Wow did this year go fast! I know I say that every year, but seriously the older I get the faster time goes. I feel like I was just sharing my 2021 goals with you and here we are preparing for 2022. So crazy! In this post, I’m going to reflect on my 2021 resolutions, share some accomplishments, etc. and then get into my new goals for the year.
I love writing blog posts like these because I love having them to look back on. It’s so fun to see all the things I accomplished throughout the year and what my life looked like at that moment in time. I’ll link my 2020 Goals post here if you want to look back at that one too.
Looking Back at 2021
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Overall this was a pretty exciting year! I paid off all of my student loans, quit my full-time job to work for myself (a literal dream come true), my boyfriend and I moved back to Milwaukee, we got a Golden Retriever puppy, I celebrated my 25th birthday, we took a trip to Disney World, I launched my first e-book and started selling digital products on Etsy. It’s truly been one amazing year and I am just so grateful.
I’m going to go more in depth about some of these accomplishments and the list of goals for the year that I set for myself and how I think I did below. All my goals are broken up into the following categories: Personal, Financial and Blogging. These are just the annual, big goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the year. Each month, I break them up into smaller goals that are more manageable.
Financial Goals for 2021:
- Save $20,000
- Pay off all student loans
- Open a high yield savings account
- Start investing
So, I actually achieved all of these this year, which I’m VERY excited about. I paid off my student loans at the beginning of April, which felt AMAZING. When I graduated college in 2018, I made it a goal to have all my debt paid off by the time I turned 25 and I did it (one month early too).
In terms of saving, with my full-time income and the money I made blogging, I was able to save over $27,000 this year. I’m ecstatic about this one! This was a stretch goal that I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do, but I made it happen.
I also opened a high yield savings account, which I’ve been meaning to do for years now and FINALLY did it. I use Marcus by Goldman Sachs and absolutely LOVE it. The returns are so much better than a regular savings account.
And lastly, I started investing! If this is something you’re looking to learn more about, my bf wrote an entire blog post on Investing for Beginners. A complete guide to investing, breaking it down in simple terms, if you have absolutely no idea where to start.
Financial Resources to Help you Achieve YOUR Goals!
I have tons and tons of budgeting + money resources on the blog if you’re currently looking to save more money, start investing, pay down student loan debt, complete a no-spend challenge or learn how to budget your money.
Personal Goals for 2021:
- Live more stress free (don’t worry about the small things)
- Be open to new ideas and opinions
- Quit my job to work for myself
- Create a consistent work schedule for blogging and virtual assistant work
- No phone in the morning until after my morning routine (ugh this is such a bad habit of mine)
- Be productive during the times that I’m working (un-distracted work)
I really haven’t talked about this at all on social media, but one of my biggest goals this year was to quit my job at UW to work for myself. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen this year or next year or the following year.. I really had no idea. All I knew was that ever since I started making money from my blog, I have wanted to take it full time.
So, as of October 6th, 2021 I am self-employed! It’s been almost three months of working for myself and I can honestly say it is a DREAM. I wake up every single day so thankful to get to do this for my career. It is HARD WORK. I probably put in more hours now than I did before, but I love every minute of it.
As for all of the other personal goals I set for myself this year, I think they’re all a work in progress. I am working to be more open to new ideas and opinions (not just assuming what I think is the best solution). In terms of productivity, I’ve started setting a timer for 25 min and working without distractions for the full time and then taking a 5 min break. It has been helping a ton with my productivity and I find that I get a lot more done in the day.
I have gotten into somewhat of a consistent daily routine and I’m hoping to continue that in 2022.
Living more stress free.. I’m not sure that’s even possible LOL. But I’m trying to have a more go with the flow attitude. It’s so hard though!
Blogging Goals:
- Make $X from brand collaborations
- Hit 20,000 monthly page views on Sunday Mimosas blog
- Get accepted into an ad agency like She Media or Mediavine
- Stick to a blogging schedule (have set work hours)
- Share more personal life and behind the scenes
I’m not actually going to share the income goal I set for myself, because that’s a little too personal. But, I will say that I tripled the goal I originally set for myself!
In terms of page views, I did not hit 20,000. In order to hit this goal, I would have needed to be publishing blog posts more frequently and updating the SEO on previous posts, and honestly I didn’t have enough time this year. So along with that, I also didn’t even apply to an ad agency. I am really hoping I can achieve these goals next year though!
I did think I shared more of our personal lives this year compared to last year. Sometimes it’s hard because I try to batch all my IG stories so that when my boyfriend gets home from work we can relax and not have to be on our phones. So, if you’re wondering why I don’t share as much of my personal life as some content creators do, it’s because I also like to be present and live in the moment without sharing every detail of our lives to Instagram haha!
My 2022 Goals
Now onto my New Year’s Resolutions for 2022! This will be the first year I’m self-employed.. AHH. I still can’t believe it! I am so excited to see how I can grow my business in the new year. But, because this will be the first year I’m working for myself, I think it’s so important for me to set goals and track my progress.
Again, I’m going to break my goals up by category: Blogging, Financial and Personal. I won’t share specific numbers in terms of how much money I hope to make, but I’ll share as much as I can.
Blogging Goals:
- Hit 1,000 ranking keywords on Keysearch
- Send out biweekly emails to my email list
- Make $500 passive income from Etsy each month
- Add more digital products to my Etsy shop
- Post 3 reels/photos a week
- Get accepted into She media network by end of year
- Make $X in LTK affiliate sales
- Spend 20 min a day engaging with other accounts on IG
- Make $X/month in brand collaborations
One of my main goals for my business is to generate as much passive income as possible. I want to continue adding more digital products to my Etsy shop and start growing that more. I want to add more affiliate links to my blog posts and start sharing more weekly sale round-ups. And I also want to continue focusing on creating good SEO-optimized blog posts so that more blog posts start ranking on the first page of Google!
This year, I had a few posts rank on the first page: How to Find Brands to Work With on Instagram as a Micro Influencer was one of them. I’m hoping next year, my traffic from Google will increase exponentially and I’ll be able to apply to an ad agency and start monetizing my site with ads too!
Financial Goals:
- Contribute $X/month to my Roth
- Make $X in income
- Save $20,000
- Learn new investing strategies and how I can grow my wealth
In terms of my financial goals, this year I want to save $20,000 again, contribute more to my Roth (now that I won’t be contributing to my old 401k through the Med School), learn more about investing and growing my wealth and lastly, hit my income goal.
This year will definitely be different in terms of my finances, because I won’t have a set paycheck from an employer like last year. My income will be more irregular, just due to the fact that when I work with brands they typically pay NET30, so I just have to plan around that. But, overall I plan to make more this year than I did working for my employer last year, so I am very excited about that.
Personal Goals:
- Stick to my Morning Routine
- Wake up at 6am on weekdays and start work at 7:15am
- Have weekly date nights with Vilas
- Be slow to anger. Have more of a go with the flow attitude
- Listen to more music and dance!
- Be willing to try new things and do things in different ways
As you can see, not all of my personal goals are smart goals – some of these will definitely be hard to measure at the end of the year. But, I don’t think it’s necessary to have every goal be SMART. In general, I want to adopt more of a go with the flow type attitude. I want to say yes to more things, and let go of the fears that hold me back. Overall, I want to become the best version of myself in all aspects of my life.
That means, going to bed at the same time every night, getting enough sleep, waking up at 6am and sticking to my morning routine. Taking regular breaks from work and getting outside and walking. Making time for Vilas, Elsa, my family and friends, not stressing about the small stuff and making more time to dance, have fun, listen to music, etc.
I know that I focus a lot of time and energy on my business, mainly because I absolutely love it and want to see it grow, but I also realize that I need to take more time off to relax and de-stress. Here’s to hoping for work-life balance in 2022.
Wrapping it Up
So, those are all my 2022 goals for the year! I hope this post motivates and inspires you to sit down and map out your future goals and all the things you want to achieve in the new year.
One piece of advice on setting goals – HAVE A PLAN on how you’re going to accomplish them. Set small goals that will help you achieve your larger goals, track your progress, have weekly check-ins, set deadlines, and share your goals with others to hold yourself accountable. So, whether your new year goals are to improve your mental health, spend less time on social media, pay off debt or go to the gym 3x a week it’s so important to have a plan of action!
Read this post if you’re looking for more goal-setting tips and how to set achievable goals.
Brainstorming Goal Ideas
If you’re struggling to come up with new year’s resolutions for yourself, the best way to brainstorm ideas is to evaluate the different areas of your life and determine what areas could use improvement. How’s your health? How about your finances? What about your career/work life? Take a deep dive into those areas of life and create specific and clear goals from there.
If you still need ideas, here’s a list of new year goals (there’s over 100 on here) that you can choose from!
Other posts you may like:
- Ultimate Guide to Goal Setting: How to Set Goals + Achieve Them This Year!
- 100+ Goal Ideas and New Year’s Resolutions
- Monthly Planning Routine for a Successful and Organized Month
Cheers to 2022! I wish you all a very happy, healthy and successful rest of the year!
