My take on New Year's Resolutions

Seeing as we've officially entered a brand new decade, I thought it'd be fitting to set some insanely ambitious goals and make some proper new year's resolutions - and to actually stick to them this year! I'm embarrassed to say I've always been rather terrible at new year's resolutions. I tend to set myself all these grand and ambitious goals, but I rarely execute or accomplish a lot, if any, of them. Well, 2020 certainly calls for change in this arena. At the end of this year I want to be able to say I have accomplished all, if not most, of the goals I set for myself way back on the 3rd of January 2020.

To give you an idea of just how extensive and elaborate my goals for this year are, I've actually divided the goals I hope to achieve into different CATEGORIES. I know some of you might be wondering why on earth I feel the need to share my goals for this year in a blog post for everyone to see. Well, the reason for this is pretty simple - accountability. With my goals out in the open for tens of people to see, I will probably be far more motivated and encouraged to actually make sure I reach them.

With regards to why I'm even setting these goals in the first place and why all of us should have new year's resolutions for that matter, a simple Google search will enlighten you quite a bit. The thing is, you don’t have to wait for a new year to make changes. If at any time you feel your life isn’t where you want it, you can do something about it. I agree with this sentiment 100%. However, I still love the feeling of a new year and a fresh start. And that's exactly it. A new year means resetting your mind and making the decision to do something you want for yourself or for others. And that's exactly what I hope to achieve this year. Although I won't go into the exact depth and details of each and every one of these goals I've set for myself (some things should be a bit more private), here's a breakdown of what I hope to accomplish in 2020.

As far as academic goals are concerned, I hope to pass my second year of studying law with distinction. This is a pretty simple one and one which shouldn't be TOO far out of reach, realistically speaking.

In the fitness arena, I have a LOT of goals I hope to reach. Firstly, and probably the most cliche of them all (literally every single person has had this new year's resolution before), I would like to drop just a few kilograms. Only because I know I've been living my best life as far as chocolates and sweets and desserts are concerned and it's honestly just become a bit ridiculous. Secondly, I would like to dedicate 7 minutes of every single day (come literal hell or high water) doing ab exercises of any kind whatsoever, just as long as I get it done. I've had this goal since 2016 probably and I have NEVER managed to go through with it. The last two fitness goals are pretty much just about challenging myself and pushing my limits: I would like to be able to do just ONE unassisted pull-up by the end of 2020 (major, I know) and I would also like to be able to run 12 kilometres before the end of 2020, mostly because I hope to run a half marathon before I turn 21, so I might as well start practicing this year already.

My personal development goals are the ones I hold dearest. Personal development is one of the most important things in my life and it's something I prioritise quite highly. First and foremost, I plan on reading a new book every single month; hence, 12 books for 2020. It sounds pretty doable, but I know this is going to be hella challenging when exams and test weeks start bombarding me. The book I'm reading now for January is Dominion by Tom Holland (no, not the Spiderman dude) and it's been so interesting thus far. Secondly, I want to learn a new language. This is a big goal and a really challenging one. I've been building up a decent basis in both German and Italian since 2017 already, but this year I want to focus on becoming fluent in German, seeing as it'll probably be easier due to the slight resemblance it has to my home language, which is Afrikaans. And my final personal development goal is an either/or kind of goal, because I'm still not entirely sure which way I'm going to go with it. I hope to either make a great deal of progress on my blog (ie, updating and editing my site to make it better, implementing some SEO features, cranking out more frequent and useful content like 3-4 posts per month, etc. or to start a top secret alternative project using a concept I've been working on for about 5 months now. It may or may not entail a YouTube channel. But like I said, still working on this goal and its execution.

Moreover, how can I forget about financial goals? I have only two financial goals and both of them are pretty straightforward: I hope to have a hefty amount in savings at the end of this year and I hope to teach myself the skill of investing and to eventually start investing sometime during this year.

And finally, I have a major travelling goal for this year. Let me just start off by saying that I have dreamt of going to New York probably since before I was even 10 years old. It is the most long-standing thing on my bucket list ever and this is the year I hope to finally get there. My biggest dream for 2020 is to spend Christmas in New York. No, I do not yet know how I'm going to fund it or who I'm going with, but I am going to do everything I can to make this happen.

Definitely can't say I lack ambition, huh? I've always been a dreamer and a just a tad idealistic, but hopefully this will be the year when I can say "I have reached every single one of my goals." So wherever you are right now, stop what you're doing and go write down some goals if you haven't done so already. Do that thing you've been wanting to do for so long but you were too scared of what people would think if you actually did it. Say sorry to that person you're holding a grudge against. Go tell the person you love that you love them. Save up for that thing you've been dying to buy for ages or for that trip you've wanted to take for years. 2020 is the year we make things happen, friends.

PS. If you're looking for a rad journal to write down your 2020 goals in, click the link on my blog's homepage to shop an awesome journal I personally love to use.