2017 Goals

Happy New Year! In true New Year tradition, after reflecting on the highlights of 2016 (here), I have set myself some goals for 2017, but before sharing these with you, I want to take a moment to look at the goals I set myself last year (here)...

Start university and have some amazing moments to reflect on- I successfully achieved this and although it started very rocky, I now already have some amazing friendships and some great memories, which I'm looking forward to adding to in 2017.
Do well in A2- I don't know as I'd particularly tick this one off. I'm happy with my sociology result, a bit annoyed with my English as I did worse than in my mock despite writing pages more and feeling more confident in what I wrote (I'm still not entirely sure where I went wrong as I did get my paper back but oh well), bringing it down slightly, which still got me a good grade overall but not quite what I aimed for. I'm also not so happy with my French result as I dropped a grade from AS to A2 but I did extra hours pretty much every week and concentrated on the subject as much as I could so I don't feel as though I could have done any more than I did. The exam was incredibly difficult and I know I probably made some silly mistakes but I knew it hadn't gone well as soon as I'd sat it! Results day wasn't my favourite day, I held it together (just about) 'til I got on the tram, shed a few discrete tears on the tram and then once I got to my grandmas, the tears just poured out... I could barely speak and knew my grandma had been waiting and waiting to hear the results, which made me feel even worse about it as I didn't want to let her down but she was so supportive and the last complete thing she said to me that I was able to understand was  '[we're] always always proud', which sums her up and will comfort me a lot in the future.

Improve my photography skills- I think I've improved slightly on this front but definitely need a bit more work on it. I'm happy with the flat lay style images I've done more recently and would love to work on those, in particular, to get them to a higher standard.

Goals for 2017:

• Fitness-  Is it really new year if you don't have a health and fitness goal? Yes, I know, everyone talks about improving health and fitness in the new year, which I would love to continue to work on but I think I've done alright with this the past year. Instead, I would like to challenge myself to be able to do clap press ups by the end of 2017... I did manage this a couple of times in early December but soon lost the knack. As I'm editing this, I have actually started this goal as yesterday, I managed to do a couple and now know how to work on them and improve so that I'll be able to do more and each one more successful in the future. I would also love to be able to do a pull-up and to have done some more boxing related to activities to improve in that area. At the moment, running is one of my weakest areas so I'd love to be able to do that more successfully next year as well (although I hate running so I'm probably going to regret saying that).

• Travel- I am looking forward to planning and actually travelling Europe in Summer with my cousin so although this is (hopefully) a definite one to complete, I want to include it in my goals as it is such a big experience and one that will hopefully teach me a lot, as well as give me so many memories! I also want to challenge myself to scrapbook along the way so that we can add comments and memories as we go, making it an ideal keepsake to treasure and look back on. 
• Snowboarding- I learnt to snowboard in 2016, which I'm so happy I can actually say. Although I definitely need to work on the skills a lot, I have the basic understanding and capability that I can build on so hopefully, I'll be able to work on it with the uni again either through a society or the lessons I did before. I'm also really looking forward to skiing/snowboarding abroad this year if all goes to plan.
• House- I hope this one happens sooner rather than later... I hope to find an ideal house for my second year at uni, we tried looking before Christmas but it didn't quite go to plan so hopefully we'll find a nice place, in an ideal location, suitable for us all asap!
• Blog/YouTube- I would love to grow my blog and channel throughout 2017, continuously producing content that improves each time and that people enjoy. It's been great this year for actually starting my channel and improving my blog so I hope 2017 is no different! I also want to comment on videos and blogs more, engaging with more people within the community as I often forget to do it but I think it's a great way to form friendships with like-minded people.
• Meet Severina- Following on from engagement within the community, I would love to meet Severina this year. She's such a good friend and I'd love to bring that friendship into the real world as well so hopefully, this will happen soon!
• Planner- I received a gorgeous planner for Christmas, which you may have seen in my video, and I would love to use it as much as possible this year. I often start diaries and forget about them a few weeks in but I feel as though it's too beautiful to forget. I have done a few bullet journal pages for over half of 2016 so I'm hoping to move those elements into my planner as well, which will hopefully make me use it even more.

So those are my goals for 2017, it'll be interesting to see how they all panned out in a years time. What are your goals or resolutions for the new year? I hope you enjoyed reading mine, if you did and want to read more from me, you can follow my social media links in the top right-hand corner to see when I next upload. Thank you for reading this post.

Love, Steph x