When I started looking at the goals I set 2015 and realized I only actually accomplished one, I was a little down, but then I started thinking about what my actual accomplishments of 2015 were. There were quite a few that I decided to wait on because I decided on better things to do instead. I’ve been trying to look at the resolutions I set every year as more as a guideline of things to accomplish instead of things that need to be done. I feel like resolutions shouldn’t make you depressed at the end of the year if you don’t complete them and instead, just try again in the next year or move on to something better. Along with sharing how I did with my resolutions, I also wanted to list off everything else I accomplished.

Goals Set for 2015

1. Move Out Before My Sister – This one didn’t happen mainly because I still haven’t found a job. My other sister did come home from her internship in Texas, so I’m not home with just my mom and stepdad. I’m just hoping I’ll find something soon.

2. Get a new Job – Why is job hunting so difficult? I’ve been applying anywhere I can and I’m still waiting to find something. I’d love to find something before the end of February because I’m more than ready for something new. I’ve been working super hard at trying to find a job, it’s unfortunate that it hasn’t happened, but I’m not going to give up. I could have definitely applied to more places than I did, but I also needed to stay sane and too much applying could’ve driven me crazy. There is one job that I’m crossing my fingers I’ll get, but I’ll still be applying in the mean time.

3. Visit New York – I ended up spending a week in North Carolina with my mom and sisters to visit my grandma, aunt, and cousin. We had a fun girls weekend and my other female cousin even surprised us by flying in too. It was so much fun and I’m so glad I decided to do that instead of New York. It’s still on the top of my list to visit, though!

4. Go to a Blog Conference – I decided to hold off in this one mainly because I wanted to focus on saving up money to get ready to move out, I did end up investing in a few blog classes and I think they were a pretty good trade off! I think as soon as I move out and get settled into a new space, I’ll start looking more into conferences. I’m dying to go to Alt Summit!

5. Get My Page Views and Comments Back Up – The only goal I set that I actually finished! Although the main reason is because I started putting more into my blog than I had when I first started blogging.

6. Find the Friend I Can Talk to Everyday Again – I didn’t really find a friend to talk to every day, but there are a couple bloggers that I talk to pretty often and it’s been really awesome. I’m so glad that the internet makes it super easy to talk to people across the country.

Accomplishments of 2015

1. Switched to WordPress – I’m so glad I decided to take the plunge and switch to WordPress. For awhile I said I would never make the switch because I loved Blogger, but I started realizing how much I couldn’t do design-wise without becoming a master at coding. I’m still playing about with my site and I’d love to learn more coding in the future, but my blog looks so much better than the beginning of the year.

2. Started Opening Up About my Social Anxiety – If I hadn’t been obsessed with YouTube a few years ago, I might have never figured out that I had social anxiety. I would have been let wondering why it was so much harder for my to talk to the opposite sex or why speeches in classes were so hard for me. I really loved being able to share my story and find others that could relate to my social anxiety expirience. I’m hoping to work more on getting past my social anxiety and sharing how I deal with it for my online business in the next year.

3. Decided to Stop Offering Sponsorships – I had never really been very successful with my sponsorships and it wasn’t really something I wanted to focus on. Sponsor spotlights didn’t really fit in my blog and I usually skiped over them they showed up in my feed. If I was going to start earning money from my blog, I wanted it to be from something I loved doing which was designing.

4. Started Thinking of this Space as a Business – I had only ever though of my blog as just a blog even though I had been offering design services. I never really marketed that I was offering them, but I mentioned it occasionally in my posts. Although I still don’t have a strategy for actually making money for my blog, I’ve started promoting it and I’m trying to work on coming up with a strategy for the next year.

5. Took my Sister to see Walk Off the Earth – I went to a Walk Off the Earth concert on their tour last year and this year I decided to take my sister for her birthday. There’s just something about their concerts that make them incredible and unforgettable. It’s really hard to describe, but we both had a blast! I’ll be continuing to go to their concerts as much as possible.

6. Got to see Shaping Sound – My mom saw a post by a dance store on FB that she liked to get deals on my sisters shoes, they shared a video of a dance company the was coming to a city near us. She asked if I wanted to go with them and I said yes because I’d always loved So You Think You Can Dance and just watching people dance in general. I looked up the company the day before just to see what they were all about and it was the company co-founded by Travis Wall from SYTYCD (Yes, the others are from the show too, but the first season I watched was with Twitch and Travis had been a choreographer so he’s the only one I really knew). I’m also super excited that they just added Ricky Ubeda, who won last year, to the cast this year and I’ll definitely be going again because he was my favorite along with Valerie!

7. Saw Needtobreathe in Concert – The first time I saw them was when they were one of the opening acts for Taylor Swift. I really loved their music, and my sister asked if I wanted to go so my cousin and I drove to her school to see them. I was also surprised because Ben Rector was touring with them and I had been a fan of him since I saw this Free Falling cover on YouTube.

A couple of the photos, there are also a few more on my pages!

8. Got Photos Taken for my Blog – I had taken photos for my blog with a tripod and a remote before, but I couldn’t get them to look how I wanted. I would consider myself an okay photographer, but I’m nowhere near a pro. I ended up finding a blogger and photographer that lived in Michigan to take some for me. She ended up having a trip planned for a weekend in November that was 15 minutes from my house which worked out perfectly. I finally got around to adding the photos to my blog in this month and I’m hoping to work them more into my branding soon.

9. Invested More Than I Should’ve in My Blog – This year I started investing in my blog including things like online classes, productivity apps, hosting and more. I’m a little scared to know exactly what type of damage I actually did, but I’ll just that it got a little addicting and I felt like I needed anything and everything! It didn’t help that I was watching a ton of webinars and everyone was super convincing on why I needed something. I was able to resist some of them, but some were just too good to pass up!

Although, not everything that I’d hoped would happen in 2015 happened, it was definitely a great year. I picked unforgettable as my word of the year and I might not have completely followed it, but I feel better about everything than was was feeling at the end of 2014!

What did you accomplish in 2015? How well did you do on your resolutions?