Happy 2018!

2017 was an amazing year! I travelled for 8 months which was absolutely incredible. I visited places I had dreamed of seeing for most of my life, and experienced things that had dramatic and profound impacts on who I am. As I started to think about what goals I was going to set for 2018 I was a bit worried 2018 would not be able to stand up to 2017, but once I started to think about what I wanted 2018 to be I realized it was going to be just as amazing if not more so.

As a severe overachiever I have to put limits on my goals so I don’t drive myself insane trying to accomplish everything and then failing at most things. So my number of goals this year was capped at a total of 6.

 Here are my goals for 2018:

1. Spend 10 months living in Lucca, Italy and traveling through new parts of Europe from there. (Currently J. and I are waiting for Visa approval from the Italian embassy, so keep your fingers crossed for us.)
2. Be 70% fluent in either Italian or Spanish. Currently I am about 35% fluent in Italian and about 25% in Spanish. (Of course if I can work on both then all the better!)
3. Get on a regular yoga and biking routine for 6 days a week. I am currently loving Hatha Yoga and have some pretty great goals for different poses I am working on.
4. Get an agent or publisher for my writing. This is a HUGE one for me. I have a couple of children’s board books ready to submit and an adult novel I am working on. I definitely don’t want to finish 2018 without some progress in my writing life.
5. Work more with other bloggers, resume my work with magazines and/or short story periodicals. Another HUGE one for me. I miss writing articles so I want that to be more of a part of my life. I also want to connect with more bloggers and start working together.(If you would like to work together, guest blog here or have me guest blog for you contact me through the blog or comment on this post.)
6. Travel with K. to Ireland, Germany and Italy. These are the three countries she wants to see as a 15-year-old this summer and I want to make this happen. It would be a highlight of my life for me to spend the time showing her around more of the world.

I feel pretty confident about all of these being accomplished, with the help and blessing of the Italian government to achieve my #1 goal. My goal in life since I was 20 years old was to live in Italy, to realize this goal in 2018 will be a major accomplishment for me!

Looking back on 2017 I did pretty good on my goals, better than I have in other years. I wrote a few children’s books, traveled most of the year, worked hard on bettering my photography and growing my blog, and read ALOT (something I never had time to do when I owned my business), but I didn’t realize my career goals. In 2018 it is almost all about the career goals for me. I am ready for it!

What is your focus in 2018? Have you set goals for the year or do you just wing it?