Do you still remember what you promised at the beginning of the year? Have you tracked your work and improvements? For the last couple years I’ve posted my goals and updates on how I’m doing to this blog. Posting or sharing your goals can help you remember them and to stay more motivated.

 

In this post I’ll look back the last 12 months and tell how I did with my 2018 resolutions.

 

 

How I Did with My 2018 New Years Resolutions?

 

1. Studies & Work

 

 

I promised to…

 

– Pass all the medical courses

– Do at least 30 credits (15 US credits) of economics

– Do my best everyday at work

– Earn money for a) wedding and honeymoon, b) some investments and c) start saving for 2019 travels

– Improve my Photoshop, Premiere and Lightroom skills

 

 

How I Did?

 

 

 

So far I have passed most of the medical courses – I’ve done all the mandatory lectures and seminars (except 2 that I missed because of influenza last spring). It’s great that I have not missed anything mandatory during the fall so I did combine studies, work, etc. pretty well.

 

I did 18 credits (9 US credits) of economics this year. The reason why I did not do more is that I figured out that I can actually apply to masters without doing BBA because I have the bachelor of medicine. So, right now I’m waiting for results of my masters application. If I did not get into international masters programs of the university where I study now, I will probably apply to some others as well next year.

 

 

We did pay for the wedding and honeymoon. I also invested some money this year and saved a bit money for 2019 travels. We have already booked one trip to Europe for March 2019. We’re also hoping to get abroad during May 2019 and maybe couple of times later on next year. I’ll be on study leave from my work which means I’ll have more time than ever to travel.

 

I have been using quite much Photoshop, Lightroom, Bridge and iMovie this year. I have definitely learned some new skills but of course more could have been learned. What comes to Premiere I have started to think that iMovie has nicer user interface so I have used it more than Premiere lately.

 

What comes to Photoshop I’ve gone a bit crazy with it in a good way this year. I started doing some fantasy themed colorful photos of nature nature earlier this year. (soooo cool, I love those colors and mystique they have!) – you can see some in my Shutterstock portfolio here.

 

 

Another thing I’ve got into is illustrating with Photoshop on my Mac and with some other Apps on my iPad. I knew really nothing about it but I just started drawing and now some of my work is on sale in Shutterstock and Alamy. Illustrating is fun and I’m hungry to learn more about it. Anyone else here into Illustrating?

 

Ps. In addition to everything promised I published my first book which is about SEO (= Search Engine Optimization). You can find it from Apple Books and Amazon Kindle.

 

 

 

2. Live Healthy & Look Good

 

 

I promised to…

 

– Exercise at least 3-5 times a week

– Try at least 3 new sports

– Eat more greens and learn new healthier recipes

– Keep drinking a lot of water

– Cook healthy food more often

– Get more fit body – more tight muscle with the same or little lighter weight

– Find time to relax every week

 

 

How I Did?

 

 

I have been exercising mostly 3-5 times a week but some weeks I have been sick or just too busy to exercise enough. Anyhow, it’s great to have a dog which keeps me active. Trying new sports wasn’t as easy as I thought since my schedule was basically 120% full around the year. Technically I could have tried some new sports during the honeymoon but that was not what I wanted to focus then so I did fail that one.

 

I love cooking and we have tried plenty of new healthy recipes. I’ve also done quite okay with drinking water and cooking. Busy times are always challenging the healthy eating but during this year we have been cooking like 70% of the food we ate which is pretty great – especially compared to some years like 2016 when I basically eat out everything I ate haha. What comes to getting fit I got fit, lost the fit and now I’m getting back to it.

 

Of the goals in this category the relaxing weekly has definitely been one of the hardest ones. Some weeks this was easy but mostly I did not have much time for relaxing. Additionally, I tend to stress and worry about things quite easily so, when I try to relax it takes just a few seconds and I’m back in checking my to do list and starting to do something.

 

 

3. Travel & Explore

 

 

I promised to…

 

– Travel to at least 5 countries, of which to at least 3 new ones

– Have a mini holidays in Finland at least twice

– Do posts about Finland too

– do honeymoon travel planning + post about ideas and plans

+ If possible I’d like to participate in at least one blogger meeting / event

 

 

How I Did?

 

 

I traveled to 7 countries, Spain, Switzerland, Norway, Estonia, Singapore, Indonesia and Japan (and stayed in airport hotels in the Netherlands which doesn’t count). Of these three were new to me. So, I did match this goal pretty well and even traveled one more country. I did not plan to go to Estonia but since I had my amazing surprise bachelorette party there, I got one extra country this year, yeah!

 

I have been busier than I thought so I haven’t done too many travel posts lately. I still have plenty of ideas and photos to post from the honeymoon. I’m aiming to share wedding and honeymoon content at the beginning of 2019. I believe that when my study leave from work starts I’ll finally have some time for other things as well.

 

Finally, I have participated couple of events as a blogger. I hope there will be plenty of events coming during upcoming years. And I also hope that my school won’t make it impossible to participate. This year I have gotten plenty of invitations but have been able to participate only couple of events.

 

 

 

4. Improve My Social Media & Related

 

 

I promised to…

 

– Publish quest post(s) in this blog (read this if you’re interested in a collab!)

– Write at least 2 articles to somewhere else

– Do at least 5 sponsored posts

– Get more visits, visitors, likes and comments than last year

– Get back on track with Instagram and Blog’s Facebook

– Be more active in LinkedIn and keep it up to date

– Leave more comments to blogs and Instagram

– Figure out how to make a career around social and creativity

– Be more constant and do 2-4 posts every week – no more than that. My focus will be on quality and consistency

– Raise my domain authority (January: 26.1) and page authority (January: 38.1), do these with better SEO and commenting  blogs with higher ranks

– Add at least 100 new photos to Shutterstock

 

 

How I Did?

 

 

There has been plenty of guest posts from various writers this year. Thank you for your amazing content guys! I have not had time to be anyone’s guest myself but I hope this will change during 2019.

 

What comes to sponsored content I’ve only done one sponsored post during this year. That on was about my travel bucket list. I have been super busy with other things and thus I have said no to couple cooperation possibilities. If I cooperate with a company I want to do it well and meet the deadline. Let’s see if there is more next year.

 

This year I have had more visits, visitors, likes and posts written than last year. Anyhow, I did got less comments than last year which is sad but I guess I can blame myself on this since I have been commenting others less than 2017 since I have been busier lately. I think this can be fixed next year.

 

Because of being busy in every area of life I have focused more on the blog than other social media forms around it. I’ve done some Insta stories, FB shares and Pinterest pins but that’s basically it. I think I should do a social media calendar if I want to grow those medias as well.

 

What comes to being consistent with posting, I did great until July. After that I have posted 1-2 times a week which is okay but did not meet the goal I set.

 

I’ve been able to increase both my Domain and Page Authority. Nowadays my DA is 33.0 (was 26.1 on January) and PA is 40.0 (was 38.1 on January). Because the scale from 0-100 is algorithmic I’ve done some good choices since those numbers have grown a bit.

 

And lastly what comes to stock photography I’ve added around a huge amount of photos to Shutterstock already and nowadays I’m also selling photos in Alamy, 123RF, iStock, Dreamstime, Rodeo and Suomen Luontokuvaajat. In addition to these I’m targeting to get into Suomen Kuvaplugi next year. They require a portfolio of 500-1000 photos so I still have to work on the quantity a bit.

 

In addition to the big official stock sites I’m thinking of trying some sites where you can sell photos taken with a phone. I bought my own iPhone 8 Plus since because of my study leave I’ll lose my work phone – so, I bought the exactly similar one haha. I am not allowed to use my work phone for my own business but since I now have own one with a good camera I could start selling the pictures taken with this one.

 

I wish that I can focus more on photography next year. It’s fun to take the photos and edit them, and it would be great to have some nice passive income coming from those every month.

 

 

Ps. I also started another blog this year! It’s called Yummycado and it’s all about yummy things related to cooking and baking. 🙂

 

 

5. Be Social

 

 

I promised to…

 

– Meet friends and do something fun as often as last year

– Network with some new people in areas I’m interested

– Use LinkedIn to learn from others and to discuss

– Find new people to follow and start reading books and listening Podcasts

– Organize something fun with friends at least 4 times this year (wine tastings, beach volley, board game nights, etc)

 

 

How I Did?

 

 

I did pretty great on networking in LinkedIn. What comes to meeting friends and having fun I did pretty fine during the beginning of the year. Anyhow, after our wedding I have been all the time either a) traveling or b) super busy so I basically had no time to meet anyone except my husband, our dog, some of my colleagues and some family members. Hopefully I’ll do better on this next year.

 

I’ve organized two wine tastings, one cake party and of course our wedding. So I did not quite meet the goal of four events. I’ve also listened some ebooks and podcasts but I could have done better in this area. I thought I’ll listen these while driving but since I almost every time was carpooling I did not listen these so often. Anyhow, I’m paying for Audible every month so when I find some time I’ll have plenty of credits to buy books with.

 

 

If your interested in my previous similar posts check these:

 

• How I Did with My 2017 New Year’s Resolutions
• 2017 New Year’s Resolutions
• How I Did with My 2016 New Year’s Resolutions
• 2016 New Year’s Resolutions

 

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to Pin it using the photo below!

 

Did you do any resolutions for this year? How are you doing with those?