On the 1st of January this year, I was sat in a coffee shop in the Upper East Side of New York City and wrote my list of goals for 2023.
Almost 12 months to the day later, it’s time to look back at the list of goals that I made and see if I made any progress and if I achieved any that I wanted to work on.
On the 1st of January 2024 (tomorrow), I’ll be back in New York City again and writing my list of goals for the new year. The will be a lot different to my goals that I made in 2023, but more to come on that in the next few weeks.
If you want to cast your eye back to the blog post of goals that I wrote in January this year, you can find my goals for 2023 here.
Without further ado, let’s get into the eight goals that I set out to achieve.
Less is more
When it comes to social media, I definitely stripped things back this year, sticking to one account on each social media app and not spreading myself too thinly.
Even with doing this, I definitely haven’t been able to post as much as I would like to (although this will be changing in 2024), but my time and efforts have still been focused on creating.
I’ve gone back to my roots and have been writing so much more for this blog. This is where I started and what is the most cathartic form of content for me. It’s not about views, or number of likes or going viral. It’s about sitting down at a laptop and just letting the words float out.
You’ll notice that I’m posting four blog posts per week now which is a mighty feat when I’m working full time and keeping on top of my other social apps, but I love writing and I love creating blog content.
Put more energy into YouTube
I would say that I have done this, but not to the amount that I would have hoped. I’ve posted 22 YouTube videos this year in comparison to 13 in 2022, so definitely an improvement there. And I’ve also started posting YouTube Shorts, which I’m still figuring out but also enjoying.
I just wish I had more time to put into learning about editing and making myself a better film editor. I also wish I had more confidence to talk to the camera and put my face on there instead of sticking to voice overs.
2024 will be the year. I’ll be producing more video content, more YouTube videos, more YouTube Shorts and also improving my video editing skills.
Read 50 books
I’m currently reading book number 70, so I can definitely say I’ve achieved this and achieved it well.
I slowed down a lot compared to last year when I read 100 books, but I didn’t want to read as many this year and instead read great books.
Going into next year, I’m not sure how many books I’ll set as my target but I have received a Kindle for Christmas this year so that I can read when I go travelling and commuting, but whether that means I’ll read more or less, I’m not sure.
Keep learning Italian
I’m incredibly surprised to have kept my Duolingo streak up for 365 days this year. I’ve been spending a few minutes every day learning Italian so as you can imagine, I am now fluent (not really).
I’ve recently also taken up learning French as well as Italian, broadening my horizons. All jokes aside, I’m excited to keep learning on Duolingo in 2024.
Maybe by December 2024 I’ll be fluent.
Go to the gym
Every year I put this on my list of goals and every year I say ‘this year will be different’, but then we get to December and I once again say that I have not been to the gym in months and don’t have a gym routine at all.
So here we are, saying the same thing.
However, I have started my running journey. I downloaded the Couch to 5K program and am making my way through week four. I don’t know what it is, because I’ve always loathed running, but I have this strong desire to run 5K and have signed myself up for a 5K park run in February.
Once I hit the 5K mark, I want to keep building on this and hit 10K. I don’t know what’s gotten into me or who I am, but I seem to have caught some sort of running bug and want to be a running girly in 2024.
So watch this space, next thing I’ll say I want to run a marathon.
Move out of London
I’m sure you probably know how this is going already. This is one I unfortunately didn’t tick off this year, and not without moaning about it.
If you follow my podcast, or have even read some of my recent blog posts then you’ll know I don’t very much like London.
2024 is looking like it might be the year that this finally changes, but we’ll see what happens.
Travel somewhere new in America
This was my only travel goal for 2023 and I was able to achieve it when we did our East Coast Road Trip in the summer.
I visited Rhode Island, Cape Cod, Maine and Vermont for the first time, ticking off three new states and some new places in states that I’ve already been to.
I have a lot of travel goals for 2024 which I can’t wait to make happen. But more on that later.
Network, network, network
I won’t say that I networked a huge amount this year, but I did expand my network of influencers and agents in the past 12 months, finally meeting a lot of them in person for the first time.
My work goals have changed in the last few months and I’ve come to realise that maybe work isn’t the most important thing and that there’s more to life than my 9-5.
Again, more on that later.
Looking back on 2023, I did quite well with my goals. Again, the exercise part didn’t go anywhere but I think with the goals I’m going to have in 2024, I’m going to make it more achievable for myself.
I’ll be posting my 2024 goals in the next few weeks and can’t wait to be back in New York to write them.
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