Since it's the new year, it's time again to set new goals that I want to achieve for myself. Before I share my goals for the new year, I thought it was only fair to do a recap of my 2015 goals and talk a bit about how I did.
2015 goals:
1. Take better care of my body – I'm not sure whether I was able to achieve this or not, but I'd like to think that I took better care of myself in 2015 than in 2014. I still got sick a bunch of times, but not as much as before. The only major health issue I encountered last year was the sudden intolerance to certain foods, like dairy and eggs and coffee, and a bunch of other things that I like eating. I was told that this was just an effect of the body becoming more sensitive to certain foods as you grow older. The only solution I can come up with is to lessen my intake of these foods (because I can't bring myself to cut them out completely) and to be careful with what I eat when I go out. Other than that, I was pretty okay health-wise in 2015. I barely got any exercise done though, and I still need to increase my water intake.1.5 Take better care of my skin – If there was one goal I know I did my very best to achieve in 2015, it was this. I have a somewhat decent basic skincare routine now, which I'm currently growing into a Korean-inspired multi-step routine. I also don't use as much makeup as I used to. These days I only wear BB cream when going out to run errands, as compared to before when I'd need to put on a full face of foundation before I could even step out of the house. My skin condition's gotten slightly better, but I still have a long way to go.
2. Get a day job, and save money for "adulting" purposes – I couldn't accomplish this at all, sadly. I could blame my social anxiety all I want, but the truth of the matter is that I still have to suck it up and find a job. I'll try again this year.
3. Travel more – Because I couldn't accomplish #2, I couldn't really travel as much as I wanted to. Though I was able to visit Coron and Kuala Lumpur last year, it was all because of the (financial) efforts of other people—my relatives and Aian, respectively. I want to be able to travel using my own money this year.
4. Spend less on unnecessary things – It wasn't like I had much to spend at all, so I was able to accomplish this with no problem at all, haha. The good thing about not having a lot of money, is that you're more careful about spending.
5. Take more photos – Yes and no. Yes because having an iPhone made taking daily life photos so much easier, no because I barely did any photoshoots last year. I hope I get to do more of those this year.
6. Study + try a lot of new things – The only thing I tried last year was eating new things, I think. This year I'm looking to focus my efforts on studying Nihongo, and hopefully I'll be able to take the JLPT for N5 once I feel up to it.
7. Stop hating myself – Done, done, and done. If there's one goal I'm glad to be crossing off this list, it's this one. I don't know if it's because I surrounded myself with nothing but happy things and wonderful people last year, but I've learned to be kinder, both to myself and to others. (Also, if I ever feel the need to hate myself for some reason, I can always listen to this reading of Desiderata by Tom Hiddles, heh.)
Not gonna lie, I'm a bit disappointed since a lot of the goals I set were very doable—get a job, learn a new language, take up a new hobby—yet I wasn't able to accomplish any of them. I realize now that it isn't enough that I just push myself harder; what I need to do is to push myself harder, but in the direction that I really want to go. Which, at this point in my life, I still don't know where exactly. I'm a bit hesitant to say this here, but for a 26-year-old to be saying that she doesn't know what direction in life she wants to take is strange, isn't it? But that's just how it is. Right now I can only take baby steps, and hopefully somewhere along the way I'll find out which direction I really want to be going. For now, I'll continue to push myself. This time, outside of my comfort zone. So with that, here are my new goals for the year!
2016 goals (mostly brought over from last year, but still):
1. Take better care of my body – Drink more water, eat healthy, cut back on junk food, exercise, and lose some weight while I'm at it. I'm not particularly unhappy about how I look and weigh at the moment, but it's so damn uncomfortable. Plus, some of my favorite clothes are starting to get too small for me.. yikes.2. Get a day job and save money for things – I already have something in mind, the only thing left is for me to actually send out my resume. Just the thought of having to go to interviews scares me, but it's something that must be done!
3. Travel more – Visit at least three destinations I've never been to before, be it a local one or a different country.
3.5 Visit Japan in June – The ultimate goal for this year, I think!! It might seem a bit shallow, but for someone like me who's been in love with Japan and Japanese culture for so long even though I've never been there, this is a big deal! Actually being able to visit Japan would mean so much to me and Aian, so I'm making this the goal for 2016.
4. Downsize my wardrobe – One of the biggest problems I have with my current wardrobe is that I always complain that I have nothing to wear, and then end up always wearing the same things. I want to do one big closet purge, buy more wearable clothes, and sell off or donate all the clothes that I don't wear anymore.
5. Take more daily life photos – I have two camera phones now, so I have no excuse not to do it!
6. Do at least five of my photoshoot concepts – I have a ton of photoshoot concepts that I want to do, but they always come with a ton of excuses as to why I can't do them. I want to push myself to do at least five this year.
7. Take studying Nihongo seriously – Not to say that I haven't been taking it seriously, but I do have a tendency to study for a whole month and then forget all about it for some couple of weeks after. I need to stop doing that. Since I want to be able to take and pass at least the N5 level JLPT, I'll have to focus, focus, focus!
8. Watch more ~*~artsy~*~ films – I don't know if artsy is the right term, but I want to watch all of Wes Anderson's films! I've only seen The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and The Grand Budapest Hotel so far. Also on my list: Sofia Coppola's work, because I've only ever seen Lost in Translation, and everything by Hayao Miyazaki.
9. Finish reading at least 5 books – Watching Crimson Peak last year made me miss reading classic gothic romance novels, but I realized I never got around to finishing Wuthering Heights when I read it in high school. I also realized that I bought 1Q84 in 2012, and I still haven't finished reading it. I have a bad habit of reading books then stopping mid-way, so my goal for this year is not just to read, but to read and finish at least 5 books.
10. Do more for my blog – One of the things I found useful last year was coming up with a blog calendar. It worked really well for about for a month, but because I didn't have a physical planner I found it hard to keep track of dates and ideas. I need to work on that. I also want to write more about makeup, since it's something I really enjoy talking about. More reviews and tutorials. But more than anything, I want to write more personal entries. As much as I enjoy creating outfit and beauty posts, Oh My Little Girl is, first and foremost, a personal blog. So this year I want to be able to share more personal things—travels, things I find inspiring, what manga I'm currently reading, daily life things, etc.
Ten (and a half) goals seems like a lot, but I wanted to make sure all my goals were realistic and doable. I do have a lot of things that I still want to do that aren't on this list—take up watercolor painting, learn how to drive, etc. But I figured those things should come after I've secured myself a stable job, so I omitted them for now. Baby steps! ( •̀ᄇ• ́)ﻭ✧