New year, new goals. I have set my own 12 goals for 2020. They mostly seem to revolve around the topics of health/exercise and money. Even though this might not always be obvious I have for myself determined the objectives to reach those goals. I have been a fan of these so called SMART goals (specific – measurable – achievable – relevant – time-bound) for the bigger part of the last decade because we used them for all concepts and action plans we wrote at work. I therefore find it slightly amusing that every blog seems to talk of them (only) now – but only slightly because I find this kind of goals highly useful.
- Starting with the first month of the year, I want to have a dry January. Let’s see how it goes in the City where everyone seems to social drink a lot. I would make one exception though: In case we’ll get a full snow day, I’ll meet my girls for boozy brunch.
- I successfully want to participate in 29 Days of Blogging in February, just like in the last few years. Nadine from But first, create! organizes another round of daily blogging for a whole month and I can’t wait.
- I want to blog at least twice a week and I want to grow my Instagram. The number of my followers has been at a standstill for several months and I feel it is time to change that.
- Just like in previous years I want to continue reading a lot of books. You can follow my reading journey here on Goodreads where I set my goal for at least 52 books for 2020.
- I plan to hit the gym two times a week from now on. Ideally it would be three times though because I have also started a running program again with the help of the C25K app. It should train me to run for 30 minutes within 8 weeks. Also, I should just go because I pay for the membership.
- Talking of the gym. I didn’t move much for the last two years and eventually put on a bit of weight (or as my PCP put it: it’s the age – well, thank you, but you don’t know how much I’ve been eating). I plan to go back to my comfort weight. This mainly means for me that I shouldn’t eat two warm meals a day. And less alcohol as mentioned under 1.
- I also want to eat and drink more plant-based alternatives. I don’t think I’ll ever go fully vegetarian or vegan because I like certain tastes and traditions just too much, like sausages on Christmas Eve and a duck on Christmas Day. But otherwise I can easily reduce my intake of animal-based products. Especially at work where I get a (very delicious) free lunch every day (yay!!!), I want to opt for the vegetarian meal three times a week. Besides, I want to use more substitutes for milk in my coffee.
- I want to finally visit my best friend in North Carolina. She moved there over a year ago and, even though I talk to her on the phone regularly, I haven’t seen her since.
- I just subscribed to AMC Stubs A-List – a monthly membership to the cinema. As I have always enjoyed going to the movies, I hope to do this regularly (by regularly I mean often enough that the subscription pays off). I think the subscription mostly pays off because of my profession as a teacher and all that vacation time. Only this Christmas vacation I have gone to the cinema four times (Jumanji: The Next Level; Knives Out; Bombshell; and tonight Cats).
- I would love to pay off my credit cards until the end of the year. This means for me to be more aware of when I spend money. I can’t go to as many sample sales anymore. Instead I should wear all my beautiful clothes and use up my beauty products before buying new ones. I should also do my taxes early.
- Relatedly, I really really really don’t want to move. After six moves within the last decade, I don’t mind staying in our beautiful apartment for longer. I mention this because I have realized how expensive every move is (just consider all the money the estate agents get). Plus I love our apartment very much.
- Last but not least, I want to pass at least five courses on Future Learn. I bought the unlimited package for a year and want to learn a few new things. I especially like this platform because it caters towards many different interests so that I leave my teacher bubble every now and then (well, and then again some courses are just about that, teaching).
What are your 2020 resolutions?
© janavar