Okay, I’m really shit at New Year’s Resolutions. I don’t swear a lot, but it seemed warranted here…because I’m that bad at it. So, let’s look at the bad job that I’ve been doing this year.

1.      Devote 5 hours per week to personal professional goals.

This time last year, I decided that I wanted my blog to become something that I was more serious about. Blog traffic grew by almost 50%, and I started to feel a lot more professional about this thing. In a few weeks, I’m even launching my first set of products!

2.      Save 10% of my income.

So, when I made this resolution, I had just accepted a job that I thought was my dream job. For lots of reasons, this didn’t work out. I talked about it on my podcast, but the result of being jobless is being unable to save any money. So…yeah. Total failure here. I’m still working through the financial repercussions of my unemployment, but I should be back on track soon.

3.    Grow to 500 Instagram followers.

Actual success! Kind of. I’ve been flirting around the 500 mark for a few weeks now, sometimes over, sometimes under. I’ve been +/- 20 for almost a month though! Thanks everyone!

4.    Cook every recipe in one cookbook.

We made it about 60% of the way through a cookbook. It was fine, but I am disappointed that we didn’t throw as much time into this one as we could have.

5.    Build my makeup portfolio.

This one was put on the backburner for me. I decided to focus more on the B2B side of my business, and not on my makeup artistry decisions. This was a fail, but I don’t feel bad about this at all.

Okay. So, recapping my failures was fun. But Cait, what are your goals for this year? I’m so glad you asked!

Grow to 1000 Instagram followers.

No brainer, right? I made it to 500 this year. Let’s keep on doubling!

Write something every day.

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot. I would like to create something ever day. IT doesn’t need to be something profound, but I’d like to spend time on getting some writing out every day.

Create a product plan and launch!

I think it’s time to branch out into physical products! I have a few promising ideas, and I’m actively working on a plan to launch and share some of these things in the new year. This year, I want to get some of those ideas out of my brain and into reality.

Podcast season 2!

Last summer, I released my podcast. It was fun, and I’d like to spend some time getting season 2 off the ground.

Create and stick to an editorial calendar.

 Sometimes I’m a good planner…like with Blogmas. Other times, I’m writing at midnight for a post that goes up less than four hours later. This year, I want to spend more time planning and creating thoughtful content that I’m proud of, and less of a focus on just making something, even if it’s last minute.

Those are my five realistic resolutions. Let me know what your hopes for 2018 are!

See you in the new year,