My 2017 Personal New Year’s Resolutions

Can you believe we’re over halfway through the year already? Back in January, I wrote two blog posts, one about my personal new year’s resolutions and one about my blogging goals for 2017 . So I thought now might be a good time to catch up and see how I am doing with them. It’s so easy to right resolutions and goals and not stick to them, so I am hoping by re-looking them it will make me accountable to focus on them for the rest of the year.

Personal Goals

1. Get healthy and balanced – I was sick to death of being on and off a diet, so I decided this was the year to change things. I decided to ditch the diet and aim for healthy eating and more exercise instead. I’m pleased with how I am doing on this, I am definitely eating much healthier – although there are still improvements that I can make. Yes, I would like to loose some weight, but I always said this was about improving my mental health and relationship with food and the long term strategy. I believe the rest will follow as long as I keeping making changes.
2. Read 50 books – I am already on book number 43, so I am pretty sure I am going to smash this goal!
3. Be more organised – I was fed up of being a terrible procrastinator, and wanted to work in a more structured way. I would say that some weeks I am doing well on this and other weeks not so much. The house move (see below) has thrown a spanner in this too, but there is definitely still room for improvement.
4. Move house – If you’re a regular reader, you will know this is well in progress. You can read June’s update and see how we’re doing here.
5. Take time out to enjoy life – I wanted to make sure I made time to get away from the day to day tasks and work that needs doing, a house that needs tidying and sorting and made sure I enjoyed life too. This is something I am really conscious of after holiday too. Yes, we all have to work hard, but life is for enjoying too. I have got better at this I think, but I want to do this more, especially focusing on some quality time with my children.
6. Get writing that novel – this one has been a bit of a disaster and I have done nothing towards this goal so far. But it is something I have been thinking about. I know that is just over a year Aria will be starting school and after this point, I will get back a lot more time to myself, so I may defer this to then and be realistic about the time I have and enjoy my last year with Aria before she starts school.

Blogging Goals

• Learn

  • Goals
    • Last year was very much about building my blog up, and this year I would like to learn and improve some of my skills with. I’m a firm believer that you’re never too old to learn, so I am going to look into some courses throughout the year to improve and learn.
      I have just signed up to Aby’s from You Baby Me Mummy Blog Accelerator course, which I am looking forward to.
    • I would also like to do a Photography course and a social media course, time permitting.
  • Achieved
    • These goals have fallen a little by the wayside as the house moving process started a lot quicker than I thought it would. I have started Aby’s course, but not finished it. I have researched a photography course, but not decided on one yet. I have decided on a social media course though that I am not planning on doing it until September.

• Balance

  • Goals
    • Streamline my processes and get more organised and productive. I am a real procrastinator and want to look at how I can spend less time doing more.
    • Relating to the above, have a better division between work and off time.
    • Improve the balance between personal and commercial posts, I felt that my blog, particularly in the run up to Christmas, became too tipped towards the latter.
  • Achieved
    • While I still have more work to do on the streamlining my processes on the second two parts I have definitely got better. I have evenings off the blog now which makes for a happier Laura (& husband) and I am also happy with the balance of personal and commercial posts on the blog now than I was 6 months ago.

• Get Social

  • Goals
    • Become more social. As with my blog content, I was looking at my social media at Christmas and I feel like it is too commercially focused. I used to love chatting on Twitter and have fallen out of the habit. So I want to improve my content and make it more varied.
    • Grow my Facebook page to 2500.
    • Grow my Twitter to 15,000.
    • Grow my Instagram to 5000.
    • Get to grips with Pinterest (this was on my last year goals and I didn’t manage it!).
  • Achieved
    • I feel like I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Twitter at the moment, I keep trying to be more social, but I could quite frankly be doing a lot better.
    • My Facebook page is currently at 1680 – so a lot of work to do here
    • My Twitter is at 10.6k, it was at 9k before Christmas so some growth, but not as much as I would have liked.
    • My Instagram is at 3k, it was at 2.6k at Christmas, as above I still need to see some more growth here.
    • Pinterest – total fail so far on this one.

• Video

  • Goals
    • Start a Youtube channel.
    • Vlog monthly.
    • Create a video trailer to go with the channel.
  • Achieved
    • I have started a channel and I have done one video and I have to say I didn’t really enjoy it. So I have put this goal on hold, as I am not sure I can excel as something I do not enjoy.

• Blogging

  • Goals
    • Continue to make a regular income from my blog.
    • To collaborate and write regular guest posts. It would also be fab to work with a bigger channel such as Britmums, Baby centre or similar.
    • Sort out my broken links – I still haven’t done this and it was on my last year goals.
    • Make sure all of my touch points are professional. For example, I have designed my own media pack and business cards and I want to outsource these and get them done professionally.
    • Become a brand ambassador for another brand, it would be fab if I could work with a handbag brand!
    • Grow engagement. One of the things I know I need to do on this is get back into regularly commenting on other blogs in the community.
  • Achieved
    • I am continuing to make a regular income from the blog which is great.
    • I am now an Editor for BritMums.
    • I have sorted out my broken links (at last).
    • I haven’t looked at the designs of my touch points yet so this is a goal for later in the year.
    • Not achieved another Brand Ambassador goal as yet, but there’s still time.
    • I have been working on growing my engagement and now regularly read and comment on other people’s blogs.
• Email
  • Goals
    • Grow my email subscribers list.
    • Set up a weekly email with Mail Chimp, rather than using the standard WordPress one.
  • Achieved
    • Hmmm… well I have moved my emails over to Mail Chimp, that’s about it really.

It’s interesting going through your goals. In January you are always full of such enthusiasm for the new year, but it is so easy to loose momentum. I don’t think I have done too badly, but there is obviously still a lot of work to do if I want to finish my goals for this year.

How are you doing with yours?