2019 is finally here.
A brand new year, a clean slate. And although 2018 has been amazing and I am beyond happy with the growth I’ve done throughout, it is time for me to move forward, set new goals and plan how I am going to achieve them.
And this is essentially what this new blog series is all about.
Smashing Resolutions will follow how I am planning on meeting my goals for 2019, and track my progress towards completing my New Year’s resolutions. I figured that, by having to share my experience of pursuing my goals on the blog, I will feel more inclined to make significant progress and stick to the resolutions I set for myself.
Every week on Wednesday, I will post an update reviewing the goals I decided to pursue in the last week, how much progress I’ve made on them and what I seek to achieve in the week following. To my own experiences, I want to add little tips, tricks and advice that I found useful in my own progress that week.
With Smashing Resolutions, I want to give you an illustrative example for the sort of things that I write about on the blog. Building positive habits, finding motivation, taking care of your mental health? Instead of preaching about these topics, I will just show you how to do it.
I will also provide you with a candid coverage of my personal development journey: the good and the bad, the highs and the lows, the victories and the failures – because they are all part of the ride.
I am also expecting this project to develop with time but for now, this is pretty much what you ought to see!
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Before I can talk to you about how I am planning on completing my resolutions, it’s only fair I share what my resolutions for 2019 are.
This is how my resolutions looked like when I put them down for the first time. Notice something iffy? You might if you read my post on efficient goal setting. Although I do want to achieve all of the things mentioned above, my resolutions are a bit too general and broad time-wise to help me know where I’m going. So going back to my framework for setting goals, I have to focus on specific resolutions to start with, break them down and make them smart.
For January, I decided to focus on numbers 1, 3 and 6. I took each aside and explored what they mean to me and why I want to achieve them in the first place. I then broke each resolution down into some directions that I can use as a guide for my plan.
For my first resolution, around finishing my undergrad degree with a first, I figured I would need to focus on doing well in my upcoming social psychology exam, doing well in the criminology module I am taking next semester (which is also the last one I’m taking for my degree) and finally, doing well in my dissertation.
For my third resolution, around earning from freelance writing, I realised I’ve got to focus more on my blog and promoting my services online. So, my directions for action are establishing and securing my niche, creating high-quality and consistent content, and promoting and engaging with my audience.
For my sixth resolution, around changing my life (couldn’t get any broader than that, right?), I understood I should focus on adopting a healthier lifestyle and creating balance, taking good care of my mental health and cultivating minimalism.
Okay, this now looks a little bit better, but it still feels like quite a bit to take in. In order to make a plan based on my goals and the aspects of my life that they cover, I need to reorganise my goals using the S.M.A.R.T. framework (which you can learn more about here). I will make my goals more specific, measurable, assignable, realistic and time-related, and therefore set what I want to achieve by this time next week.
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After organising my goals using the S.M.A.R.T. method, this is what I was left with: several smaller goals that I have to complete by the end of the week starting today. Each of these goals is achievable, measurable and relevant for the bigger picture I had in mind when I wrote down my resolutions. In the post coming next Wednesday, I will share with you the progress that I’ve made on these tasks!
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Because I want Smashing Resolutions to be inspirational – and because I expect this project to become a routine for me later in the year – I’ve decided to jazz it up by adding smaller, rather creative tasks to my week. The purpose of these little challenges is to keep everything interesting and to motivate me to stick to my resolutions and my vision for the new year! So for the week starting today, I want to create my vision board for 2019, which will collate all of the things that I want the new year to be filled with for me and will be my source of inspiration to go back to throughout the next twelve months.
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Finally, I don’t want this project to be mine only. Join me in this little weekly adventure, set your own goals, make your own plan of action! It will just become easier if we do this together.
Are you excited about the Smashing Resolutions project? Was it what you expected to see from my blog this upcoming year? Do let me know what you think in the comments section below!
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