9 Things I Want to Accomplish in 2019

Cheers & Happy New Year, friends! I hope everyone’s first week of 2019 has been great so far! I’m feeling refreshed, reinvigorated and ready to take on a new year with open arms!

Every year I like to reflect a bit and then plan out what I want to accomplish over the next 365 days. Last year I shared my personal and professional goals for 2018, and looking back I didn’t do too bad with my goals. Some, of course, worked out better than others, but nonetheless I’m happy with the progress I made both personally and professionally in 2018.

For 2019 I thought I would share the nine things I want to accomplish this year. They’re a mix of personal and professional goals and I’m hoping that by sharing them on Life with Emily that it will hold me accountable! I would love to hear what you have in store for 2019!

Spend less, save more

In 2019 I really want to cut down on unnecessary spending and find new ways to save where we can. There are a few things we are hoping and praying to happen in the next year or so (like possibly buying a house if we stay in the area or starting a family) and we both want to be more financially stable to do both of those things! We plan to cut cable and switch to DirectTVNow and a few other things to save more this year. I recommend taking a look at your bank statements and seeing what automatic payments come out – chances are there are a few you could get rid of to save a little $!

In that same vein, I want to consume less this year – whether it’s items I buy or items that are gifted to me by companies. As a blogger, part of my job is to buy things. But this year, I want to be smarter about what I buy. I want to invest in items instead of buying 7 different tops for $30 each (or whatever the case may be). I know that my job wouldn’t exist without consumerism, but I want to be better about what I consume and what I share! I hope to hold myself to that this year. And along with that, I am sent a lot of things – beauty items, clothing, and accessories. While I am so grateful and it’s a major perk of my job, it can be 110% overwhelming when giant mailers show up unannounced and I suddenly have 16 foundations, 8 new shirts, and no room for any of it! A lot of times I share these items with my friends and family or donate the items I don’t keep, but overall the consumption is UNREAL and it’s not something I want to promote.

Meal plan, eat healthier & work out consistently

Nick and I really enjoy cooking together, but sometimes during the week we get in a slump and end up cooking our “familiar” meals because they’re easy and we know we like them. This year we aim to meal plan more (just printed out these meal planning pages from The Everygirl!) and try new, healthier meals. If you have any great recipes, send them my way!

This past year has been hard fitness wise. I started BBG and did the full 12 weeks but it just didn’t work for my body. At all. In fact, it had the opposite effect. It made me bulk up and actually gain weight, which left me frustrated and insecure. Sure, I felt stronger, but it was a hard pill to swallow that my arms and thighs were actually larger after 12 weeks. To be honest, I am incredibly unhappy with areas of my body and there have been days that it’s really affected me, especially since part of my job involves taking photos of myself. It’s hard to see the changes in photos. This year I plan on finding a great workout routine that works for me and my body type. I’ve been thinking of trying out Obé Fitness, the Peloton app or Aaptiv – if y’all have tried one of these, let me know what you think!

Be more present & spend less time on my phone

Last year one of my goals was to disconnect more and I’m happy to say that I did that, for the most part. Sure, I probably still pulled out my phone too much, but not as much as years past. This year I want to cut back even more. Even though my job revolves around social media to an extent, I am so tired of feeling chained to my phone and missing out on things because my nose is in my phone! Not to mention, it freakin’ kills my hands and wrists. I think I have carpal tunnel and I’m just making it worse anytime I’m aimlessly scrolling on my phone! God, I feel old typing that out haha.

Continue to read more

Last year I surpassed my book goal by….a lot. My goal was to read 40 books and I ended up reading 100. I found that when I put my phone away and stopped scrolling aimlessly that I had more time for things that I enjoyed, like reading. Reading is one of my favorite ways to relax and unwind and I’ve enjoyed putting more time into reading this past year. I plan to read at least 100 books this year. On top of that I hope to expand the genres that I read. I am a sucker for a thriller or cute romance book, but I want to challenge myself more this year with what I read.

Get organized… and stay organized

Once a new year rolls around and I’ve put all of our holiday decor away I get the itch to clean out EVERYTHING. I get anxious over the amount of “stuff” we have that we don’t use and the amount of stuff that doesn’t have a place. Over the weekend we cleaned out our hall closets, our guest room closet & made a huge pile to donate. This year I want to be better about getting each room organized and actually keep it that way. I think not consuming as much will definitely help with this! If anyone has any tips or tricks for getting (and staying!) organized, send them my way! I have Marie Kondo’s book for the KonMari method and plan to get started with that! Plus, I really want to watch her new Netflix show haha!

Travel more & cross a few places off of my list

Traveling is something I really, really enjoy and want to do more of this year. I already have a few trips planned – one in North Carolina and two in South Carolina, but would love to explore more of the United States this year. There are endless places on my travel list, so I want to cross a few of those off in 2019!

Foster my relationships

As I have gotten older, the more I have realized how important it is to have great relationships with the people in your life, whether it’s a best friend, a significant other, parents, or siblings. It’s so easy to take those relationships for granted, so this year I want to make sure those around me know how much I love and appreciate them. I think that’s something we can all work on, so that’s one of my goals for 2019!

Become a morning person

I am not a morning person AT ALL. I have never been one, just ask my mom about having to wake me up in high school haha! I feel like I’m not awake enough in the morning to be as productive as I would like to be. For Christmas I got the Philips Wake-Up Light Alarm and plan on using that to help me become a morning person.

Write more personal, meaningful content

Over the last year the blogging industry has changed drastically. There was a point in the last year that I was so burnt out, overwhelmed, stressed, and tired of feeling like I needed to “keep up with the Joneses” that I thought about quitting or taking an extended break. I wasn’t in a good place with myself and that reflected here. I wasn’t excited to get up in the mornings and work on this space. I wasn’t enjoying it and my constant comparing was utterly exhausting.

This year I want to get out of my own head and write more personal, meaningful content. That is why I created this space in the first place, to share bits of my life. The idea of sharing more personal content is a bit scary. I’ve had issues in the past with people being quick to judge and make assumptions as well as a safety scare when I shared things in real time, so that made me pull back. I want to share more with you, I’m just juggling with what I want to share and how. I hope y’all understand and respect that! I will still be keeping most of my family and friends off of my blog out of respect for their privacy and life/jobs.

Along the same line, I want to create more video content this year. My Youtube channel is still a little baby, but I found a lot of joy in getting creative and learning something new when it came to video editing this year! So, I plan on sharing more video content as well. If you have any blog post or video ideas – let me know in the comments or email me emily@lifewithemilyblog.com.

Cheers to 2019! & Thank you!

From the bottom of my heart, thank you all so much who follow along with me! I feel like I have a built-in friend group here and on social media. I can’t thank you all enough for your continued support & kind words! I’m really looking forward to sharing 2019 with y’all! XO