Sunday

2018 goals

As I've mentioned over and over again, 2017 was a difficult year. The first half was great, if stressful. The second half was awful and still stressful. For 2018, I want to just relax and find my feet again. I've set just five goals for next year- three personal and two blogging- so I can live life a little more gently and recover from the last six months. 

2018 blog goals resolutions


PERSONAL GOALS

Visit 6 cities

It's not even January yet and I already have two cities booked: a trip to Liverpool in a couple of weeks and a day trip to Copenhagen in March. I'm flying out first thing in the morning, arriving at lunchtime and then getting a flight home at 11pm. At the moment I'm not sure if this is genius or stupid but we shall see! If all works out, I'll see about trying some more day trips in future. I'm also planning to spend a night in Bucharest with my Hotels.com Reward Night (seriously, if you travel a lot, it's well worth signing up because after staying ten nights, you get one for free), and hopefully I'll eventually get hold of a Eurovision ticket for Lisbon. Of course I'll make a trip to Salzburg as usual, and we're planning a very fancy trip to St Lucia for my 30th birthday. I'm very excited about that! Maybe I'll be able to add another couple of cities before the year is out. We'll see!

Start a travel journal

My grandparents travelled a lot and my grandad kept at least one travel journal, in which he recorded what he'd done in each city and added little watercolour illustrations. My lifetime goal is to visit every country in Europe, and I thought it would be nice to keep my own travel journal with a double page spread for each country. Maybe one day I can pass it on to my own grandchildren to admire, much as I loved my grandad's. 

Read 65 books

In 2017, I managed to read 60 books. It was my target in 2016 but I only made it to 52 so I was very glad to finally achieve it, especially since I was so busy with my studies. I've got a lot of free time until I (hopefully) start my PhD in October, so I'm sure I can squeeze in an extra five. Lots of little books are the key, I think! 

Start my PhD

This absolutely terrifies me so I'm trying not to think too far ahead! My master's tutor has agreed to supervise me for my PhD and I'll be meeting her in January to talk about the application process. The deadline is in May for an October start so I've got a lot of time to prepare. I've already started reading books about writing PhDs and studying journal articles relevant to my subject. I don't want to go into too much detail about my proposal before it's accepted but as a broad outline, I'm looking at combining my teaching experience with my death degree and researching approaches for teachers to support bereaved children. I'll explain a lot more once I get going and I'll keep you up to date with my preparation & application.

BLOGGING GOALS

Blog regularly again

2017 was the worst year ever in terms of creating blog content. My five month hiatus was unplanned but very much necessary, and now I'm all fired up and ready to go! With the next 10 months free of studying (although I anticipate the preparation will still take a lot of time), I've got much more time to get into a regular schedule and I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things.

Improve Instagram engagement 

The good news is I'm finally nearly back to the number of followers I had in July. Woohoo! I wanted to reach 5k in 2017 and 12 months on, I'm only 1400 away. Great work, Becky! Maybe by the end of 2018 I can manage it. Some more engagement would be great too. Regular posting, replying to comments and engaging with others is my very basic strategy. Let's see how it pans out.

If there's one thing I've learned this year, it's that life never turns out the way you expect. I can't wait to see what 2018 has in store for me. I've stopped even trying to guess!

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7 comments :

  1. I love the travel journal idea! Good luck with your Copenhagen day trip - sounds exhausting but if it works could be an excellent way to see new places without forking out for hotels...

    Happy new year, I hope 2018 is a less stressful one for you x

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  2. Good luck with PhD applications - so exciting and your broad outline sounds super interesting!

    NINEGRANDSTUDENT: A Foodie Blog

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  3. Sorry to hear 2017 wasn't too great for you, I hope 2018 is much better! Good luck with the PhD applications - it sounds like a really interesting path you're taking! x www.aimeeraindropwrites.co.uk x

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  4. I am SO impressed (and a little jealous) by your PhD plans. I've been toying with the idea since I finished my MA back in 2013. I'm so worried about regrets and the like, so would love to read about your experiences and journey! GOOD LUCK with that, you're going to be amazing. What a year you have lined up!

    Happy New Year!

    Jo x
    Jo Fisher Writes

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  5. I love the idea of a travel journal, good luck with your adventures - I'm on the same page with blogging too I really need to get back into the groove of it

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  6. A travel journal is such a beautiful idea and also we share a lifetime goal! Happy travelling, can't wait to see your posts about where you go <3

    blog.doodleheart.co.uk

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  7. I like the 65 books thing... I'mma try that too!

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