My personal goals for 2019.

The end of the calendar year is a great time to reflect on the previous 12 months, both in your personal life and on your career.

I’ve had an interesting year, with lots of change happening. Two house moves, a career change, and I passed two exams which I studied very hard for.

It’s really difficult to classify whether it’s been a ‘successful’ year because for me there’s no clear definition of success.

There are a few things I probably should’ve done more of, and a few things I probably should’ve done less of.

So, I thought it would be a great time to write a short article on the small changes that I’d like to make moving into the next year.

Writing down and sharing my goals definitely makes me feel more accountable, so here goes!

Learn Spanish – I’ve always wanted to learn a second language. A few of my housemates are bilingual, and a good friend of mine is German, so speaking to her in English motivates me to want to learn a second language. English people are typically quite lazy because most other countries can speak English. My method to learning Spanish will be using a podcast called ‘CoffeeBreak Spanish’ which I’d highly reccomend, alongside taking lessons weekly with a tutor. I’ve found Skype lessons to work out considerably cheaper, and you don’t need to leave the comfort of your own home.

Travel more – With a change in careers, it’s allowed me to have a lot more flexibility in terms of taking holiday. In my previous job role I worked every Saturday, making it very difficult to plan any sort of ‘weekend away’. I took the bulk of my holiday in the off-season, which had it benefits as once it came round I could travel for an extended period of time. My most recent journey this summer was a 25 day trip around Mexico. Since then, and starting my new role I really haven’t utilised the flexibility as well as I could’ve, and there’s lots of the world I’d still love to see. We live in an age that travelling is very accessible. Our grandparents could only have imagined quickly hopping on a plane and being in a different country within an hour. In 2019, I’d like to visit lots of the world which I haven’t been to yet. Visting Five different countries would be great.

Drink more water – This should be a really easy one, but by 6 pm most evenings, I find I’m ridiculously thirsty. As I work in an office, we have access to fluids at all times, so there really is no excuse.  With the body being made up of 60% water there are numerous negative physical and cognitive implications of dehydration, so hopefully, this should leave me springing around the office.

Mollie and I went through a phase where we’d both bring a big bottle of water in each day and aimed to finish it before we left, so bringing this strategy back in could be a good start.

Read more  – I used to commute to work via train, and found this a great time to read a few pages of a book a day.  Now I either drive or car share, so I really need to use this time more productively when I’m getting a lift with a colleague, or schedule time to read before bed rather than using my phone. A book a month is a reasonable target. All book recommendations are welcomed!

I’d be really interested in hearing your targets for next year.

This is a bit of an on-going list which I’ll update as I continue to reflect over the Christmas period!

Happy Christmas to you all.