Did I Achieve my 2017 Goals?

It’s January and you know what that means… looking back at how much you failed to do what you wanted the year before! Ha ha - ha… Okay, it wasn’t quite that bad in all honesty. Let’s see how I did.

Life

Wear only cruelty-free makeup

I latered this one slightly to only buy cruelty free makeup, so that I could use up old makeup that wasn’t cruelty free. To me, it seems pointless throwing away perfectly good makeup. I’m still looking for a foundation that suits me, so if you have any suggestions than please let me know (please keep them cheap if possible!).

Visit at least 4 museums

I am pleased to say that I smashed this one. I visited the British Museum earlier on in the year, which was in part just a nice day out in London.

I also went to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum with my dad in October – perhaps the oddest museum I have ever been to. It had such a varied collection presented in an odd yet creative way. The one thing I didn’t like was the number of stuffed animals, as they made me quite uncomfortable, but apart from that it was great.

During my visit to Berlin, I completed my goal in about a day. First, we visited the Palace of Tears – an old train station which acted as the crossover between East and West Berlin (or not in many cases). We spent a little time in the Topography of Terror, near the Berlin Wall, which I so wish we could have spent more time in as it was so interesting (for any of you interested in the history of the Nazis, I would definitely recommend). Then, we visited the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, which, again was fascinating. The lengths to which some people went to leave East Germany were astoundingly creative, I could never have thought of them myself. Briefly, my friends and I stopped off at the Currywurst museum. A bit of a laugh to break up a collection of very serious topics. The next day we visited the Stasi Prison Museum and the museum at the old Stasi headquarters. Later, we visited the Jewish Museum, which has something I think every museum should take something from, if that makes sense. It was so innovative and symbolic and really got the point.

The next we visited Sachenhausen Concentration Camp, now set up for visitors. This, along with the Stasi Museum, is an experience that I don’t think I can truly express in words. I did my best in my Berlin post, so have a look at that for more information, but yes. That was an important one for me.

My family and I visited Stonehenge in the summer. It was really interesting and a landmark that has some personal connections to me (some of the stones are from West Wales and call me pretentious blah blah, but I kind of mirrored those stones’ journey when I moved. It was so interesting and I would recommend to anyone. Those stones are pretty cool.

Go to see 3 shows

I my friends in a lot of shows this year, and they ranged a fair bit. I saw my friend Anna in Consensual, which was a really interesting and thought-provoking. I also saw two of my friends in their dance school show of Alice and another one of my friends in their Stagecoach production of The Newsies and a few of my friends in a college production of Tomb with a View.

In February, a big group of us went to see Billy Elliot in February and I loved it! I laughed and I cried and it inspired the topic of my EPQ (how Margaret Thatcher is portrayed in literature and non-fiction if you’re wondering). I also saw The Addams Family twice in July. It was amazing both times and was something great that really cheered me up after a stressful few months.

Finish my Silver Duke of Edinburgh

Okay, so this one may be a bit of cheat, seeing as I knew I would at least complete most of it in the year, if not all. So yes, I have finished it (apart from one section which needs signing off), and as a bonus, I got a job at the place I volunteered at.

Have a final draft of my novel

I have not touched my novel at all this year. I completed the first draft in November of 2016 and put it aside. Admittedly, I have had exams and coursework to drag me down. I am going to leave it now until the summer, where I’ll pick it up again and do as much as I can.

Visit a city I’ve never been to before

I’ve had a lot of fun travelling this year. I visited lots of new cities, including Berlin with some of my now best friends (I love you guys), and Newcastle, York, Glasgow and Reading for university open days. I completely fell in love with Newcastle and I ate the most amazing curry at a veggie restaurant in Glasgow (and it was ridiculously cheap!). Here’s to more discoveries next year!

I did spend a lot of time in London as well, and I know that that doesn’t count as I’ve been there before, but I think it deserves a mention anyway.

Complete my GoodReads reading challenge

I set my goal at 23, knowing that A-Level work, exams and other things would prevent my achieving anything like the goal of 55 which I completed in 2015. I read a lot of books that really interested me this year, and I want to keep that trend going, so that I can discover more about what I like and what I’m interested in, as well as improving my knowledge on lots of different topics and adjust my actions accordingly.

Blogging

Reach 50,000 views

I achieved this really early on in the year, which is something I’m so proud of. Currently, I have about 78,000 total views, which I’m still very proud of because, well, that’s amazing! My views have suffered a lot due to my focus on my A Levels, which of course isn’t a bad thing. I do need to accept that the rapid rate of view increase I had at the beginning of the year is just not realistic to maintain alongside A  Levels (and probably also university).

Publish 90 posts

I’m a little bit frustrated by how far I got with this one. I reached 86 posts – just 4 away from my goal! Ah, well. It was too late before I realized and I couldn’t have written more if I tried. I think that 86 is quite a lot though, so I’m still proud of what I achieved.

… including 10 political posts

I published exactly 10 posts under the ‘politics’ category this year. I’ve loved wrting more posts about something I’m passionate about and to promote increased awareness and education among the public and promote causes I care about.

Try to do 2 sponsored posts

I’m not going to lie; I didn’t try very hard with this one. I did a collaboration with Flix and I have some collaboration/guest posts planned but seeing none of those have come to light then I don’t think they quite counts.

Do another collab

Again, see above. I did do a collab with Ashleigh (Not Another Teenager) surrounding our very different areas of stud, which I really enjoyed.

Extra Goals

These goals I came up with later on, and committed to in a blog post in February. I thought I’d include them because goals shouldn’t just be made at the New Year.

Buy at least 1 Big Issue a month

I don’t think I have achieved this one, and if I did then it was only just. I think I bought around 10-11 copies. Whilst I didn’t complete this goal, I have now made it a habit to buy a Big Issue whenever possible and I’m going to continue that. In future though, I’m not going to set it as a specific goal as I feel like that means I’m buying them for the wrong reasons – for my own personal achievement rather than helping someone else.

Cut down on the chocolate I eat

HA! HA I say. If possible, my chocolate consumption has increased, except now more vegan (dark chocolate is possibly one of my favourite things so…). I don’t particularly care about this one anymore. Screw it!

Make my reading more diverse

I am happy to say that I have managed to achieve this one. Not to the degree that I would like, but I’m doing my best and hope to improve on this year on year. Nearly 20% of the books I read in 2017 were written by BAME authors and I think that my reading list as a whole has become a lot more feminist and diverse in terms of genre, which is something I’m proud of.

Did you achieve your 2017 goals?

If you liked this post you might like: My 2017 Goals

Instagram | Bloglovin' | Pinterest | Google+ | Twitter