alongside full-time work, and I am so glad that I’m still feeling
as motivated as ever one year on. Though my audience hasn’t grown much over the
year (due to having barely any time to interact and engage with the blogging
community), it has been a great year for blogging. I started to
be invited regularly to review theatre, was sent a book a month by Legend Press
to review, was offered my first sponsored posts, went to a singing masterclasswith Michael Xavier, got to join in with In the Heights’ one year celebrations
and attended my first West End Press Night. Bring on 2017!
Goals for the year
Creative
Finish what I started during #NaNoWriMo:
It may
be a little ambitious to want to have finished a full first draft of the novel
by the end of the year, but if I don’t aim high then I’ll just continue to put
it off out of fear of failing.
Share more of my creative writing:
Whether it’s
here on the blog or over on Instagram through the art journal I’ve started, I
want to start sharing my creative words, poems and short pieces of fiction. It’s
possibly the most terrifying thing I can think of, but I’ll never get anywhere
by hiding in my comfort zone.
Blogging
Grow my Instagram:
I’ve put a lot more effort into Instagram as a
platform recently, and I want to keep pushing myself to take better photos and
create a more specific look and style.
Write more personal posts:
I love writing reviews, and that’s not going to
stop, but my favourite posts to read on other blogs are more personal and
reflective posts, and I want to begin slipping these into my own content. Hopefully
I’ll be able to conquer two goals in one and also find a way to reintroduce my
outfit posts.
Engage and interact:
As I mentioned earlier, since starting
full-time work, every spare second I have goes to writing my own posts and
working on my own blog, meaning I have almost no time to interact with other
bloggers and engage with their content. This year I want to set aside time to
do so, starting with one Twitter chat a week, and commenting on any photo,
tweet or post that I ‘like’. That doesn’t seem too difficult, does it?
Life
Make more of commutes:
I used to be really good at making my commutes
productive, but as I got more and more tired towards the end of the year, I
found myself using the time to nap or aimlessly scroll. I need to reclaim this
time to read, write and catch up on good TV.
Watch at least one new production or film a
week:
With London on my doorstep I want to take full
advantage, pushing myself to go to the theatre or cinema at least once a week. There’s
always room for more blog content…
Explore more:
This year is already set to be a great one for
travel, having booked a last-minute trip to New York next week, going out to
visit Tom in New Zealand while he’s living there and hopefully visiting my
good friend in Tokyo. But I’m also challenging myself to explore more of London
on foot, primarily using a book I got for Christmas that contains over loads of interesting short walks (all accessible from tube stops, so there's no excuse).
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