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Laura
Hi! I'm Laura, a 23-year-old millennial girl discovering who I am by sharing my life experiences on my blog. You'll find me writing about me discovering my personal style, my growing wanderlust or giving any sort of style, uni or mental health advice.

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styleandsushi@outlook.com

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TRAVEL

MY 2020 + JANUARY GOALS WITH CGD LONDON

This post is written in collaboration with CGD London. All views written in this post are my own. Please read my full disclaimer here.

And just like that it’s 2020. Can you believe it?! Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a lovely New Years Eve and spent it just the way you wanted to spend it. New Years Resolutions are such a marmite thing in general, as we always hear those superficial lists of resolutions that people share on the radio or telly. I used to be one of those people, as I would set myself unrealistic goals that I knew I wouldn’t carry through the rest of a year. We don’t necessarily need a New Year to make resolutions and set ourselves goals to become better, kinder human beings, but the over thinker in me loves to make lists to become a better, even kinder human after 2019. I love a challenge though, so I made some resolutions. And I am holding myself accountable by setting myself monthly goals that contribute to my 2020 goals in general. 


Read 25 books this year

A goal I set myself this year is to read 25 books. Last year is the year I fell back in love with reading again and I ended up reading 22 books while I set myself a challenge to read only 15. I’m working on this goal in January by starting a new book. I’ll be reading An American Marriage by Tayari Jones as I have heard so many great things about it. I have also already made myself a little to-read list so I know what to read next as soon as I finish this read.

Being happy, healthy, grateful and kind

I feel like your own happiness and health are so important in life. Without your happiness and your health, you’re basically nowhere. So I want to treasure it as much as possible. Obviously this goal is quite vague as all of these terms can be interpreted in your own way. I want to be healthy and happy and will do so by getting back into eating healthy and going to the gym in January. This past year I have noticed that giving my body the right nutrients and by moving my body I not only feel physically stronger and better, it also helps with my mental health.
Gratitude is another thing I have incorporated into my life since last year. I practice gratitude by writing down at least three things I am grateful for every day. In 2020 I also want to spread even more kindness, as there’s so much negativity in the world already. This means I want to try and be even less of a negative Nancy and by praising people more often. I will try to listen to and compliment my friends, family and strangers more often. Preferably I would like to compliment people more on personality traits instead of on appearance. It’s a lot more rewarding to hear that you’re good at giving advice, listening to someone or making someone feel better than by getting compliments on a pair of jeans or your hair.

Continuing to be my own priority

Self care, self love, embracing who I am. It’s all sounds so natural, so normal. But it's something I to this day struggle with, and I know I am not alone in this. I am one of those people who often loses sight of themselves and their feelings, as soon as life becomes too busy. I already made my mental health and myself my number one priority last year, because it's so important to be and have the same kind of energy you want to attract. You can only attract positivity and radiate happiness if you're feeling like that yourself. That's why I want to continue being my own priority in 2020. It’s important to take care of yourself not only for your own happiness and health, but it also contributes to the happiness, love and health of the people around you who care so much for you. And who knows, that positive energy might even rub off on strangers too.

Doing something outside of my comfort zone

If we have not established it by now, I will repeat it just once more: I am such a homebody. I love being in the comfort of my own home and am comfortable in the life I live. That's why my last resolution in 2020 is to do something outside of my comfort zone. I want to live less inside of my head and experience more of the world. I want to worry less and challenge myself to step outside of my comfort zone. I for instance want to learn how to speak Spanish and I want to develop some other new skills too. Another thing that might push me outside of my comfort zone is by going on a night out with friends. Or as someone who gets anxiety by even thinking about taking any sort of exercise class, I think it would also be good to challenge myself like that.

Keeping myself accountable by using the CGD London Goals planner

Obviously it’s easy to type these goals in a blog post, but it’s easy to forget about them later on in the year. It’s why I need to keep myself accountable. I have used the CGD London Goals planner to keep track of my goals since the beginning of December 2019 and to hold myself accountable in accomplishing my 2019 goals. I will continue to use this planner for accomplishing my 2020 goals.
The thought of consciously working on goals throughout all the weeks and months of the year, up until the end of the year has always felt overwhelming to me. I never know where to start and how to make sure I work on these goals weekly or monthly to feel like I have accomplished them at the end of a year. That’s why I love to use the CGD London 2019-2020 Goals planner (*gifted). My goals for 2020 are currently written down in a notebook, but I don’t look at my notebook daily either, which makes it harder to keep track of them. I now use the CGD London Goals Planner as my diary and to keep track of everything I have to do every week. This works for me as I look at that planner every day. It’s easy to be reminded of my monthly goals as it’s on the same page as my monthly overview. Another thing that I find works really great for me with this planner is that I can also add weekly goals, which will contribute to my monthly – and in the long run also yearly goals.

As you can see I use the monthly planner page purely for writing down important dates, meetings and deadlines and for writing down my goals for that month. Then I also set myself weekly goals such as eating healthy, going to the gym at least once a week or by forcing myself to sit down and write blog posts to hold realise the goals I set myself the upcoming year. I use the weekly planners to map out my days and navigate my days throughout the best way possible. One of my favourite things to do since I have received this planner, is to write down weekly goals to make monthly and yearly goals manageable. The to-do lists help me break down how I can achieve my weekly goals. As you can see it’s a super easy and straightforward way to accomplish your goals. I personally think setting goals and holding yourself accountable should be super straightforward like this, as it makes it the easiest way to accomplish those goals.

I wish for you all to seek out your own happiness and find kindness and love in your soul and wherever you can find it. Remember to try and not compare yourself to others. As hard as it is, we all only share highlights of our lives on social media and life isn't always peachy, even though it might seem like it. For your own sanity: don't try to set unrealistic goals, seek out happiness. Try to figure out who you are, embrace it and do so with kindness and courage. Happy 2020!

Setting yourself a goal is something so personal. If you're willing to set yourself a challenge, then please share a goal you have yourself below! 

Reacties

  1. I think it's so lovely that one of your goals is to be a kinder person! We need more people in the world like you. I also love this diary you have! This year I want to be more eco-friendly. Something I started practising in 2018 and want to get betterat year after year!

    Hope you have a fab 2020!

    Cat / What Cat Says

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    Reacties
    1. Thank you so much Catarina. It's so important to spread kindness around every day! I don't even know why I didn't add being more eco-friendly to my goals too. It's so important. Like you I also started adapting my lifestyle since 2018 to be more eco-friendly, but it's definitely something I need to become better at!

      Have a wonderful 2020! xx

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