2018 Goals: Write, Travel, Live, Love and Laugh More

Over the past few years I started embracing goals instead of rocking with New Year’s resolutions because as you know, resolutions tend to fall by the wayside come February. At least that was the case for me. So I’ve renewed my focus on setting achievable, realistic goals and actionable items, since that’s always worked for me. I’ve done that by creating checklists and vision boards/statements, and listing my goals here on the blog. And by signing up for classes, and joining groups of interest to me that will help me get closer to those goals. I looked back at the goals I set last year, and realized I achieved more than I thought, though others are still in progress. There’s plenty I want to accomplish this year, but there’s no need for a long list. What I want to achieve really falls under three buckets:

1. Write more
Writing has always been my preferred form of art. I’ve always been empowered by words. I started reading at an early age, and writing soon followed suit. Some people paint and sketch, some sew, some sing – there are a ton of creative outlets. And I’ve dabbled in a lot of them but writing is my favorite form of self-expression. It is so therapeutic for me to put words to paper, whether it is blogging about fashion, writing about social injustice, creating digital content, writing fictional stories, and more. Being a professional writer has made it difficult at times to fully enjoy it as a hobby and personal outlet, and I’ve had to take a break from it at times. But I realized that I NEED to write, and this year, one of my core goals is to do it a lot more.

2. Travel more
When I was growing up, my mom always made sure we lived full, well-rounded lives. And that included a lot of travel. We took a lot of family road trips: to New York and North Carolina to visit family, throughout Pennsylvania and to New Jersey, Washington D.C. and Virginia to visit beaches, museums, amusement parks, and anything else cultural and fun. We went to Disney World several times. And since my mom is from St. Thomas, we traveled to the U.S. Virgin Islands often to visit family, and took cruises throughout the Caribbean. I was raised to want to see and explore the world, and have made a habit of it throughout my adult life. Typically I prefer traveling abroad, but last year I got to explore the US a lot more. I traveled to eight different states, some repeats, as well as some new ones. I’ll share more on that in a different post but my goal this year is to see even more of the United States, along with some international travel. I want to explore the entire world!

My motto for 2018: “Can’t stop won’t stop” – Diddy

3. Live, love and laugh more
Last year I lost three family members (and another one already this year). It has been especially hard, since we really hadn’t experienced any deaths in our immediate family before. I lost my aunt in January, another aunt in February and my uncle in August. At my uncle’s memorial service, several people repeated the phrase “Life is short – live it to the fullest.” I really began to re-evaluate my life after that. Was I living it to the fullest? If I died at that moment, would I be happy with the way I lived my life? I mean, I hadn’t been to Iceland yet. I hadn’t launched that business idea that I had in my mind. And I hadn’t yet met The Rock and convinced him to fall in love with me. Ok, I’m kidding on that one (not really though), but there were a lot of things I still wanted to accomplish and a lot I wasn’t happy about so I started working to change them. And my life has been a lot fuller since then. I’ve been actively trying to live each day to the fullest – doing more things that I love, as well as setting a positive tone for my life. This includes getting closer to God, choosing happiness and positivity by surrounding myself with more positive people and thinking more positive thoughts. It also includes more of a focus on self-care, while still extending love to those around me and opening myself up to more love, in all forms.

I’ve always loved to laugh. This year another goal of mine is to immerse myself in comedy. Last year I joined an improv troupe which keeps me laughing on an ongoing basis. I’m also taking more improv and comedy classes to keep my comedic chops sharp. And of course, I’ll be watching more comedy series and attending live shows to get inspiration and support my fellow artists!