We’re halfway through January. Those of you who make resolutions are hopefully reaping the benefits or not feeling too bad if you haven’t quite stuck to them religiously. Personally, I don’t really make resolutions, probably because of the hesitation that I’ll not meet them! Instead, I like to have some general goals for the near future and the year as a whole. When fellow travel lovers Claire and Laura, who I met at the Blogosphere awards in 2017, announced that they were pairing up with The Travel Hack to help fellow bloggers I figured I’d use this as an opportunity to get them down on paper and attempt to win a place on their incredible Bloggers Retreat! (psstt if you’re a blogger and you don’t know about it yet, click here!)
So here are my goals for the next six(ish) months:
Let’s get snappy!
In 2017, I was gifted a new dSLR by my other half. With all the best intentions, I said “I’m going to make the most of this” and well, I really didn’t. I have used it in Auto-mode most of the time, choosing quantity over quality! Over the last few weeks I’ve begun dabbling in Manual and am absolutely loving it. I’m convinced 2018 is the year of getting better with my photography. I’d love to learn more about composition, experiment with different types of shots and get more comfortable with using Manual mode.
Pipe down, Anxiety
This year is all about being more confident with the blog and channelling my doubts. In 2017, I suffered a lot with bursts of terrible anxiety and a knock of confidence, somewhat stemming from my own ambitions and being a little too outwards-seeking. I had started to compare myself to my friends, peers, other bloggers, all the perfectly preened dewy-skinned Instagrammers filling my feed. I found my confidence at a real low point. By taking time to reflect, over our trip to South America, I’ve seen how unhealthy it had become! I don’t want to compare myself to others, even if they do have thousands of Instagram followers, seemingly perfect faces, polished manicures and the appearance of the perfect life. Remember people: Instagram is only a collection of our shiniest, best looking moments… most of life isn’t like that!
I’ve achieved so much over the last few years with my little slice of the internet but as soon as someone asks I seem to shy away and say it’s going “ok!”. So, 2018 is about taking control of those doubts. I’m not going to recoil from writing a controversial blog post, I will not treat meeting others bloggers like first dates, I’ll be less embarrassed about sharing my content with requests to share it, and I’ll talk about my blog with a bit more pride!
Insta storying it up
I’ve avoided Insta-stories in the past, anxious of whether anyone would watch, and if they would, would they like it? Would they swipe away? Or worse, would they nudge their friends and laugh together? In truth, does that really matter?! I absolutely love Instagram’s story function and it’s time to get comfier on it!
Branding
Overtime, my blog has built up from my university journal to a luxury travel and food blog. It’s naturally taken on a style which is basically an extension of my own personality. This year, I’d like to take some time out to formally work on this. What message am I trying to portray? I live and breathe food and travel; it’s what I love and it’s what I know. It’s what I find myself daydreaming about and it’s the reason, out of nowhere I’ll find myself on Skyscanner, JUST in case! So how do I make sure I’m reaching my fellow holiday-loving foodies?! It’s something I definitely want to learn more about in 2018.
More internet friends
How weird does that sound? Over the last year, I made some incredible friends through blogging. What started as people whom I’d exchange some tweets, blog comments and Instagram likes, to real friends who I messaged as soon as the Doc proposed. The kind of friends you’d nvite to your wedding, send pictures with faces mask on and who make your top pick of people for drinking wine with! This year, I’m going to aim to attend tonnes more blogging events and arrange more cocktail and coffee dates with my fellow bloggers!
As we’re coming to the end of our four-month adventure in South America and planning our upcoming wedding, I’ve started to shape up how I’m going to do this. It would be incredible to start working on these aims and now I’ve got all of you lovely people to keep me honest about doing it!
What are your goals for the near future?!