Most people don't stick to their New Year's resolutions, however as a very goal-orientated person, I genuinely try to stick with mine each year and they cover various aspects of my life. In Portugal (where my family is from) on New Year's Eve, each person has 12 grapes and a glass of champagne, and as it strikes midnight, you eat the grapes and drink the champagne whilst watching the firework display, making one 'wish' for each grape you eat.
I've combined both of these traditions, so each year I make about 12 resolutions and try to stick with them throughout the year. I feel like they give me something to work towards and allow me to consider what matters to me and where I'd like to be in a year's time.
For 2020 I decided on these:
1) Stick to the gym
By January 2020, I'd been going to the gym regularly for about 3 months, and I was determined to keep it up. Ironically, gyms completely closed for many months due to COVID-19, but I start running outdoors instead, and it's now been over a year since I started exercising regularly. Stay tuned for next week's post on how I made the gym a routine and lost over 20kgs.
2) Read 40+ books
Every year I create a 'Reading Challenge' on Goodreads, which is the number of books that I aim to read that year. Despite having to study for my Master's, write a dissertation, and start a new job in 2020, I decided to aim for 40 books. As soon as the pandemic hit however, I realised it would be the perfect year to achieve my bucket-list goal of reading over 52 books in a year and at the time of writing I've already managed to read over 80, click here to find out how.
3) Start a blog
The fact that you're reading this shows that this one was a success. I've wanted to start a blog for several years now, but never found the time to actually sit down and think of a name, a logo, the design, the platform, and blog post ideas. Until lockdown. Again, COVID-19 actually enabled me to accomplish this resolution, and I'm very proud for finally getting round to something that had been on the 'to-do' list for years.
4) Give blood
Similarly to starting a blog, giving blood had been goal of mine for years before I finally got around to doing it. Despite having signed up to be a blood donor over 5 years ago, due to my travels I only managed to give blood this year (and even then I got turned away the first time I tried as I'd been to Madeira within the past month). I strongly encourage giving blood as the process is very easy and it could be the difference between life and death for someone. To read about my experience giving blood, click here.
5) Go on more dates
As a girl in my early twenties, I find dating in London very fun. I think it's great to put yourself out there, and even if the date is sub-par, it'll make a great story. Anytime I go on a date I feel like I'm in a New York rom-com, and I've definitely made more time for dating this year (around the lockdowns).
6) Do a handstand
I have never been able to do a handstand. Even as a kid, I never managed to do cart wheels or hand stands, instead resorting to roly-polies, the crab, and headstands. Nonetheless, I always found handstands really cool, and decided to try and work on it (especially as I was now exercising so my strength was increasing). Unfortunately, I haven't managed to accomplish this one (yet), so it's going straight onto my '2021 Resolutions' list.
7) Eat less meat
My original plan was to partake in 'Meatless Mondays', except that I completely forgot and on the very first Monday of 2020 ended up with a burger in hand. Therefore, I quickly changed the resolution to instead just reduce my meat intake. Although I definitely tried more meat substitutes, including several plant-based burgers, and went to more vegan restaurants, day-to-day I mostly forgot. I think that because I was eating a much healthier diet in an attempt to improve my health, I naturally ate less meat, and I am not a massive fan of red meat regardless, however I didn't make as much a conscious effort as I'd wanted. For 2021, I think I'll have a more concrete aim, such as 'eat tofu more often' or 'buy Quorn instead of animal products' or similar.
In January 2020, I obviously had no idea that a pandemic was about to take over, so many of my resolutions became obsolete, however I've decided to list them anyway as they might inspire some of you:
8) Get a tattoo
Although COVID-19 forced many tattoo shops to close, that's not actually what impeded me from achieving this resolution. The issue was that my favourite tattoo artist's studio is abroad, and travel restrictions meant I wasn't able to get a tattoo. Granted, I could have gotten one in the UK if I tried hard enough, but I wanted to get it done by a specific artist and I have an exciting travel plan for when it does happen, which I will definitely post about.
9) Visit 5+ new countries
When I wrote this resolution, it was the only one that I felt very confident in as I'd already arranged to go to 12 new countries, as well as several new cities. As you can imagine, the pandemic changed my plans drastically, but nonetheless I still managed to visit 4 new countries and travel considerably pre-covid. Click here to see my 2020 Travel Round-Up.
10) Go to a festival abroad
I was very excited to go to several festivals in 2020; I hadn't been to any in a couple of years and I had my eye on several with incredible line-ups. Specifically, I wanted to go to two in Portugal and two in the UK, but obviously they were all cancelled. Nonetheless, I'll hopefully be able to go to a couple in 2021 instead.
11) Move Out
After graduating from University of Bristol, I moved back to London for my Master's. The aim was to finish my Master's in July, travel around South America over Summer, and then move out in September before starting my grad scheme. Although this would have in theory been possible, the idea of moving out of my family home to then be in another lockdown in the city centre with less space didn't really appeal to me. As it is, I'm planning to work from Lisbon for a month and then move out by March, by which point a couple of friends will hopefully have found jobs so we can move in together.
12) Live abroad
This resolution goes hand-in-hand with the one above, however I did in fact get close to moving abroad. I knew that my job was going to be remote until at least January, so I did actually ask my managers if it would be possible to work abroad (specifically from Lisbon) until Christmas, and although it did look very likely in October, I couldn't in the end due to tax reasons. Nonetheless, I've been given the opportunity to work from Portugal for 4 weeks in the new year, which I'm very excited for, as living abroad is definitely a life goal of mine; stay tuned to find out which cities I'd love to live in.
Even though I didn't achieve some of my resolutions, I find that they definitely give me something to work towards and motivate me to try new things and make the most out of the year. I'm still trying to consolidate my list for 2021, so expect a post next year on whether I achieved them or not.
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