The funny thing about me picking a word for the year is that there seems to be a pattern of me doing the opposite. I’m so rebellious to the core, that I even rebel against rules I make for myself.
Last year my word was moderation, and then I proceeded to let the blog and travel consume too many of my hours. Of course, the good thing is that it brought us to become one of the top 5 travel bloggers in the world (in terms of traffic), but it also left me feeling empty and like I neglected the important things in life like community and health (a lesson I need to relearn time and time again).
The year before that, my word was brave, and while we did a lot of things to face our fears, I feel like I came out of the year even more afraid. Knocked one fear off and pile on five more.
Life is funny that way. Now my dilemma is do I use reverse psychology to trick myself into doing what I want? I want this year to be the year of the
PURGE
Does that mean instead I tell myself it’s the year of More is More and Consumption Consumption? 😝 The idea is that we weed out all the non-essential things in our life, whether it’s physical clutter in our house, digital clutter, mindless busyness, and emotional baggage that we carry around. That’s what minimalism is all about.
It’s not purging for the sake of purging, but taking out the clutter so you can really know and appreciate what you have.
It’s ironic that we now live in one of the most fast-paced cities in the world with so much going on, but we want to learn slow down and simplify. Recently, one of our cats, Mika, got diagnosed with leukemia, so it’s already helped us hit the brakes.
However, the direction of the year goes, here are our goals for the year.
18 in 2018
TRAVEL GOALS
- Visit all the New England states. CT MA ME NH ✓ (Still need to visit RI VT)
- Do a proper fall New England road trip. ✓
- Visit Acadia National Park. ✓
- Visit 5 new National Park Units. ✓
- Visit one new World Heritage site – Statue of Liberty, Independence Hall, Itsukushima Shrine, Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Old Quebec, Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara ✓
- Go climbing in one new climbing destination – Central Park ✓ (Gunks next?)
PERSONAL GOALS
- Go on a date night twice a month (more alphabet dates).
- Meatless Mondays (unless traveling or if we are invited out by others).
- Journal once a week (Esther) + One sec video a day (Jacob).
- Project 333 / 100 Things Challenge.
- Read six books this year (5/6)
- Climb at a V5 level for Esther and V6 for Jacob.
BLOGGING GOALS
- Launch our e-course.
- Give the site a makeover. ✓
- Post at least twice a week to Instagram (Esther + Jacob).
- Post two Youtube videos a month. ✓
- Pitch and partner with three new brands we love.
- Write a more personal post once a month (maybe revamp monthly goals).
PREVIOUS YEARS:
17 in 2017 (The Year of Moderation)
16 in 2016 (The Year of Being Brave)
15 in 2015 (The Year of Intention)
14 in 2014
13 in 2013
What goals are you working on this year?
ESTHER + JACOB
Esther and Jacob are the founders of Local Adventurer, which is one of the top 50 travel blogs in the world. They believe that adventure can be found both near and far and hope to inspire others to explore locally. They explore a new city every year and are currently in NYC.
Nice way to plan your goals by categorize them … I would try it out next time . Thanks for sharing such a wonderful experience , and life is full of up and downs we have to stay positive … peaaaace
Last year I chose a word too. But this year I was watching a movie and a sentence really spoke to me. The main character said not to have nice day but to “have a day that matters”. It is now on my desktop background :-)
I wish you a fantastic year!
I really like that! Which movie was it?
purge is such an interesting word… how did you come up wit that?
and YAY for more personal posts! not that i don’t love the travel posts too tho.
haha! I never know where to draw the line. I guess maybe I should have done a poll. Also, I love that you’re still doing the top 3 recaps!
Good luck to you guys going into this new year! I would love to do a New England road trip in the fall. As much of this country as I’ve seen, I’ve never been farther north than NYC and have so many things I’d like to see beyond.
I think decluttering is a great ambition. We are trying to do the same and the biggest problem we’ve faced is having others understand and realize this (hello pile of Christmas presents.)
Good luck to you too, girl! You should do a whole East coast road trip! haha yeah Totally know what you mean, I think our family now knows to either give us cash or take us out to dinner instead, but it took a few years for them to realize we couldn’t keep all that stuff while we were moving around.
I hear wonderful things about Acadia National Park and hope to get up there myself maybe next year. Cheers to another year of adventure!
Cheers!! I hope you make it there too. I think fall is supposed to be the best season to go. :)
I always love reading your goals list.
Thanks for sharing and I wish you guys all the best for 2018.
Thanks, Kahleel. Best wishes for 2018 to you too! ❤
What fun goals! I am still thinking about mine. I’m actually writing them as we speak, I’ll probably publish some of them on my blog tomorrow.
I am also categorizing them like you did. Travel, personal and blogging. As a small blog, my goals are pretty low. I think it’s key to keep them achievable.
I also wrote some business goals for myself (as a beginning freelance photographer that’s an important aspect, right?) But I don’t think I will publish those. It’s hard to put real numbers on them, and I don’t want to seem too vague.
Thanks for your goals, they are super inspirational. I don’t think I’ll be climbing mountains this year (not even small one), but I might think about meatless Mondays. Great idea!
Thanks, Frédéric. I’d love to see them once you’re done with them. For sure! Our blog and business goals are pretty much the same, and it’s always good to have business goals. Maybe some real numbers to add would be reaching a certain salary or booking an x dollar gig (though maybe it’s weird to publicly state them).