My Goals for 2022 and Did I Achieve my 2021 Goals?

Side note: I’ve looked at the word goal so many times in this post and it no longer looks like a word.

It’s New Year territory and that often comes with a lot of reflecting and setting of new goals. I also have plenty of time on my hands as, as I write this, I’m currently on day two of self-isolation after testing positive for COVID so I’m in a reflective mood! I can’t say I’m going to be setting myself masses of goals for 2022. A lot of the time there’s this huge pressure to completely change yourself when a new year rolls around and that’s not necessarily healthy. I want this post to be light-hearted and a reflection on what I managed to achieve last year alongside setting myself a few small goals for 2022.

HOW DID I DO IN MY 2021 GOALS?

GOAL 1: BLOG CONSISTENTLY + GET A PAID POST

This started off well. I blogged fairly consistently up until about March time I think and then I kind of fell off the side of a cliff with blogging. Like I mentioned in my 2021 roundup post I went through a bit of a rough time in April and university work was busy. I did manage to get a paid post for my blog in February and did a couple of collaboration posts but other than that blogging wasn’t on my radar for quite a while.

GOAL 2: AIM FOR A FIRST IN MY DEGREE AND DISSERTATION

The short answer is yes I did achieve this! I managed to get a first in my dissertation and my degree overall which I was thrilled with.

GOAL 3: DO SOME FORM OF EXERCISE TWICE A WEEK

Hmmm, I’m going to say a yes and no to this goal. I went for a lot of walks so I definitely did do some form of exercise more than twice a week. However, I didn’t ever properly commit to working out and it was very dependent on shift patterns.

GOAL 4: DRINK 2 BOTTLES OF WATER A DAY

I have to say I’ve definitely become better at drinking in 2021. I now think that on average I probably do actually drink 2 bottles of water if not more so that is progress for me!

GOAL 5: GROW MY INSTAGRAM

Did not do this or achieve this. I find Instagram an infuriating platform as a blogger so I did not keep up with this at all. I don’t think I’ve used my blog Instagram for months now – whoops!

GOAL 6: KEEP UP MY SKINCARE ROUTINE

Yes! Signing up for skin prescription service (blog post coming soon) was probably one of the best things I ever did in 2021. My skin has never looked clearer or better and I have been keeping up with my routine.

GOAL 7: SHOP LESS

Lockdown definitely helped with this and the closure of some of my go-to shops. So again this is a yes pretty much! I’ve stopped buying beauty and makeup items and only replace them when I’m running out. I’ve worked through my collections and haven’t been buying as many frivolous items.

GOAL 8: READ 40 BOOKS

Last year, I came close to this goal but did not achieve it. I managed to read 35 books which was a bit disappointing for me. I went through a long reading slump so I didn’t read for several months and that ate into my target.

WHAT ARE MY GOALS FOR 2022?

Like I said before, I’m not going to be putting myself under a lot of pressure to achieve these, nor do I want these goals to be unattainable. Hopefully, they’ll just be small, manageable goals that I will have in the back of my mind.

GOAL 1: READ 4O BOOKS

I’m setting myself this goal for 2022 again. I know that I can read this much and have done it in the past so I’m hoping that I can do it this year. Without the pressure of reading for university, I have the freedom to read what I want, but this also means I’m prone to falling into reading slumps or being too busy to read. Follow me on Goodreads if you’d like to see what I’m reading, and I’m always looking for book recommendations!

GOAL 2: BLOG MORE AGAIN

I don’t want to set myself ridiculous targets like “I must blog every single week” as I think that’s where I often fall down with blogging. Blogging is a hobby and something I enjoy doing but when I put too much pressure on myself to post every week I end up not wanting to create any content. I think my goal for 2022 is to just blog for fun and when I feel like it. There’s so much work that goes into running a blog that it’s easy to get bogged down in stats and social media but writing is ultimately why I started a blog. So for 2022, I just want to remember that blogging is fun and not something that I need to put myself under pressure to do.

GOAL 3: STAY ACTIVE

Again, something I partially completed in 2021 but in 2022 I just want to stay active. I know that I am not the sportiest person and a gym is not 100% for me (it’s also miles away so that doesn’t help) but I just want to stay active. I go for walks a lot and I do really enjoy doing cardio and dance workouts at home so I think as long as I stay as active as possible then I’m happy.

GOAL 4: GET A JOB

Don’t get me wrong, I have a job which I do love. However, I don’t have a “proper” post-graduating job. Perhaps my most important goal for 2022 is to get a real-life job and one that I enjoy. I’m currently in the process of job hunting but have been very half-hearted with searching recently so I need to back to the grind. Fingers crossed that this time next year I’m doing something I enjoy. Any tips for the job hunt are greatly appreciated!

So that feels like a mammoth post! As I say, I don’t want to bombard myself with hundreds of unachievable goals but hopefully, I’ll stick to these. I actually managed to achieve more than I thought in 2021 so I’m pretty pleased with that as well. Fingers crossed that 2022 is a better year than 2021 and I’ll soon be reflecting on how well I did on my goals for 2022!

Do you have any goals for 2022? What are they?