Ten goals for 2015 and my word for the year

My “one little word” for the year is: Appreciate. I want to appreciate every minute I have with my new baby when he or she comes, and cherish the time I have off work, because I know many other countries aren’t as fortunate as we are in the UK in terms of how much time we have off. I want Peter to feel appreciated and make sure that I don’t just form a party of two with the baby. I want to take time out to be thankful. And to its other definition, ‘rise in value’ I want to grow this space and develop my skills at the same time.

I have a fair few goals for 2015. I started this post thinking ‘TEN!? That’s crazy, maybe I’ll cut it to 5’, but then I started writing, and realised I could probably expand it to 15 or even 20 if I kept going, especially around the personal goals section. But I’ve pared it back. Ten is a lot of things to aim for, and more than that would be very unrealistic. It’ll be interesting to see, at the end of next year, how many of these things I’ve actually managed to achieve!

I know that the first couple of months of 2015 are going to be pretty crazy. My entire life is going to be turned upside down by the little creature currently in my belly (or maybe it has arrived by now – I’m writing this in advance and scheduling it, so who knows!). I know that learning how to take care of the little monkey will take priority when it gets here, and that all my other goals will be taking a back seat. But I hope that at some point I’ll come up for air and when I do, these are the ten things I am going to be working toward in 2015…

Blog goals:

1) To continue to improve my food photography. Does anyone know of any good, inexpensive, online food photography courses or books they would recommend? I want to develop more of a consistent brand/style when photographing. When reviewing your most read recipes of the year, I felt pretty proud of most of the photos on there. There are still some that I’m not happy with on the site, and at some point in 2015 I would like to go back and reshoot them.

2) To share more home and craft projects. One of the things I loved about my old blog was that it really encouraged me to try out different crafty projects. Obviously the focus here is really different, but I would still love to do more craft projects, and if I agree with myself that I’ll share one a month on here, that should be a good motivator to encourage me to open up the craft box more frequently, even if it’s only to do something small.

3) To do another 30 days meal challenge. I LOVED doing the #30breakfasts challenge, and I thought I might also try a #30lunches challenge in 2015. Slightly easier than breakfasts!

4) I’ve been playing around with the idea of publishing an ebook and one of my goals for 2015 is to create one. It would just be a super short, cheap affair based around healthy meals, but I think it could be fun to play around with, and I’ve wanted to learn more about self-publishing from a professional perspective as well, so this could be a good opportunity. Any recommendations for software I should use to pull one together?

5) Get more involved in the blogging community. I’ve already booked my Blogtacular ticket, and I’d really like to go along to more small blogger events. If you’ve got one coming up, give me a shout! As long it’s not immediately after I have the baby (and as long as I can bring the baby with me!) I’d love to come.

6) Double the traffic to the blog by the end of the year. It will still be a tiny blog, so there’s a part of me who thinks, ‘what’s the point in worrying about traffic?’, but at the same time as I love writing for myself, I also love when people read these words, otherwise I wouldn’t be posting them publicly! If you want to do one thing to help me achieve my 2015 goals, it would be this: If you like the blog, or enjoy a recipe or like a post, please share it – on Facebook or Twitter or on email to one specific person – it doesn’t really matter where, but help spread the word!

Personal goals:

7) Give myself a break. As I’ve said, I’m very goal oriented. I love a to-do list (can you tell?). But during the early days once the baby arrives, I need to remember that it’s okay to just sit down and do nothing but focus on the baby. I want to give myself all the time I want to just give myself over to the hormones and be a new mum. And I love writing these goals, but I really need to not get stressed if, by September, I’m nowhere near achieving them…

8) I really want to develop a capsule wardrobe. I always look at people who do this with awe and jealousy. But I’ve never even attempted to do it myself. In Spring 2015, I’d like to see if I can start creating one per season.

9) By the end of 2015, I’d like to be close to my March 2014 weight and level of fitness. I’m obviously not going to rush into this, a year seems like a reasonable amount of time. In March/April this year, I felt SO GOOD, health wise – I want to make sure I find a way to regain that.

Work goals: 

10) This is a bit of a strange year for work, since I’m not actually going to be in the office at all, or at least not for the majority of the year. So I only have one goal, which is to keep an eye out for what’s happening in the publishing industry and to make sure that I don’t lose touch completely with that world while I’m away. I don’t want to become super focussed on what’s happening in the office, but equally, when I go back, I don’t want to feel like I’m starting from scratch, so I need to find some kind of balance over the next few months.

Phew, feels like quite a lot, but hopefully all fairly doable! What are your aims for next year?