Here we have it, 2020 is finally here and as usual I would like to make a few New Year’s Resolutions. January can be depressing but one thing I do like about the New Year is that it feels like there are endless possibilities. I can become a new and better me. Of course that will probably last all of three weeks (if I’m lucky) before I slip back into my old habits but you never know! I thought it might be fun to look at the resolutions I made for 2019 first, see if I achieved them before setting myself some new ones for 2020!
So let’s see whether I achieved my 2019 goals.
1. Do Something Fun Every Month
I make this resolution every year and always follow through with it because it’s relatively easy. I go on holiday, I go to the theatre, I go out and do fun things with my friends, it generally just happens without me even having to think about it. I won’t name every single fun thing I did this year because I already have a post of my favourite memories from 2019 but I know for a fact I managed this.
2. Make More of an Effort to Eat Homemade
Right – by homemade I meant ‘not getting a tray of chicken nuggets and chips and just whacking them in the oven’. It meant actually standing there and cooking. So even if I bought a readymade stir-fry and just got the chicken and noodles etc. to put in I was counting that as homemade because it was better than just sticking something frozen in the oven. And to be fair I did improve on this, it was only at the end of the year that I began to slip.
As an overall I think I mostly managed it but not as well as I could have. There’s definitely room for improvement!
3. Spend Less Time on my Laptop
For the first few weeks I did alright at this – I was reading more, went to the gym etc. so although I still went on it I was doing a lot better. But then of course I soon slipped back into my old ways and by the end of the year I’m spending just as much time on my laptop as I used to. So unfortunately I did fail this one.
4. Get Back into Writing
The less said about this the better because I didn’t get back into writing. I still write my blog posts and the occasional short story for my friends but I was hoping to work on ‘the novel’ this year and of course, did not. I won’t even go into more detail on this one.
5. Start Exercising Again
Okay, I did alright at this for the first few months. I got a gym membership and me and my friend Becca aimed to go to the gym at least three times a week. We did dip occasionally but on the whole we were doing okay. On Wednesday’s we went to a circuit’s class and then spent the other two sessions doing normal gym. When the summer approached we weren’t keen on getting sweaty in the gym so started doing swimming again. Then around the September mark it quickly went downhill and now I’m paying for a gym membership that I’ve used once in the past three months.
If you think about it technically I did achieve the goal because I did start exercising again, I just unfortunately didn’t keep it going for the whole year. I think personally I preferred the classes and the swimming to the actual gym so maybe I’ll need to put together a fitness regime for the New Year!
6. Book another Out-of-Continent Trip with my Friends
Although we didn’t go out-of-continent together me, Becca and Jess all did return to Asia. I went to Hong Kong by myself for my birthday and the two of them travelled to Bali and Singapore for their birthdays. But unfortunately we didn’t book anything altogether. We are talking about going to Thailand in 2020 so maybe I’ll achieve this next year instead.
There we have it, I only fully achieved one of my resolutions last year but made a good stab at some of the others. At least my intentions were good I suppose?
Now to set my new resolutions for 2020!
Continue to do Something Fun Every Month
I make this resolution every year and I plan to continue it probably every year until I die. Everyone should always have something to look forward to at any given time. I couldn’t stand knowing I have nothing coming up in the next month or so – luckily I haven’t had that problem for a long time. But yes, I will continue with this resolution!
Declutter My Room
For my birthday this year I wasn’t actually all that excited about getting presents as I realised I had literally nowhere to put them. My room was overflowing and although I’ve often justified this by saying that if I had my own place (apartment or house etc.) I wouldn’t have all that much stuff I think I was wrong. There’s so much stuff in my room that I don’t need or use so I’ve decided I’m going to have to be a bit more harsh on myself and just completely declutter.
I am the kind of person who holds on to stuff ‘just in case’ or for ‘sentimental value’ but now is the time to stop. I began the weekend before New Year and already have four bin bags full of stuff to take to the charity shop. Unfortunately I’ve counteracted this by buying more things online but those are stuff I need (new clothes, a backpack etc.) I’m going to do my best to reduce how much I have in my room and then maybe make an effort to actually keep it tidy. We’ll see how long that lasts though.
Get Back into Writing
I say this every single year but I mean it this year! I’m even planning on going on a writing retreat (assuming I actually book it) to get some inspiration. I ideally really want a book published before I turn 30 so I kind of need to get on that now. I need to find a way to motivate myself to actually write but I’m sure I’ll think of something! I’m so determined to get this done.
My general plan is to write at least 1000 words of ‘the novel’ each day and not to focus if they’re ‘good’ or not. I started on New Year’s Day and I’m well aware that it’s not good and there will need to be a lot of edits in the future but for now it’s important to just get something down on the paper. 1000 words a day should be relatively easy but can be frustrating when I have no idea where to go next with the plot but I need to find ways around that – for example jumping forward and just writing a part that I know how to write. The book doesn’t have to be written completely start to finish after all.
We’ll see what happens but I’m DETERMINED to give this a go. Even if it’s unpublishable I want a proper first draft. I’ve only ever written ‘one full novel’ and the more I think about that I wasn’t even proud of it, it was a train wreck – although I am proud that I managed to write 70,000 words.
Sort out a Plan for the Decade
I don’t know if this is just because I’m having another existential crisis or what but like I want something to achieve. Something to work towards. And I’ve decided that although I love my job, I love the money I make, I love the people I work with – I want MORE. I want to do something that I love and that I know I’m good at. I’d prefer a job where I make people happy again, instead of miserable like my current job.
I also want to keep it realistic though. So I was thinking of writing some short-term goals mixed with some long-term ones. I have no idea what they will be yet but I’m going to sit down and give it a good think I guess. I know publishing a book will be a long-term goal but I have no idea what to do about my current career. I sent a stressed email to my ex-college teacher asking for advice and he was like ‘just stay where you are for now as you can afford to do what you like and as you say you may regret it’ which I suppose was practical but not really the advice I was hoping for. I’m hoping some goals will help me put things in perspective of what I want out of my life.
Tick Three Items off my Bucket List
A couple of years ago I wrote a bucket list which you can find here. In 2018 I ticked off a fair few things but in 2019 it sort of came to a standstill and I can’t say I ticked off much at all (except read at least two new books per month for a year ‘cos I managed that). This year I might get back on that and try to tick off a few things. I was going to say tick off five things but some of the items on the list are either expensive or require a lot of planning so that might be a bit unrealistic. But I think three should be much more manageable.
Then again I did take steps towards achieving some of the items on the list they just weren’t immediate if you know what I mean – for example one of the items is ‘visit every Disney Park in the World’. I ticked the Hong Kong Park off in 2019. So I’m a step closer to achieving it but I obviously can’t say I’ve completely done it for ages yet.
I may go through and edit the list as some of the things I put on there were either a bit optimistic or actually don’t interest me as much as I thought they did at the time I wrote it. But either way I’m determined to tick off at least three items this year!
Stop Spending My Evenings Browsing Tumblr
When I was 14 I’d scroll through Tumblr safe in the knowledge that I’d eventually grow out of it. I’d be an adult and I’ve had more important things to do than scroll mindlessly through one of the worst sites on the internet looking at gifs of shows I used to be interested in so I followed a bunch of specific blogs but now actually aren’t that interested in. Bedtime, go to work the next day and repeat.
I want to start having more of a variety – practicing my piano more, reading more books (my Good Reads challenge this year is 30!), even watching a Netflix series or a movie just anything that doesn’t involve sitting on that hell site all night. I’m being a bit hard on myself as I don’t just do that every evening, I do other things but by 9PM you can guarantee that that’s what I’m doing before I go to bed. It’s not just a waste of time it’s also super boring.
Obviously I’ll still have the odd night where I just want to chill and do something mindless but God not every single night!
So there we have it, my New Year’s Resolutions for the year. Wish me lucky because God knows I need it!
Hozzie Writes 