Kathy Hamilton It’s 2019! Can you believe it? That means it’s time for my 2019 plans and goals! Last year I made an official post about what I hoped to achieve from the year and I found it so useful. So for the first post of the new year, I’m bringing it back, and looking forward to sharing my 2019 plans and goals with you today!
When I’m thinking about my plans and goals, I like to choose a word as a guiding theme for my year. I find that it helps to focus my mind and produce ideas that lend themselves more easily to each other. Maybe it’s just me but I find that when I just write down a list of random goals, they rarely ripen into actual action! Maybe it’s because they’re too disparate? Whatever it is, whilst I was pondering my 2019 plans and goals I found that this word kept cropping up too:
Enhance
In 2018 there was a lot of change: a new house, a new job and a few new friends! I feel that I set a lot of good foundation stones that I am hoping to nurture into bigger opportunities this year. So enhance feels like the perfect word to use as my focus. I want to really invest time in enhancing my life through a variety of ways, from improving skills to learning new ones.
-Reading-
Reading is such a large focus, not only of The Female Scriblerian but my life. That’s why I’m going to share a full post dedicated to my 2019 Reading Goals soon. You may remember I did the same thing last year? I found that it was a great way to dive into what I really want to get from my reading life in the New Year. That being said, I couldn’t share my 2019 plans and goals without mentioning books. So here are my two overarching themes.
Really Join a Book Club
Last year when I set a goal to join a book club I was so sure it would be an easy goal to meet. Then I went to two meetings and gave up! Honestly, knowing myself like I do, I shouldn’t have been surprised. I picked a book club that was too far out of the way to easily get to. It was also set in a part of town I’m not particularly fond of. So honestly, I set myself up to fail didn’t I?
That’s why the first of my 2019 plans and goals is to really join a book club! I’ve been doing my research this time and I have found the perfect one. It has everything in its favour, they literally meet up in a cafe on my way home from work. They share the book choices online each month well ahead of time and they have a dedicated website and are affiliated with a worldwide group of book clubs. So, round two! Wish me luck.
Read With Intention
From joining (and using) the library to make sure I try to read some of the books that have been languishing un-read of my bookshelves I want to read with intention this year. I think, like many of us, my focus has really shifted away from constant consumption. A big theme for the whole of 2019 is to reshift my auto-pilot away from buying new things all the time. The same goes for books!
-Living-
Since reading is only one part of my life, it’s always nice to cast the net a little wider! Each of my goals in the “Living” section fits in with my overall theme of “enhancing” my life. Perhaps they are not so much “goals” as reevaluations of lifestyle…you’ll see what I mean in a minute.
Improve my baking skills
One of my 2019 plans and goals is to improve my baking skills. If you’ve been following along with my Monthly Favourites, you’ll have noticed that baked treats quite often make an appearance. In 2018 I came to appreciate cooking and baking a lot more, and it seems as though I’m not alone. It really became my happy place and so an informal Sunday ritual was born. During the festive season, I challenged myself to make a variety of biscuits. Most went well, some didn’t (I’m looking at YOU gingerbread!) But what I learned from this experiment is that it can be fun and challenging to try “level-up” recipes. So in 2019, I want to experiment with creating my own flavours. And tackle pretty decorating once and for all!
Move more
I decided to call this section “move more” because I wanted to avoid the cliche “get fit” new year’s resolution. But however you word it, one of my 2019 plans and goals is to try to incorporate consistent exercise into my life. I work at a desk all day so my lifestyle is very sedentary and that needs to change. I’ve periodically tried yoga but don’t like the “alternative lifestyle” bits that come along with it. So, kick-starting with a Charleston class in January and a promise to walk more I’m on a mission to try new ways to get myself moving. Plus, if I’m going to be able to eat the sweet treats I bake, I need to have a game plan!
Take Life a Little More Slowly
One of the things that I came to cherish last year were slow weekends. The ones that crop up when you’re not rushing around to get things done. The kind where you can spend all afternoon baking a cake, or watching a long film. I found that these types of weekend left me feeling refreshed rather than depleted. So, one of my 2019 goals and plans is to try an incorporate this attitude into more of my life. Because taking time to stop and smell the roses shouldn’t be reserved for Sundays alone.
Simplify
Okay, I’m never going to be a minimalist and I don’t want to be. But that doesn’t mean I have to have as many unnecessary possessions weighing me down! I have already kick-started this goal in the first week of January, by setting myself little tasks each day like clearing out clothes I no longer love and donating them and organising the kitchen cupboards and working out what I really use regularly. I want to extend it further by trying to incorporate this idea into my future buying habits. Plus, Marie Kondo’s new show has just started on Netflix, so I feel like it’s the perfect opportunity to clear out the old habits too!
-Travelling-
Honestly, I really smashed my travel goals in 2018! I had such a fantastic year of visiting new places and experiencing new cultures. I visited FOUR capitals cities (Madrid, Stockholm, Dublin and Berlin) and I went on a road trip. Plus, I even got to fit in a big family reunion in Mallorca. Honestly, though, I feel a little travelled out – I never want travelling to feel normal. I want it to feel exciting and special because it is! How lucky are we to be able to explore such amazing places? Which is why when I was thinking of my 2019 plans and goals for travel the biggest thing I wanted to do was enhance the experience.
Go to Iceland
This has been a big bucket list destination for so long for me! I am fascinated by Iceland and it’s ancient landscape. It seems like you are all intrigued too since my blog post 10 Best Books Set in Iceland is one of the most popular posts on The Female Scriblerian! So, since I have a big birthday coming up I feel like it’s the perfect reason to finally visit a country that I’ve loved from afar for so long.
Explore England More
Long ago, I made myself a promise that if I didn’t live in London I would prioritise visiting it. Well, we can call that wishful thinking because I haven’t visited London in nearly three years! In fact, I’ve started to feel that there’s so much more of England I would like to see and 2019 is the year to see it. From Cornwall to Liverpool I want to see the cities, countryside and coastline that makes my country so special to me.
Those are my 2019 plans and goals, what are yours?
Do you may new year’s resolutions or do you think they’re useless? I’m always intrigued because I tend to flip-flop on the topic sometimes I am all for them and other times I think, why is January 1st so different from any other day when it comes to making changes? Still, I’ve been really drawn to the idea of a New Year’s refresh lately. How about you?
