2018 Reflection and 2019 Goals

As the new year begins I always reflect back on the past year and also set goals for myself in the new year. There are so many mixed feelings about new years resolutions but there is something refreshing I find about refocusing on goals after the busyness of the holidays. Yes, you can set goals any time of year but there is something so hopeful about the new year that I love.

2018 Reflection 

As I look back on 2018 I find myself at a loss of words for how to exactly describe the past year. Every year comes with its fair share of high and low moments but I have never been more excited to start fresh and leave a year behind than this year. I don't want to seem like I am wanting to wish away time but I if I am being totally honest I am not sad to see 2018 come to a close. Yesterday I posted my highlights from the past year with all the fun things I did in 2018. If you looked at that post it might come as a surprise that this year was hands down the hardest year I have ever had. For every fun memory I have from 2018 I had so many struggles because of my health. I started 2019 going on a health journey I never expected. I went to numerous doctors appointments, was never feeling great, totally changed my diet, started taking a ton of medications, and the doctor still doesn't exactly know what exactly is the cause of my autoimmune symptoms. This unknownness created a lot of fear and anger. I have never been more lost and sad then in this past year. I would say it took me pretty much the whole year to accept everything that has changed in my life because of my health. There was no one specific moment that I finally felt like myself again it just slowly happened over time. I started to blog again in May, share parts of my health story, travel, and do the things I enjoy. Eventually, things just started to slowly look up. The most frustrating part was I would think I was finally to terms with everything and then I would wake up one day and have a shitty day. As I start 2019 I finally feel like I have come to terms with everything. I still don't totally know why everything happened the way it did and I am still unsure of what my condition actually is but I know there is a reason for this. Eventually, I think I will come to fully understand gods plan but for now, I have to just be at peace with the struggles of 2018 that further helped show my true strength. As hard as this year was I think I am better because of it. I have more patience, strength and most of all understanding for other peoples health struggles. I having a feeling that 2019 is going to be an amazing year!

2019 Goals

Word Of The Year: Courage - Stepping out of my comfort zone and not letting life intimidate me 

I think having a word for the year helps focus your resolutions and goals. This year my word is about trying new things even if they scare me. As for specific goals I am going to be focusing mainly on a 100 in 1001 bucket list that I will be sharing soon so I don't want to have too many goals. I did want to create a few goals however which I am sharing below. 

FOCUS ON ONLINE PRESENCE // My main goal this year is to build my website, YouTube, and social media. I finally feel like I have a lot more time to devote to it. I enjoy doing this and I want to continue to grow and learn new skills. 

CONTINUE TO FOCUS ON CLEAN EATING AND EXERCISE // This year I made big improvements in my eating as I went gluten-free, dairy free, and cut out a lot of sugar. I want to continue to focus on eating clean food. I haven't worked out as much recently but I want to get back into a schedule for it. 

READ ONE "FUN" BOOK A MONTH // I have never been too much of a reader but if I happen to find a good book I love I can't put it down. This past month I read to really good books on vacation and I want to try to read a little bit more this year. 

READ A DAILY INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTION BOOK // I want to end or start my day with some daily words of inspiration.
SAY "YES" TO OPPORTUNITIES // This goes with my word of the year but I want to try new adventurous that may come my way.
BE MORE STRICT WITH MY BUDGET // As I start to think about graduation and life after school I want to be more strict with my money. I created a budget last year but I want to update it and try to save more for the future.