What I Want to Achieve Before 2019 Ends

Hello Everyone!

Last week I talked about how my 2019 had been going so far and checked in with the goals I set for myself at the start of the year. If you want to hear about how the first half of 2019 went for me, then you can read that here. Today I am going to be setting some new goals for myself, amending some previous ones and talking about what I want to achieve before 2019 ends in general!

I spent this morning, as I’m writing this, planning out my goals with actionable steps to how I’m going to achieve them, so I’m confident that I’m going to be able to achieve them and I’m excited to get started, so let’s start talking about them:

Walk Every Morning:

This is something that used to be firmly cemented in my morning routine because I had to walk to school every morning and I simply kept it up on the weekends, so I could go outside before anyone else woke up. Since I took my learning into my own hands at the beginning of the last school year though and started working from home, and with the stress of exams, I stopped walking pretty much altogether because I simply didn’t have the time or the energy. It’s something I really enjoyed though and I want to get back at it, so to help me with that I have decided to start a 365 day photography challenge that will get me out the house in the morning. I am calling it the ‘Sky Series’ and the aim is to take a photo of the sky every single morning. The only rules are that I have to walk at least 2 streets out and I can’t take a photo in the same place twice. Hopefully this goes well and I will have a beautiful mood board of sky photos this time next year!

Do Yoga Everyday:

If you read my last post, then you’ll know I’ve been doing pretty well with this goal since the start of the year, but it is definitely something I want to keep up. It has really helped me quell my anxiety in the morning and has helped massively with the aches and pains I often get. It’s also weirdly enough helped with my productivity! I can’t stand being mildly uncomfortable, so when my legs are aching a bit or my arms really need a stretch, I just can’t work, but yoga has really helped with that, so I want to make sure I continue to do it every day!

Read Everyday:

This is another goal I had at the beginning of the year, but one I haven’t done well on because of my exams. I started reading everyday in 2018 and I succeeded, but it all fell apart in 2019 because exams started creeping up on me and coursework started piling up. Now they’re over though I want to get back to it because it drastically improved my life last year and I want it to become a life long habit too!

Be Healthier:

The goal of ‘be healthy’ or ‘get fit’ is a common one and can also be something of a risky one for people like me who have the tendency to go to extremes, but I am at a place where I’m not very happy with my body. I don’t want this goal to be about losing weight. I’ve made that very clear to myself because I know I will likely loose some in the process, but that isn’t what this is about. Over the last year of school and exams I have let my health and personal hygiene slip quite a bit because I just couldn’t keep up with everything at once, but I really want (and need) to make an effort to fix that because I don’t feel healthy how I am. I get out of breath by walking too far when I used to be able to walk for hours, I’m eating far too much rubbish and I just don’t feel good about it. I also really want to get back to going to the gym again because I loved going several years ago when I first got a membership, but it was another thing I had to let slide in order to survive exams.

Save Money:

‘Saving money’ is another one of those goals that everyone has and one that I’ve had for several years now and failed miserably at. I’m serious about it this time though. I have things I want to save for, places I want to go and things I want to do and those all require money, which means it is time for me to save. I have set some simple rules for myself as follows:

• no impulse buying books. I am only allowed to buy the few I was anticipating at the start of the year.
• No more clothes, stationary or other crap I don’t need. I have plenty.
• All of my money at the end of the month goes into savings. No Exceptions!

I am confident about getting this goal right this time because I have things I am aiming for now instead of just saving ‘because I should’ and hopefully these rules will help me.

Post Regularly on Social Media:

This goal includes all of my social channels: My Blogs (personal and book), My YouTube (Samantha Drage), Both Instagram accounts and Twitter. I seem to be pretty good at sticking to a schedule with my blog and YouTube, but it is Instagram and Twitter that I’m not that great at. I know my goal of ‘using social media more’ won’t be a popular one because people usually aim for the opposite, but I’ve never found that I have a problem with switching social media off when I need to. My aim with this goal is to build an audience on all platforms, so that I can one day make some sort of career out of my art, photography and writing.

Keep Learning About Me:

This one is pretty self-explanatory. I want to keep learning about myself, how to handle my autism and mental illnesses day to day. This is sort of an on-going goal for me, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Have Fun Learning at College:

I really want to enjoy my time at college and start to put myself out there! I hated school with a passion for so many reasons that I won’t get into here, but I want things to be different as of September. I am going to a college, not a sixth form, so the environment will be different. It is away from where I currently live, so it is a completely fresh start and I will be studying the subject I love: Photography. I want to love my 2 years at college and get everything out of it that I can!

Establish a Proper Morning and Night Routine:

My final goal for the year is to establish a proper morning and night routine. I used to have a routine pack when I was in the lower half of secondary school, but it all fell apart with the start of GCSE’s and I’ve noticed the difference. I think this is going to be an on-going goal because my morning and night routine will change based on how college works out and what time I have to be places, so for now I am going to focus on making a summer morning and night routine (YouTube video coming soon!) and then change them accordingly as I need to. I want to incorporate walking into every morning, yoga into morning and night and reading as well personal hygiene. Would you like me to make a blog post about my morning and night routine when I’ve got one down? Tell me below!

And that’s it! Those are my 9 goals for the rest of 2019! Some of them are ongoing and some of them are more short term, so I can simply get into routine, but I have a good feeling about these goals. I spent a lot of time thinking about them and how I was going to make them realistic and achievable while still pushing myself and I think I have reached a happy medium. I am planning to do a video version of this post on my YouTube in the next few weeks (Samantha Drage) and I’ll update you in my weekly vlogs about how they’re all going too! What goals have you set yourself for the rest of 2019? How are you planning on achieving them? Let me know down below or come and chat to me on my Instagram (@thephotographydragon)

Goodbye for now!

Over and Out