Happy New Year! I seriously cannot believe it’s 2019 already. This is going to be a big year for me, I graduate, travel a lot, start college, and learn to live on my own. If this semester goes by even half as fast as last semester, it’ll be over before I know it. I feel like the year 2019 always seemed like so far away for me. I always knew I was getting closer and closer to my graduation year, but it never felt like it would ever get here. But it’s here! I graduate in less than six months. That is seriously crazy. Today  I wanted to recap 2018 and share some of my goals for the upcoming year!

2018 was an amazing year for me, probably my favorite so far. I feel like I was a much happier person in 2018 than 2017, and there were just so many amazing things I did. It’s hard to think back to the beginning of the year, but I journaled a bit of my favorite things I did. I had such a fun track season and got closer with a lot of my teammates in the spring, lead VBS in Honduras in July, studied super hard and made a 33 on the ACT, pushed myself in cross country season and made all state with 7th place, got a car, took more pictures and videos to document life, started my first job, and so much more. I learned so much this year and had so many new experiences. I couldn’t be more thankful!

Now for my 2019 goals! I did okay with my goals from last year. I got pretty good at drinking more water and eating healthier, which was a big goal of mine. I didn’t read or journal as much as I hoped to, which is definitely something I want to do this year. For my 2019 goals I wanted to focus on more detailed intentions instead of broad, hard to reach goals. I want to type print out and put them a few places where I can always see them and be reminded of them.

• Be more intentional with how I spend my time. Make sure everything I’m doing has a purpose and I’m not wasting my time. When I’m hanging out with friends, I want to be all there and focus on my time with them. Stop wasting time on useless things, like my phone or tv when I could be doing other things!
• Practice gratitude every day. I need to show thankfulness more to the people around me, like my family and teachers. I want to try and write down three things every day that I’m thankful for.
• Journal and read more. A repeat of last year, but I really want to accomplish it this year! I love to read but I never make time for it anymore. I’m going to try and read at least one new book every month. That shouldn’t be a hard goal at all, but I just never make time for it when I have school going on.
• Get out of my comfort zone. I love the quote “Do one thing every day that scares you.” I need to learn to try new things and get out of my comfort zone, especially with college coming up and trying to make friends in a new place.
• Less time on my phone. I’ve been pretty good at this so far, but I hope to continue it the rest of the year. I just find myself spending way too much time on my phone when there’s no reason to be on it. I’m just looking for ways to distract myself. I could probably get lots more books read if I put the phone down and picked the book up!
• Plan and organize more. I want to start each month with a motivated mindset. Meaning, I want to take the time to really sit down and plan each month and write down my monthly goals. I used to do this, but I stopped this past semester. I think it’s important to always have goals to strive towards and try and accomplish!
• Spend more time outside. This is definitely not going to happen for the next few weeks (it’s freezing outside!) but once it gets warm out, I want to try and spend as much time outside as possible. Take advantage of the sunshine!
• Be more creative. During the past week of winter break, I’ve had a lot of free time and found my old Japanese designs coloring book. I forget how much I love being creative! So far I’ve been coloring, journaling, and I also made a new bulletin board with inspirational pictures! This year I want to paint, color, take more pictures, blog, read, just do more creative things!
• Truly make time for Christ every day. I want to set aside 20-30 minutes of every day for my devotions and really focus on my time in the Word. Sometimes I feel like I do a 5 minute devotion just to say I did it and get it over with, which isn’t growing my relationship with Him at all. I also want to take time to pray more every day!
• Lastly, I want to do something totally new and risky and unexpected. To take a leap and do something out of my normal routine!

I really want to try and accomplish all of these this year! I love a new year, a fresh start, and a chance to better myself and have new experiences!