I went into 2020 with A LOT of goals in mind. Thirty to be exact. Which is a crazy amount for even myself. Now that it is transitioning into Fall, I thought it would be a good time to check in with myself and reflect on my goals for 2020.

Goals

Goals that I have worked on/accomplished so far include:

• continuing consistently working out

• learning to play the ukulele

• learning new cooking recipes

• continuing to write blog posts

• creating a website for myself

• finding a therapist in Boston

• crying when I need to and accepting my feelings as valid and okay

• learning to be more disciplined with drinking in moderation

• making one new friend in Boston

• creating a relaxing nighttime routine

• calling my mom once a week

• doing more things by myself

• keeping in contact with friends from home

A few notes…

First of all, some of these are going to be ongoing, for example learning how to play the ukulele and learning new recipes. But I’m glad I’ve spent some time focusing on them.

Second of all, I am ridiculously proud of myself for actually making a blog! AND having it out in the public, literally exposing myself to the world. That’s crazy! But I’m so glad I did it! I have gotten such amazing feedback from you guys that really makes my day :)) It makes me so happy that you actually like reading my stuff! It makes me kind of emotional when someone tells me they were inspired to do something because I talked about it in a blog post, or just by me creating my blog :’) It’s honestly so inspiring to encourage others to be the best versions of themselves and achieve their dreams.

It’s also crazy how much I have learned just going through the process of writing posts, creating a website, maintaining a website, developing an aesthetic/brand for myself, creating an Instagram, and hiring someone to help me out. That’s a crazy amount of learning and I have loved it all!!!!!! It has truly been so fun and definitely is one of the highlights of this year/lowkey maybe even of my life?? Is that too far?? Also I have loved meeting new people from my Instagram! The blogger community is so cool and so special, everyone is so nice and just wants to see you grow, which I love.

I am really proud of how consistent I have been with my working out, both pre pandemic and during! This is my second year of having a very consistent workout routine and I absolutely love it. I think the next step of my fitness journey is to become a certified pilates and yoga instructor because I really want to teach my own classes. I don’t even know if I can get my certification online/if I would want to do that, but I am going to start turning my attention to that. Would you guys be interested in following my journey to becoming a pilates/yoga instructor?? Let me know here or message me on Instagram!

Also a quick note on alcohol consumption, I am in no way an alcoholic. But I have experienced phases where I was drinking an amount that I felt was not healthy for me. I think this is a natural problem many people face during their college years. Drinking more than I should always leads to a lot of negative side effects for myself. The ones that bother me the most are increased anxiety and weight gain. When I first moved to Boston, I found myself drinking a little too much for my liking and thus made it a goal to be more conscious and disciplined about my alcohol intake. I’ve learned that if I want to have alcohol, I should be in a good mood and try to limit it to two drinks a night. Anything more than that seems to make me very anxious the next day, at least during the pandemic or in times of general high stress. I have struggled with capping myself at two drinks when I’m with other people who are drinking, but am learning to be more disciplined in order to feel better. Let me know if you want to hear more about my alcohol “journey.” I feel like I could do a whole post on what I did to be more disciplined (for lack of a better word) with drinking.

Going into the Fall, some of the goals I want to focus more on is making more time for art, carving out specific time every week to be off my phone and laptop, and reading more. I started out strong with my reading this year and then kind of fell off. I also want to remember to give myself more grace when I am dealing with hardships.

Words For 2020

When I was creating my New Year’s goals/resolutions this year, I also chose a few words to guide me this year. I got this idea from an old friend, whose family picks out words from a hat every New Year’s eve. The word you pick is supposed to encourage you or guide you through the new year. Instead of picking words from a hat, I decided to choose words I thought were reflected in my list of new year’s goals. The words I choose to guide my through the year were:

Growth

Acceptance

Independence

Change

And as great of an idea as this sounds, honestly I completely forgot that I did this until I looked at my goals again during my check-in. Just goes to show there’s really only so much you can do when creating intentions and goals for the new year. The good thing is, all the reflection I did going into 2020 paid off! Despite the fact that I kind of forgot my guiding words, I actually managed to focus on a lot of them without realizing it. The first half of 2020 I unintentionally focused on actually maybe all of these words, but I felt there was a strong emphasis on independence and acceptance.

Currently I am facing a lot of change in my life, so I am kind of forced to focus on that word at the moment. I am super not great at change and transition periods, so I am really trying to have a more open mind and be more accepting. Meditation has really helped to de-center my ego in situations and helped lessen my need for control, so I can let things happen naturally.

Going into the second half of the year, I am focusing on a new type of growth. I feel like I have spent a lot of time this year focusing on my emotional growth but now I want to shift my attention more towards my professional development. I have already signed up for a women’s mentorship program that I’m really excited about! They upload crash course videos every month on different business aspects. They also have an online community for networking opportunities and to just talk ideas out with like minded women. I also might try to take this creative entrepreneurial course in January, but I am still exploring that. There’s also another online community I want to try out that helps you target your goals (both personal and professional) and helps you come up with a plan to bring them to life.

Intentions

I also wanted to set some intentions for myself going into the second half of the year. I really like intention setting because it feels a little more forgiving than goals. To me, goals are tangible things you work towards, and intentions are more thoughts you want to have in the back of your mind to help ground you.

Here are some of my intentions going forward:

• Be more intentional in general (with my decisions, who I choose to spend time with, the jobs I apply to, etc.) I want to make sure I am really taking the time to make thoughtful decisions for myself.

• Take advantage of living in Virginia, explore parts I have never been to. My Thursday Adventures in New England made me realize how little I’ve explored my home state, so I am excited to do a lot more adventuring around here.

• Be here now. This phrase is something one of my 8th grade homeroom teachers said to our class once and it has stuck with me since. Being present in the moment is an intention I always remind myself of. I love to plan, and as a result end up fixating on the future so much that I forget to fully appreciate the moments I am living through. That’s not how I want to live, so I always remind myself to “be here now.”

Here’s to a happy fall and some refocused intentions!