Goals for 2019

It’s been an interesting year in terms of goals and achievements. There were a lot of ups and downs. In terms of the blog, I actually completed almost every single one of my goals. Which sounds great, right? But ultimately a lot of these goals are made for one biggest, ultimate goal: to increase the quality of my content and the size of my audience.  It’s hard to measure quality. But in terms of pageviews, things went down.

I don’t know why. I’ve poured a ton of time, effort, and money into the blog – and even if things don’t increase I’ll still do that because I love it and I love Disney. But like many things in my life, it’s tough sometimes when you do all of the things you’re “supposed” to do, and you work really hard, and it still doesn’t quite work out. I’ve experienced some of that in my personal life this past year too. Every time I feel like I’m getting to be a better runner, an injury pops up. When I work hard on singing and theater I don’t get into auditions and can’t do the thing that I love.

I don’t mean for this to be a negative post. It’s not – I’m very grateful for all of the things I have been able to do. But I think it shows me that I might want to look at things in a different way. One motto I want to try and live by this year: “just because you fail doesn’t mean you’re a failure.”

Onward, and maybe upward? If I can keep my sanity and be happy in 2019 I think that will be a great achievement, regardless of whatever else may happen.

A look back at 2018 goals:

• Clean up my home office and turn it into a blogging area/photography studio (done – see the details here!)
• Complete the “Step up your Social Media” course and implement what I learn (I completed the course and it taught me something – I don’t necessarily want to be focusing on social media in and of itself. I like using instagram but I don’t want to stress over it. Pinterest and facebook are my main ways to share the blog and that’s what I want to focus on).
• Improve the speed of my site (This was an experience. In October it got REALLY slow and then kept crashing. I ultimately switched hosting providers and things have been much more speedy since then. I should have done it sooner).
• Publish 4 blog posts a week (instead of 5) so I can focus on more SEO, etc. on the already existing blog posts (this honestly made everything so much better. I’d consider cutting down to 3 but there’s so much I want to write about!)
• Use my Reader Survey to come up with a game plan for 2018 and detail everything in my planner (very useful and I implemented some things from the survey!)
• Better organize the blog itself by setting up tabs, lists, etc. (I’m still struggling on the best way to do this)
• Start a facebook group for Disney in your Day readers that would have exclusive content, gift exchanges, etc. (my facebook group is going! Come join us at Put a Little Disney in your Day!)
• Introduce one new “big” project, to be determined based on the results of my Reader Survey (I ultimately went with two bigger projects this year – started my RedBubble shop to sell t-shirts and other things, and started an online Disney book club that’s going well!)
• Research/brainstorm a trip planning online course (I’ve created a full outline and just working on getting it done!)
• Redo my blogging binder to make it more suitable for my needs (I purged it and it’s much more useful now!)
• Have 10,000 followers on Pinterest (this was a little ambitious, but I did hit 8,000)
• Have 2500 followers on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (facebook and instagram yes, Twitter not even close. I don’t really do Twitter well)
• Have 1000 email subscribers (Yes, in fact I’m almost at 2000!)
• Get the house neat enough to be able to hire a cleaner to actually clean (meh. I’m trying again this year)
• Use my planner to keep track of non-blog things, including my running schedule (Yes, the planner definitely got more use!)
• Finish physical therapy and run a half marathon (relatively) pain-free (I don’t know if this counts as completed because I did the PT, ran a pretty great half marathon in October, and am now having the same sort of hip pain in my left side. Frustrating).
• Run 500 miles in the year (I came really close – I ran about 475 miles!)
• Save up enough money (through selling Jamberry and blog income) to purchase a new camera (yes, I got the Canon Rebel 7ti and I love it!)
• Read 55 books (Nope, but I hit 46)
• Start vocal lessons again once I’m done with physical therapy (I did a voice lesson here and there but nothing consistently)

2019 blog goals

• Complete the online SEO course I purchased
• Create at least 5 designs to add to my Redbubble shop
• Find ways to advertise and increase my work as a travel agent more
• Switch my domain from Bluehost to Siteground
• Finish creating and market my trip planning course
• Organize all of my Disney photos to make them easier to find for blog posts
• Have 10,000 followers on Pinterest
• Have 3,000 followers on instagram
• Have 3,000 followers on facebook
• Hit 2,500 email subscribers

2019 personal goals

• Run 500 miles in the year
• Read 52 books
• Get the house organized and purge the junk
• Explore ways to deal with my anxiety and depression (therapy, essential oils, etc.)
• Organize my photos and back up all files
• Find ways to love myself more

What are your goals for 2019?