I believe I’m about a month late with this post however, “better late than never” is a phrase I live by.
At the beginning of the year I thought about upcoming events throughout the year and things I want to do. I wouldn’t call it a “bucket list” or a list of things I want to accomplish, just 20 things I want to do in 2020.
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Socialise
Last year I feel like I saw people quite a lot however, I want to continue that in 2020. I want to see friends more and see family more. I want to make more of an effort to see family who I don’t see that often because, although I am busy more often than I’m not, I do love them and I should see them more than I do.
Something I am looking forward to this year is Monster of the Week.
“Monster of the Week is a standalone action-horror RPG for 3-5 people. Hunt high school beasties a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer, travel the country to bring down unnatural creatures like the Winchester brothers of Supernatural, or head up the government investigation like Mulder and Scully.”
– https://www.evilhat.com/home/monster-of-the-week
A few friends have recently started this, one friend has created the world and the rest of us made up our own characters, honestly I’m having so much fun with it and I can’t wait to continue.
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Be Healthier
There are so many ways I want to be healthier this year. Of course, one of the reasons I want to be healthier is to lose weight, which is the goal of so many it seems almost cliche at this point, but facts are facts.
The thing is there are other reasons why and various things I want to do to achieve this.
I want to drink more water and re-join the gym. Drink more Green Tea and order less takeaways. Walk more and get less taxi’s. Of course, eat healthier is on the list, but by now shouldn’t that just be implied?
So far I’m doing pretty well on the water and less takeaways, also I’m re-joining the gym later this week so I suppose it’s baby steps, but baby steps is still progress, right?
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Traditions
One of the main traditions I can think of which I would like to continue this year … OK scrap that. I wrote that at the beginning of the year. One of the main traditions I can think of and have continued this year is watching the Super Bowl with one of my friends.
I suppose this could be considered cheating however, I’m putting it on here anyway because this is something I love doing every year. Sometimes I fall asleep (because, to be fair, it’s on until 3AM in the UK) but it’s always so much fun and something I always look forward to doing.
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Travel
This year I know for a fact I’m going on at least one holiday. This holiday is with a few friends, and a friends family, for a Hen-Do. As far as I’m aware the friend who’s getting married doesn’t read this blog however, I still feel the need to be cautious and not state where we’re going as she is completely in the dark as to the destination. I am looking forward to a hopefully relaxing week away with friends.
I’d also love to go back to Cyprus in May this year, if possible. Cyprus is my home away from home and so going back again this year would be wonderful. If I decided to go it would most likely be on my own however, I’ve been on my own a couple of times now and always thoroughly enjoy myself.
If I have the opportunity to travel to any more places I absolutely will.
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Skills
Something I feel I should do this year is get my driving license. I suppose I’m not that fussed for myself but I keep getting nagged so it’s something I should probably look into at some point. Yes, it’ll help me for many reasons (less taxi’s, investment, probably in terms of job prospects) but mostly it’ll finally get some people off my back if nothing else.
Something I genuinely want to do this year, like almost every year, is improve my Greek. I definitely need to be more consistent, after all – “if you don’t use it, you lose it”. There’s a bunch of words, phrases and conversational bits I remember, and I can usually get so far in a conversation however, I can always do better and so I’ll aim to do better.
Along the same lines I had a Sign Language session last month with work and found this is something I would like to continue, so that’s something I plan to look into this year as well.
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Events
PodUK 2020 – Birmingham Trip
Again, being honest I attended PodUK 2020 earlier in February and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was so much fun I actually wrote an entire post about my experience, which I’ve linked above. I went with a friend, we watched live podcast recordings, attended workshops and panels. If the event happens again next year I do hope it’s something I get to do again.This year I’m also going to see Adam Lambert & Queen, Green Day and Little Mix. There’s at least two other concerts I would love to attend (Adam Lambert and Camila Cabello) however, I believe I’ll have to play those by ear.
I’m also once again going to do the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London. I went years ago however, they have so many other features and attractions which weren’t there the last time I attended and I cannot wait to return.
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Celebrations
As mentioned earlier I’m going on a Hen-Do this year which means that later this year two friends of mine are getting married! I’ve no doubt this will be such a fun and exciting day and I cannot wait to celebrate with them.
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Shows
OK, so technically I have no shows booked in for this year however, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any which I would like to see.
For example:
Wicked (I have seen this however, I loved it and would love to see it again); & Juliet; School of Rock; Mamma Mia!; Hairspray; Sister Act; Mary Poppins.I don’t expect or intend to see all of them this year however, I do want to keep it in the back of my mind as I would like to see a couple at least.
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Writing
In terms of a novel I want to write, I’m going to dedicate a good portion of this year to researching and outlining. There are some changes I want to make to the one in existence however, to do that I need to be more clued up in the direction I want it to take.
In the meantime I hope to do more writing prompts and short stories as I genuinely enjoy those. Perhaps a couple of songs and poems. I want to have fun with writing this year and try not to stress to much about words on the page. I want to improve my craft and technique and just play.
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Blogging
Of course blogging is on this list, how could I not have it on here?
I definitely took a break from this blog, unintentional but I felt almost blocked and couldn’t seem to get the words down. I did Blogmas in December of 2019 and very much enjoyed that consistency. January I uploaded a couple however, I want to try and be more consistent in 2020.Of course I always want to put my best out however, this started as something fun and I want to keep it that way. I don’t want to give myself an upload schedule however, ideally I’d like to post twice a week and at the moment I’d quite like those days to be Wednesday and Sunday.
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BookTube
Something else I’d taken an unconscious break from however, again I felt blocked. To be honest with BookTube I still feel like that in some ways however, it is something I genuinely enjoy. I want to continue to create videos however, I also want to improve and not do the same thing all the time. I have a few ideas but I want to try and figure out what I want to bring to the table.
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Self-Care
It’s only February but so far this year I feel I haven’t done too badly in terms of Self-Care.
I know Self-Care should be an every day thing, little things you do every day to care for yourself however, I’m building to that because I know that if I try to overhaul my life it’ll work for a week and then fall apart. It’s a pretty standard conclusion at this point.
So I’ve started with one day. Ideally every Sunday I will take the day for myself. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind going to the cinema with a friend or perhaps the gym (I say the second knowing this is a plan already in motion). If the gym plan goes ahead, to be completely honest it’ll go really well with the day.
The day, or afternoon – whichever, is to spend time without my phone and just being mindful. So far on these days I do a decent pamper day. Deep condition the hair, face exfoliator, sheet masks, mud masks (I’d read a matcha based mask could improve skin so I got one and so far I feel like it’s working).
While I might be on my laptop I try to avoid my phone at these points, unless I feel it’s urgent, because something I’ve noticed is that I’m always connected. It isn’t necessarily bad, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to have an afternoon away.
I want to build on this though, for example incorporating the gym, maybe try meditation. Also think about the week ahead and how I can incorporate small self-care acts in daily rituals and routines.
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Books
Last year I read 50 books, which I am very pleased with. This year my Goodreads goal is 52 books. A friend mentioned she wanted to do that as it’s one book per week. It’s a couple more than I read last year and I liked the idea so I did the same.
According to Goodreads I’m currently three books behind schedule, so no I haven’t read a book a week however, the overall aim is 52 books and I look forward to getting back into my reading routine.
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Movies
I love movies. I have a Cineworld card, which I use however, I feel I should definitely aim to get more use out of it than I do.
Sure, I want to watch new movies. However, there are so many older movies which I just haven’t gotten around to watching yet. Movies are stories in another medium and it’s a medium I want to explore more fully.
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Discover
The two main things which spring to mind is Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and The Imperial War Museum. I’ve wanted to see and explore both of these places for so long, perhaps 2020 will finally be the year.
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Music
Music isn’t something I talk about often. I’m not even really clued up or up to date on what’s popular. To be honest, that’s pretty standard for me. However, I do love music so I feel that maybe I should expand or at least appreciate it more. Plus I want to write more songs, so being aware of what’s out there should help me learn the craft.
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Creativity
This is an umbrella which could also incorporate Writing, Blogging and BookTube however, I want to keep it separate to allow for other forms of creativity. Whether that be in the form of some sort of artistic endeavour – learning to draw or paint, or creating a project from scratch. I want to be open to anything.
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Spend Less Time on YouTube
If I’m being completely honest with myself, YouTube eats up a lot of my time. It’s so easy to become absorbed by either your favourite content creators or even just videos which look interesting.
This year I want to limit the time I spend on the website and see what I could accomplish.
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Instagram
I absolutely love taking pictures. I have done ever since I was a teenager however, at some point I fell out of doing it. Don’t get me wrong, when I say pictures I don’t mean landscapes or artistic photography. I mean out with friends or doing something and I take a picture to remember and reminisce on the occasion.
I want to utilise Instagram more to document and be able to look back on 2020.
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Planning
I bought myself a planner earlier this year and I love it, but I’m not that consistent in using it yet. However, I can already see that the weeks I use the planner I achieve much more than the weeks that I don’t. So, 2020 is the year of planning. I’ll be interested to see what I’ve achieved in 2021.
Of course, in 2021 I want to look back on this list and reflect on what I have and haven’t done.
I don’t want to stress too much however, I want to put this out there so I can keep looking back and keep them in the back of my mind so that there’s more achievements and less coasting by the time the next New Year comes around again.
