Happy New Year to all of you! I hope you have had a wonderful start into the new year!
I celebrated the turn of the year in Montreal where I went to with a friend for a few days. Now that my two weeks of Christmas week are almost over, I feel much more relaxed and in a more creative mood. Last year really was my worst in blogging since I started in 2010. I never found my routine. Also, the year started unexpectedly stressful when I suddenly had to deal with a big tax issue. It took months to resolve it, which left me exhausted. Other events only added to that feeling. Like me moving in summer when the moving company didn’t turn up. Going to Germany in summer to extend my work visa – which went smoothly, but I am always a little scared. Going on a two week school trip to Germany in September, during which I didn’t even have half a day off. My boyfriend moved away from Boston last summer, so did my best friend a few months afterwards. Work has been tiring because, thanks to me not saying no enough, I have ended up working a little more than a full time position. That even caused me back pain.
But saying that, there were obviously many great things in 2018, too. I fell in love and have a wonderful relationship, which allows me to travel to New York City all the time. I had amazing Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays thanks to my boyfriend and his family. My own family is well and so are my friends. Canavar still is the best cat in the world. Even though I left him alone for longer periods of time, he still loves me profoundly. I got to travel to Washington D.C., Maine, Germany, the Dominican Republic, and Montreal. I made some new friends. I finally live alone again and found a pretty, little studio in a beautiful neighborhood in Cambridge. In November I successfully conducted a workshop at a professional development conference for the first time. At the end of the year I even addressed my stress of work, and we found a satisfactory solution, which will take effect in February. Oh, and only recently I managed to zip up a pair of my favorite jeans again without problems, i.e. without having to lie down and holding my breath.
All in all I believe my 2018 was quite balanced and in the long run I will more likely remember its positive sides. Now is the time to start optimistically into 2019. I finally feel my creative vibes again and can’t wait to blog more consistently. Besides this I have some other goals for this new year:
- Use up instead of buying: I still have plenty of beauty products that somehow seem to rather multiply than die. The same is true for my stocks of food. This is why I hope to plan better ahead and first use the things I already own.
- Travel a little more: Last year I went almost only to places I had been to before, but in 2019 I want to explore new places. We will start in February when we fly to Las Vegas, where I actually went to in 2016 [here], and then drive to the national parks.
- Cook and bake more: I have improved a lot and buy much less takeaway coffee than before. But I want to make my own food at home even more regularly. There are days when I feel too tired to cook and then I end up buying some overpriced meal in the next supermarket. Even “cooking” a sandwich would be fine. But in general I’d like to go back to making much more of my own food.
- Take more walks outside: As the weather has become worse and I have become so comfortable going everywhere in my car, I have spent way too little time outside. I really want to try and squeeze more walks into my weeks.
- Spend less time on my phone: I could do better and save much time if I didn’t play so many little games on my phone, or if I only opened Instagram two or three times a day instead of all the time in between.
- Be more mindful: I often get so lost in work and other tasks that I forget how much else there is to life. I want to pay more attention in general. That includes not multi-tasking much.
- Continue reading as much: I enjoy reading and even subscribed to Kindle Unlimited* last year. I hope to read as much in 2019. I also plan on reading more of my stack of unread books.
- Step out of my comfort zone more often: I feel very comfortable with most things I do. It will thus be a big step to try things like sleeping in a tent or walking in mountains (I still refuse to call it hiking) because those are things my boyfriend likes a lot.
- Something that isn’t %100 offical yet, but will be big. I can’t wait to let you know.
What are your goals for 2019?
© janavar
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