New Year’s Resolutions 2019

Last Updated on April 8, 2020 by Iryna

As the end of the year quickly approaches, I like to summarize achievements and lessons of the outgoing year, plan ahead and prepare my New Year’s resolutions 2019.

From my previous years, I know it’s helpful to list your goals and be accountable for the results. My post on New Year’s Resolutions 2017 was a good example of that. Listing my goals and feeling responsible to my readers helped to gear towards achieving them.

The more your objectives for the year are SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timebound), the higher percentage of success you’ll have.

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I LOVE using various planners, organizers, spreadsheets and inspirational notebooks to keep me motivated. I’ve already got a planner for 2019 and can’t wait to start feeling it up with weekly goals and ideas!

2018 Year in Review

Let’s go quickly over some achievements, failures, and results of the outgoing 2018 year.

Professional Year Results

Right after my birthday, I’ve got a call from my manager. After long consideration, they’ve decided to shut down the business. That meant that our small office was closing down, unexpectedly for us all.

Of course, this was like a bolt from the blue! I was planning to stick to this company for as long as I could, but the Universe had different plans for me, and not for the first time, I should say…

At the same time, it was like a wake-up call. I’ve realized there is nothing permanent. And it’s always good to have a backup plan or some side business, that will help you to go through a job loss and to avoid unemployment depression.

On the bright side, I’ve started spending more time on my blog. As a result, I had a few long and thoughtful posts such as “How to Start a Blog the Right Way”, “Book Review: Detoxification Program Clean” and “How to Buy a Gift That Matters + Gift Guide with 29 Gift Ideas”.

I also finally did 6 Weeks Abs Challenge through my blog. This was something I wanted to do for a looong time. Even there was not much involvement, but still, I was working out myself and encouraging other people to do so.

Besides, one person even won a small prize! I’ve summarized the outcome of the challenge in “6 Weeks Abs Challenge Results” post. If you are interested in starting the abs challenge at your own convenient time, you can sign up for the automated emails below.

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Personal Year Results

From the personal perspective of the year results, 2018 was quite successful in terms of self-development. I’ve participated in 10 days of online training about the transformation of my life’s scenario.

We had 3 days of theory, where I’ve learned why it’s important to work on my thoughts, reactions, actions to get the changes I want. There was a visual representation of how my daily choices could lead me closer or further away from my goals.

After there was time for the individual work by following provided material, guidelines, practical methods for achieving results I wanted to see in my life. I really loved how it was structured.

Instructors provided amazing support and ideas for personal improvement. There was a friendly atmosphere during online communication, and I was impatiently waiting for the next online meeting with them.

Unfortunately, they currently have online training only in Russian (that’s my native language, even though I am from Ukraine). Hopefully, in the near future, they’ll be able to expand this option in other languages.

Another self-development highlight I’d like to mention in this year’s review is a one day visit to Vipassana meditation center. As an old student, after passing previously 10-day course, I was able to sign up for the 1-day course this time.

Vipassana meditation center is a great place to leave the busyness of your daily life, dive into your inner self in full silence, and enjoy peaceful nature and delicious Indian-style food.

I especially love the approach – it’s run on donation and volunteering basis, free of any commercial bias.

The day was very well spent, and I was thankful to my family for providing such an opportunity. I’ll post more details about Vipassana meditation and my experience, so make sure to sign up for my newsletters to get notifications about upcoming posts, including that one.

This year I also had experience in selling my used car by myself. I like taking challenges, learning something new and making things different. Especially if it brings some value. And it did – we were able to sell the car around $2000 higher than at the dealership (happy dance 🙂 )

I think all the details I’ve learned in the process – necessary documents, steps required, procedure – could be interesting for my readers, at least as inspiration. So stay tuned for this type of post as well 🙂

UPDATE: the post “How to Sell a Car Privately and Make More Money” is done! Enjoy! 🙂

Of course, I just HAVE to mention our new member that joined our family this year. Lily, a Siberian kitten, is a small joy for the whole family 🙂 And it’s easy to see why from those pictures 🙂

Professional New Year’s Resolutions

I have really big hopes for the upcoming year, even though I feel like I will have to work hard on my New Year’s resolutions…

First of all, since I am on the job market these days, I need to bring more value to my resume. I’ve been planning to receive Google AdWords and Google Analytics certification for a while. Now is the perfect time to do it!

Second, I really love working on my blog. I feel my writing skills get better every time I write a post. Also, I learn a lot about Social Media, blog growing, and other technical stuff along the way, and I really love everything I do.

My second professional New Year’s resolution will be to get more knowledge and training in blogging, improve writing and photography skills.

Personal New Year’s Resolutions

This year I want to concentrate more on learning Mandarin. I’ve started learning myself through youtube, but I quit very fast due to a lack of motivation. As soon as I get some income, I am going to research online classes and get some teacher on a bi-weekly basis (same as my flute class).

My second personal New Year’s resolution is to make a blood donation. I was scared to do it for a long time for the fear of getting infected. The pain was not the factor, but lack of knowledge and fear of the unknown (as usual).

But, it’s time for making some changes and getting out of my comfort zone more often. Similarly like I finally did parasailing this year facing my fear of height (yay! it was fun!).

I’ve been going to Zumba classes for more than 7 years now. At this point, I saw different levels of teachers. And now it’s a challenge for me to find an intermediate level of teaching to get the full energy class.

So my next crazy New Year’s resolution is to become a Zumba instructor. Being a student and a teacher is a big difference. It will be a HUGE challenge for me to stand in front of the crowd and to find a rapport with other people.

Next year I would also like to try being vegan for at least one week. Right now it feels too complicated for me. But, you never know until you try. And thanks to Pinterest, I am sure I’ll be able to find some interesting recipes.

Wish me luck with my New Year’s resolutions 2019! 🙂

How was your 2018? Do you set your goals every year? What New Year’s resolutions do you have on your list? Please share in the comments for ideas and inspiration. Thanks!