Goodbye 2015! | Hello 2016!

I can hardly believe that today is the last day of 2015! This year went by so quickly and it never fails to amaze me how fast life can pass you by. I’m a part-time blogger, so the blog is something that gets put to the back-burner when life gets busy. It’s something I do on the side as a fun project for myself and a way to keep my reviews organized. In addition to keeping me organized, I enjoy interacting with fellow bloggers, readers, authors, and beauty lovers.

I would eventually like to continue to grow my blog and become more consistent with my content and posting schedule, but as it’s a side project that provides no monetary compensation, for now I’ve decided to continue with no set posting schedule. A while ago I thought that I would be able to have a set schedule, but quickly realized that it’s unrealistic for me to post every single day. I’ve created more of a loose guideline for myself for 2016, so I will do my best to follow that, but I make no promises about how often I will post. Some weeks you’ll see a post from my every day and some weeks maybe just once, or not at all.

Now, as the year comes to a close it’s customary for people to look back on the resolutions they made in 2014 for 2015. Looking back at the goals I had set out for myself, I can honestly say that I’ve made some improvements, but came nowhere near accomplishing everything that I had set out to do. Mainly because there are only so many hours in a day, and when you factor in a social life and a romantic relationship, you don’t have a ton of time to dedicate to a large project. Don’t misunderstand, I have no intention of leaving my blog in the dust, rather the opposite. I’m simply letting myself down easy on not accomplishing my goals. I do intend to continue to reach for some of the same things that I had intended to do this year as you will see where some of my goals from 2015 have magically transferred over to my 2016 goals.

These were my resolutions for 2015, let’s see how I did…

1. I want to take this year one day at a time, be present and live in the moment. I think I managed this one quite well.

2. I want to grow my blog by being consistent with my posts and improve the quality of my content. Although I am not where I want to be with my blog yet, I believe that over the past year, I have grown my blog and continued to improve on the quality and content of my blog. 

3. I want to live a healthier lifestyle, for my mental and physical well-being, not just to lose a few pounds. This one I must say I failed at miserably. This one is getting tacked on to 2016!

4. I want to find a job at a company that I admire that will lead to a happy and successful career path. Check! I’m now in a job in an industry that surprised almost everyone that knows me, but I’ve truly enjoyed learning the job and believe that I have embarked on a happy and successful professional path.

5. I want to widen my scope in the kitchen by trying out new recipes and sharing them on my blog. Definitely failed this one. See you in 2016!

6. I want to learn to keep things simple and live with less. (Less clothing and stuff.) Oops… another fail! Do I even try to tack this on to next year?

7. I want to meet my goal of reading 78 books this year, which is an average of 1.5 books a week. I almost made it to this goal by reading 75 books. I think that next year I’m going to goal myself at 52 books, one per week. I don’t want reading to ever become a stressful thing that I’m doing and would rather read less and enjoy it more. However, if I were to read more, I’m totally okay with that!!

8. I want to spend less of my free time watching TV and more time on my artistic ventures like sewing, sketching and painting. Hmm, this one I may have failed too.

9. I want to stop putting off for tomorrow what can be done today. This especially applies to writing a review right after I finish a book. (I currently have 5 book reviews waiting to be written.) Some things never change. I currently have about 10 books that need to be reviewed. :/

10. I want to grow the relationships I have with my family, with my friends and most importantly with myself, by getting out more and doing things that make me happy. Check! This year I may not have met all of my goals, but I certainly passed with flying colors on this one 🙂

My Goals for 2016

Personal Life [Health, Well-Being, Time]

1. I want to take this year one day at a time, be present and live in the moment. I want to stop putting off for tomorrow what can be done today.
2. I want to live a healthier lifestyle, for my mental and physical well-being. [I also want to lose about 15-20 pounds while doing so.]
3. I want to learn to keep things simple and live with less. [Maybe do a full room sweep and get rid of things I don’t need?]
4. I want to spend less of my free time watching TV and more time on my artistic ventures like sewing, sketching and painting [or maybe even begin writing a novel?]

Blogging [Books, Beauty, Etc.]

1. I want to make the switch from WordPress.org to WordPress.com in order to have more control over the look and feel of my blog.
2. I want to grow my blog statistics by improving the consistency and quality of my content.
3. I want to embrace the beauty world and get into more beauty blogging by sharing beauty product reviews, beauty hauls, etc.
4. I want to widen my scope in the kitchen by trying out new recipes and sharing them on my blog.
5. I want to read at least 52 books [and write and share the reviews within two weeks!]
6. I want to grow the level of interaction on my blog, not just the number of views and followers.

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I want to hear from you! Do you make resolutions? If so, what resolutions did you meet this year? What are your resolutions for next year?

Thanks for reading and see you all next year!

<3 Arielle