Happy New Year!

Can you believe it’s really 2018 already? I honestly don’t know where the year went. At some points, it was beyond difficult and at others, it was brilliant. I traveled and learned and graduated from college with a bachelors degree. I got my first job in my field and realized having money means you’ll spend more of it. I also attended my first music festival plus many more and connected to music I’ve always loved on a new level. I also fell into a deep reading slump and started to doubt my creativity with bookstagram. That was a challenging time, but I realized that being in love with books doesn’t change just because you can’t read 100 every year. Sometimes growing up means a change in priorities, and while I love books and how they add a touch of magic to my everyday life, I wouldn’t trade the travels and experiences I had this year. I’m learning to be okay with that and accept that I didn’t reach my GoodReads goal in 2017. That gave me some anxiety the last couple months, I won’t lie. Then I thought, why I’m I stressed about this thing I did to myself a year ago? I should just be proud I made it through 2017 in one piece, like we all should be. It was a shit-tastic year in a lot of respects.

But, none of that was the actual point of this post! I’m here to make some loose goals for myself in the coming year. Now, I’m gonna be honest with myself because I know there is no way I’m going to the gym every day or going gluten-free (I love bread too much anyway) or reading 200 books or blogging every single day. So these goals will be semi-realistic and also flexible. No hard dates. No specific numbers to attain. And that’ll give me a good head-start on one of my goals – avoid stressing about the high standards I set for myself and just let things be.

I’m going to separate my goals into personal and bookish, because that makes more sense in my brain 😉

Bookish Goals for ’18

• Post on this blog frequently enough that I feel proud of myself every time I hit the “publish” button
• Don’t be intimidated by all the astounding creativity on bookstagram and compare myself. Just be confident in what I like and keep posting because it makes me happy.
• Read all the books I want to read. No goals, no pressure. Just make a list of the books on my TBR I’ve been looking forward to the most and make my way through them.
• No buying books just because everyone is buying them. Read the books I have and stop buying books to “compete” with big accounts. Only buy books I”m genuinely excited about.
• Start writing down the words in my head. Even if they don’t  come out the way I want. Have faith that my writing will improve.
• Write until the pages are full and there is ink on my fingertips. And then write some more.

Personal Goals for ’18

• Travel to a different country with my new passport. Immerse myself in the culture. No acting like a tourist and playing it safe.
• Sing songs in the car as loud as I want and stop caring if the people in the cars around me think I am insane. I know I am, anyway 😉
• Keep expanding my music tastes and exploring new genres. Remember that music is a window into a little magic of its own.
• Remember to tell my mom I love her more often. Because she is amazing. And try not to regret not telling my dad enough while I could. He knew.
• Exercise to feel stronger and healthier. I’ve only got one body, one home for this soul of mine. Don’t treat it like it’s not special.
• Take more pictures of people. I don’t want to look back at only photos of sunsets and coffee. I want to remember laughing faces and smiles and tears and everything in between on the people I love.
• Try to be less introverted in the respect that I stop communicating with people. People need people. And the good people need effort to stay around. And I want to keep the good people and also meet more this year.
• Cherish waking up in the morning whether its raining or snowing or sunshine peaks in. This world of ours is a gift and it deserves our respect.
• Continue to fight for causes I believe in like equal rights for every human, equal pay, protecting the planet, promotion of love and acceptance, advocating for mental health support and treatment and awareness, and fighting hate.

So, those are my goals! I feel good about them and this next year. I wish you all a beautiful mess of a year that you can look back on and be proud of. Remember to always be proud of yourself, even if you just got through a bad day. That isn’t always as easy as they say. Also, the final thing I’ll leave you with is an important one.

Practice not giving a fuck. Life is so much freer when you can shrug off what everyone thinks of you and just be. Be happy. Be silly. Be fearless and kind. Be Luna Lovegood. 😉 

Cheers and love! ❤