This Time Next Year Tag – The Results

Last year I took part in a little New Year tag post which you can take a look at here. Well it’s been one whole year since I published that post now so it’s time to take a look back at the goals I set and discuss the results!

In recent years I’ve set myself some goals at the start of a new year and have had a tough time completing them then I’ve felt really disappointed with myself which is silly really. Just because we don’t tick certain things off doesn’t mean we haven’t achieved. So for the sake of my own mental health I said I wouldn’t set any goals last year. But then this tag came along and I can’t resist a tag post so I decided to switch up my approach to setting goals and resolutions. I set quite vague goals with the idea that if there were no real specific things to achieve then anything I did towards that goal – no matter how big or small – would count. I have to say it’s worked out a lot better for me doing it this way!

I set myself five goals last year so let’s take a look at what they were and what I did to work towards them during the past year.

Home – this always appears on my goals list for a new year in some capacity because there’s lots I want to do to our house. However I’ve been really specific about what I want to achieve in the past and haven’t done any of the things I wrote down. So last year I said I wanted to do three things around the house big or small. Now I didn’t quite manage three jobs but there’s a very good reason for that because we actually took on one very big job – renovating our kitchen! I mean totally gutting it and starting from scratch. The kitchen has always been the room I’ve hated the most so when the opportunity arose to have a brand new kitchen we jumped at it! It was pretty stressful at times but totally worth it in the end because I’m absolutely in love with the kitchen now. So I’d say this goal was pretty successful.

Money – this is another one that always appears in some way on my goals list. I’m passionate about finance and I’ve always been really good with saving money. My money goals for the year were to have a good amount of savings by this time this year and increase how much I make from side hustles even if it was only by £10. This year was the year everything seemed to fall into place financially which after a couple of tough years felt amazing. I didn’t quite save as much as I would have liked but when I set the goal last year I never imagined we’d be doing a full kitchen renovation this year. So I’m totally not mad that a lot of money went on the kitchen and emptied the savings out a little. And my personal account and the joint account with my husband have still managed to gain some savings which I’m happy with. I

I have big plans financially for 2023. I’ve been doing a lot of research into saving and investing, overpaying our mortgage etc and next year is the year I get serious about saving for the future (while still having fun money for the present!).

Side hustle wise I only really have blogging and a survey site I use to earn extra money so it’s never a huge amount I make but it’s what really boosts my savings. Any slight increase on this amount year upon year is a win for me as it’s not my main focus or my main income but I’m pleased to report I made around £300 more from side hustles this year compared to last year so I’m beyond happy with that!

Blogging – the only blogging goal I had this year was to be more consistent with posting across both of my blogs. I wasn’t quite as consistent as I would have liked, especially with my wedding blog but I did what I could. I need to have a good think about this one and come up with a consistent schedule I actually have time to stick to. Even if it’s just one post a month over on the wedding blog.

Self – this was a really big one for me in 2022. I had a lot about myself that I really wanted to work on. My self confidence, doing things on my own, my toxic treat of comparing my life to other peoples. There was a lot going on! 2022 has been amazing for working on myself and a big reason for that is that I started working with a personal trainer in May. It’s home workouts but when I say it’s been life changing I’m not exaggerating. I’ve been working with my PT, Lauren, for 7 months now and the confidence it’s given me is unreal. It’s completely changed my attitude towards food, exercise and my own body. It’s quite frankly been one of the best experiences ever. I have so many thoughts on it that I think I’m going to have to write a full blog post about it.

Wedding – I got married in August 2021 after we’d postponed for a year. We have hundreds of amazing photos from the day but they’re all stuck on a memory stick so I set a goal to get a couple printed and framed and create a wedding photobook. Unfortunately this just didn’t happen. It wasn’t a huge goal so I’m not mad about it but I think it’s just one of those jobs that constantly gets put off. Maybe next year!

So in all I don’t think I’ve done too bad with my goals! This way of doing things worked so much better for my mental health, I didn’t feel any pressure and ended the year feeling pretty pleased with myself. I think given how well it’s worked for me that I will set some goals again this year but I’ll cover that in my upcoming ‘reflecting on 2022’ post.

Do you set new year goals? How did you get on with your goals this year? Let me know in the comments!