Christmas is over, and as we soak up the last moments of merriment, delicious food and spend the last drops of our money on Boxing Day sales, we prepare ourselves to once again, start our yearly tradition of making a bucket-load of unrealistic goals… Well, for some of us, they are more unrealistic than others.
Personally, I am a bigger fan of making monthly goals to complete during the year, as they feel more achievable than yearly goals which seem to loom over your head, ready to make you feel guilty at every turn. BUT… this year I am actually going to share with you some of my goals for 2016.
2015 was a challenging year. There were positives, but a fairly big amount of storms and hardships. For me, this past year was full of stress, mental instability and anxiety. School was full on, as I completed my last year of high school and did a zillion exams. But despite all of this, 2015 was a year of finding myself and strengthening my spirit. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel, and 2016 is that light.
I am positively excited for 2016. I have so many visions for my blog, but also for my personal life in general. And one of my goals is to become more personal with all of you bookworms. I want to give you guys a bigger glimpse into my life, and while my Spotlight Saturday feature does a little bit of that, I feel like I need to take it a step further. I have a ton of personal goals that I want to share with you too, along with, of course, my reading goals.
Blogging Goals for 2016:
- Get personal: I know you guys love my blog for all it’s bookish-ness, and that is not going to change. However, now that I have been blogging for almost a year, I feel like revealing a bit more of myself. I am a fairly private person, so this is a big step for me. I am thinking of introducing two new features on my blog:
- Introduce a ‘Josie’s Life Corner’ feature, or something of that sort, where I share the happenings and going ons of my life, either once a week or once a month.
- Introduce a Christian weekly feature every Sunday, where I share a little message, encouragement or devotion for the week (I am a Christian, if you did not know already). I have been feeling like doing this for about a month now, and what better time to introduce it than the new year?!
- Introduce a ‘Josie’s Life Corner’ feature, or something of that sort, where I share the happenings and going ons of my life, either once a week or once a month.
- Create a solid blogging schedule: Life is changing. I am no longer a high school student, which means my life schedule everyday will be vastly different. I will be (hopefully) heading off to university next year, and I will be getting a job. Juggling that with my dedication to church and my youth group and social interactions, I’ll have to make sure I have solid times to blog and keep up to date every day.
- More collaboration: Whether this be with fellow bloggers, or authors, or anyone in general! I want to do more collaborative blog posts, host and engage myself in more buddy reads and blogging activities/events! Bring it on, 2016! (This is way too ambitious, isn’t it?)
Reading Goals for 2016:
- Read 60 books: I don’t want to be too ambitious. I suppose that should be my first resolution: “don’t make unrealistic yearly goals”. Since I completed my challenge of 50 books this year, why not step it up? 10 additional books… That shouldn’t be too hard, right?
- Finish the entire Harry Potter series: This is a goal I plan to complete in the month of January. It’s about time I started this series so that I can stop you guys from shrieking at me for not reading it! (I know a few of you who are a little jealous that I’m discovering it for the first time though).
- Read all the book series that I really need to read: what a vague statement! I can explain though. I will not name specific books, because I have, in fact, already done so in my Top Five Wednesday post.
Personal Goals for 2016:
- Aim to get rid of all my social anxiety: If 2015 has taught me anything, it’s that I should never let my anxiety get the better of me. The consequences are horrible, and I miss out on a ton of new and amazing opportunities. So 2016 will be the year that I rule over my anxiety. I will control it, and not the other way around.
- Get my drivers license: I’m seventeen, and all my friends are learning to drive except me. I feel a little left out. Okay, no that’s not the reason I want my license. The sooner I get my license, the closer I am to becoming more independent! Woot woot!
- Face at least one of my fears: I have quite a few genuine fears that I could call phobias. This year, I want to conquer at least one. Now THIS is an overambitious goal.
- Get into my desired course in university: I still have two/three days before I get my exam results back. By then I will know whether I can get into university. I am actually kind of nervous, but I really hope I get in! Fingers crossed!
- Stay dedicated to organisation and my bullet journal: Fun fact, I accidentally destroyed my old notebook that was dedicated to my bullet journal, so I had to start again. I decided to invest in a good notebook to do so, and yesterday I bought a beautiful grid-lined Moleskine notebook (granted it was $35, which is dang expensive, but hey, I’m a crazy notebook and stationery addict, so…) IT’S BEAUTIFUL GUYS. In 2016 I plan to stay organized all year round, and use my bullet journal to the fullest!
- Learn guitar or play piano more often: I love singing, and I want to utilize that to the fullest, but I also want to utilise my talent to play instruments – well, I can only play piano, but shh. I love playing piano. It gives me joy. So I want to do a lot more of that in 2016!
Josies Book Corner 
Tell me your fabulous thoughts, bookworms!