2018 Goals
Hi all, I hope you’re doing well. 2018 is here and its time for my annual goal post, which to be quite honest, I publish for myself. I mean sure, if it encourages or inspired any of you then I’m very happy about it ^_^ but by putting them onto my blog, it kind of holds me accountable for it and in the past I’ve done mid-year reviews on them too, which helps me to stay on track! This year I’ve been able to plan my goals in an even more organised way, thanks to my beautiful new planner…and I’ve had a couple of questions about it so I’m going to be sharing it in tomorrows post. I love planners, stationary, notebooks. It’s definitely my second favourite hobby and you might know that if you’ve already watched my papergang unboxing.
Anyway I digress, this post will have the majority of my goals, there are a couple of personal ones I won’t be typing up but lets hope I can work on them ALL consistently.
Personal Goals
1. Cut down on impulse spending (food AND makeup)
It was actually a little bit scary when I sat down in the holidays and totalled up my spending over the month. Yes it was sales galore and I’m always one for a bargain, but what shocked me the most was actually the amount of money I splashed around in supermarkets. £15 here, £25 there and suddenly a whole wad of cash built up, just like that. I’m lucky, I don’t need to buy lunch for weekdays as teachers get to eat free in the lunch hall – but for breakfasts, coffees and snacks I do like to have my own classroom stash. This year however I’m definitely going to be either taking out cash and not using my card at all, in order to stick to my budget, or possibly just online shopping! What works for you? In terms of makeup, I won’t go into it too much, but stay tuned on my channel to see what I’m trying to do throughout the year…fingers crossed it works 😅.
2. One line of Quran and Salah
So often I’ve typed that I want to increase my spiritual attachment with Allah and honestly what steps have I taken towards it? I can scroll through mindless social media for hours on end, watch netflix and youtube without realising where the hours go by. And it actually makes me quite upset how distant I have become from my deen. I can think of several reasons why, but in reality they are not good enough. They’re all excuses. So I want to start off slow, yet steady. A line a day takes a minute at the most and when I set myself a target like this, realistically I’ll be able to read a lot more, cause sometimes the hardest part is just beginning.
3. Start earning a little more from SM
This has never really been a goal for me before, so it excites me that I can now set it as a target for myself. Alhamdulillah I have a proper job now, a career in fact and so money is not something I need. However, seeing the potential to earn from the hard work put into social media opens up a world of possibilities. 2018 marks the fifth year that I started this blog and earning more than a tenner a month, to put towards my equipment, my channel and my blog would be fantastic. I don’t know if it’ll happen, but I’m putting it on my metaphorical vision board and speaking it into existence ^_^
Health and Fitness
4. Maintain my current weight
I think this is the first time I’ve refrained from writing ‘go to the gym consistently’, or something along those lines. Since I’ve been working full time for a whole term, I’ve realised that for me personally the gym is just not something that I can fit into my life at the moment. I am simply too exhausted from the daily responsibilities and routines of being a teacher, to then properly work out afterwards. And believe me I have tried! But when I got to the gym, I just felt completely unmotivated. Another reason is because I work in a two storey building and I’m continuously going up and down stairs, with heavy bags too. So because of this alone I already feel fitter and…also I’m just really happy with my current weight (not that I know the exact figure). But I’ve lost some chub, I look slim enough without feeling too skinny for me personally, so my 2018 goal is just to maintain it!
Work & career
5. Pass my NQT year with flying colours
One term down, two to go! So I don’t know how many people know this, but you have to actually pass your newly-qualified year in order to become maintain your status of a qualified teacher and you have 5 years from receiving your QTS certificate in order to do that. The start of my year so far has been going well, some challenges here and there but nothing too difficult Alhamdulillah and I’m just praying I’m able to pass with success.
6. Get a grasp on my workload
This is somewhat related to the above, but in order to be able to pass I really need to find a way to work smart. That’s kind of my 2018 motto – work smarter, not harder. Because I HAVE worked really hard and I’ve proven myself capable of achieving what I set my mind too, so I know I can do it. However theres got to be a smart way of organising my self and my time, so that my to-do list gets shorter and I still maintain a balance! There just has to be, and I’m really going to do my best to figure it out.
And those are my 6 goals for twenty-eighteen! Have you set goals or resolutions this year? Please share, I’d love to know ^_^