2018 in Review and My 2019 Goals!

Hey guys! I hope you all had a wonderful start to your new year! I was not able to squeeze in my 2018 review post like I wanted, so I decided to make today's post a quick 2018 recap as well as discuss some of my 2019 goals!



2018 was filled with so many unexpected things. I faced fears, went through a lot of changes, accomplished goals I've had since I was a kid, and did a lot of personal growing. Overall it was an adventurous year in both my personal life as well as my writing life!

The highlights of 2018:


- Travelled to Myrtle Beach and rang in the new year at the top of the tallest hotel!
- Drafted my first poetry collection in January
- Wrote 40k in 4 days and finished the first draft of my WIP, Awaken
- Attended the Michigan Writing Workshop conference in April (which took a lot of anxiety-tackling!)
- Found out the family I worked for was moving across the country
- Began working for a new family
- Travelled to Mackinac twice and went camping in Grayling
- Wrote 10,000 words in one weekend and got Awaken to full novel word count
- Faced my fear of airplanes and flew to California
- Made new friends on Twitter and Instagram
- Released my debut book!
- Turned 22
- Began working on a 2nd novel


It can be so easy for our brains to convince us that the work we do doesn't matter, or that everything we've done isn't enough. One of my biggest personal struggles of 2018 was feeling like all of the work I did was never enough. I felt as though if I did not write, edit, polish, publish, and sell an entire book in one day, I would never feel accomplished. Ridiculous, right?
But I know I'm not the only one who struggles with those feelings. So, I want to encourage you guys to make a list of all the things you did in 2018. Maybe add up all of the words you wrote, or how many pages you read, etc. Writing that list up there was an awesome exercise for me because it forced my brain to look back at the year and say, "huh. We really did accomplish some stuff."

This year, I wanted to make my personal goals simple. I tend to overthink and set the bar for myself way too high, which leads to depression and anxiety and a whole bunch of bad stuff that brings me down and makes it incredibly hard to write!

My 2019 goals are:


- Grow as an author
- Maintain a healthy body and mind
- Devote more daily time to God


Pretty vague, right? But, in order to achieve these goals, I have decided to give myself monthly goals. And to achieve those monthly goals, I give myself daily goals. This allows me to take 2019 one day at a time and slowly work my way up to my big goals!

As we continue into January, I want to encourage you guys to be kind to yourselves. Don't run yourself into the ground trying to tackle an impossible goal. Instead, think about how you can achieve your goals one step at a time, one day at a time.

What are some of your favorite 2018 highlights or 2019 goals? Let me know below!