Hey everyone! Welcome to this week’s post where I review my very realistic short term goals for 2020.

This year I really became a list person. I found that it’s easier for me to get day to day stuff done when I plan for the day. So now I work with lists and I try to stick to them. On the 7th January 2020, I wrote down some my goals for the year in my little journal. In the middle of the year, around early July, I wrote a Mid-year goal review just to see how I was doing at the halfway mark.
Today, I’m doing a full year review and hopefully you do one too. That’s if you had goals planned at the beginning of the year. I’ll be reviewing the same goals I did at the middle of the year and we can just observe any changes or improvements that have hopefully been made.

I divided my list into two parts: Blogging Goals and Personal Goals.

Blogging Goals

Blog Consistently

I know if you’ve been following my blog for a while, you will agree with me when I say I have been consistent. I have been the most consistent I have ever been on my blog. As of this post, I have posted a total of 60 posts on my blog in 2020. When I posted my Blogging Goals for 2020 in February, I planned to only post twice a month and I stuck with that until June when I started posting weekly. My initial goal was to only have 22 posts this year (My blogging year is 11 months) and I have almost tripled that. I may have fallen off of many things this year but definitely not my blog. We love a consistent queen.

Change the Blog Name

I pointed out that I wanted to change the name of the blog because I didn’t want my name to be directly linked to the blog. However, after thinking about it and getting feedback from people and some comments from readers (which I appreciate), I decided not to change the name of the blog. Y’all won. It is growing on me so I suppose it stays.

Be More Organised

Can you believe that even after being with WordPress for 2 years, I’m still learning how to use it? I don’t think anyone ever really masters WordPress. However, I have been working on the blog. Getting the categories right and using tags and all that. I hope all my small and probably unnoticeable changes have helped this place look more organised and make your experience on my blog better. I believe it is more organised. I don’t know when the changes will end but not anytime soon.

Be Professional

I wanted to be more professional here. In as much as this is a personal and friendly blog, I just wanted to be a bit more professional in how I did things. My layouts, images etc. I set up an email address so that people can reach me privately if need be and that has been a really big help. there is still more to be done in this area but I’m happy with what I’ve done for the year.

In my blogging goals, I wrote about wanting to have a specific niche and today I can tell you that that is not going to happen. I’m happy with my personal blog and sometimes lifestyle blog. I like the idea of not being limited to what I post so if that makes me unprofessional then so be it.

Marketing and Advertising

Like I said in my Mid-Year review, I have been sharing my posts on social media. However, I still haven’t been sharing all my posts and definitely not as often as I probably should. I promise I will do better next year and I will properly set up my social media platforms to accommodate my blog too. Social media just hasn’t been my strongest area this year. I’m there but I’m not there at the same time. If that makes sense. I did not meet this goal so I’m pushing it to next year lol.

Collaborations

When I first wrote this on my list of blogging goals, I had no guest posts and hadn’t worked with other bloggers or writers. I currently have a total of 5 guest posts on my blog and I am currently working on my first collaboration for another blog which I am so excited about. You will only see that next year but I’ll be sure to share that here whenever it goes up.

Personal goals

Spiritual Growth

I read my bible and prayed more this year. I took time to listen to sermons and read devotionals all in an effort to grow spiritually and better my relationship with God. I learnt so much about trusting God and about faith this year. I write more about my goals regarding spiritual growth in a post about my relationship with God. So you can read all the details there.

Personal Identification

I have learnt a lot about myself. I didn’t learn these things the way I would have loved to but with the help of my friends, writing, self-introspection and things I’ve gone through this year, I know for sure I wouldn’t have a hard time describing who I am. Just me being able to do that is a huge step in the right direction for me. I have grown a lot as a person and I am so grateful to have people around me who help me do that. Who help me to be confident enough to look at myself, and see exactly who I am.

I think this is something deserves a whole post dedicated to it. When I eventually do write that post, I will come back and add a link to it here.

Relationships

In my mid year goal review, I promised to tell all regarding relationships and I did that last month. I have seen a good amount of improvement in my relationships. They are not perfect and I am not perfect, but I have been working on them and I’m happy with where they are at this point. I wrote a whole lot more about this goal in a relationship series where I wrote about my family relationship, platonic relationships, romantic relationship and relationship with God. You can get all the details there.

Physical Growth

When I wrote my last review, I was working out 5 times a week. I am so embarrassed to say I have not worked out in weeks. I have just fallen back in that area. I became really busy and was constantly tired at some point so I dropped the workouts. I’m not as busy now so I don’t know why I haven’t been working out. I just haven’t. I promise I’ll get back to it. With that said, I am obviously not in the best shape and I have to improve my diet. This one started so well and ended badly. Shame.

Academics

One thing about me, I will study. I fail sometimes but I study lol. This year, I made it to my final year of university. My CGPA took a dip at the beginning of the year but I have been working hard to raise that up and I am thankfully ending the year with a CGPA above my goal. I am working on my final year project and I am finally closer to getting this degree than I am to dropping out. Everything is still challenging and is getting more difficult along the way but the small wins I’ve had this year and the fact that I will hopefully be done soon makes this all bearable. This might be the only set of goals I met totally!

Mental and Emotional Health

The second half of the year just came with it’s own challenges. I went through a lot in this department but I have been looking after myself both emotionally and mentally. Sometimes looking after yourself means walking yourself through a mental or emotional breakdown and I did just that. Again, I am glad I have a system that helps me through these things because there is no way I would make it on my own.

Finances

I am not ending the year the way I planned to but I have been very disciplined financially. I have managed to keep myself alive. I did a lot more saving this year and still ended up buying stuff so there is work to be done but honestly, it’s better than nothing.

That’s everything! We go bigger next year. I did well in some areas and in others, not so good but regardless, I am proud of myself. I don’t say that often but I am.

One thing about goals is that they can sometimes limit you or the way you see things. Don’t let that happen to you. Allow them to guide you but if you don’t meet them, look around you and you’ll find you’ve achieved something different, something other than what you wrote on a paper. That’s important and necessary too. So don’t limit yourself to what you write on a paper. Allow yourself to branch off sometimes. Never forget the little things!

Anyway, I hope this inspires you one way or another. Don’t feel bad if you didn’t meet the goals you wrote down. You’re still amazing.

How did you do with your goals this year? Which of your goals did you smash this year? Will you be writing goals for 2021? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading!
Love,
Wonani Xx