Tips for setting goals + My New Year resolutions

Happy Wednesday, friends. We are officially 4 days into the new year and I’m just now getting to writing down my new year resolutions. No judgement, please. I have so many personal, academic and blogging goals that I want to achieve this year. On top of goals, I have so many changes that will be happening soon, too. I will graduate college in May, (hopefully) move to a new state soon after and get my first full-time job. Exciting, right? With all that said, I think this is the best time to create goals and resolutions, while I have the time.

But before I talk about my resolutions, here are my top 3 tips for goal setting:

1. Be realistic – There is no harm in dreaming big. I am a firm believer that you should challenge yourself to grow each and every day. However, being realistic will set your goals for success from the beginning. For example, you would not set a goal to run a 10k next weekend, if you haven’t run one mile yet. Right? Exactly. 
2. Pen to paper ASAP – I’m convinced that writing down your goals gives you the extra push to really make them happen. I have learned over the past few years that in order to be successful with goal setting, you must hold yourself accountable. Be honest with yourself.
3. Check-in regularly – So, you’ve set goals. Made sure they were realistic. And wrote them all down…now what? Create a check-in schedule for yourself. You might choose to check-in weekly on your running speed, bi-weekly on your money-saving habits or monthly, on your work sales. No matter how you chose to check-in, just be consistent.

Now to my goals. For starters, Personal Goals:

1. Get consistent with working out- Yes, I know. Just like almost everyone else, I have this fitness goal. Between classes, working, interning, volunteering, blogging, taking care of dog, studying for the LSAT, being dedicated to multiple student organizations and attempting to have a social life, fitness falls to the bottom of my list. This year, I really want to dedicate more time to being active at least 3x a week.
2. Save more – Simple enough. But considering I want to move, and invest more time in my blog, I really want to focus on saving better so I can make these two steps happen.
3. Read a book per week – So if you haven’t already, you should definitely check out my Reading List. My original goal was to read at least half of these by the end of 2016. Long story short – it didn’t happen. However, I am determined to do better this year by dedicating at least 30 minutes, a night to reading.
4. Take a dance class – For people who know me, you know that dance was a huge part of my life until sophomore year of college. Not only do I love taking dancing classes, they are a great source of cardio. AKA help with personal goal #1
5. Be more grateful – For everything. Even things as small as finding a quarter in my pocket. I personally feel that when we become so blessed and have so many great things going on, it becomes easy to forget how important the small details are and how we should still be grateful for them. I am wanting to practice being more grateful by writing in a daily gratitude journal. Let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions for one 🙂

Blogging Goals:

1. Consistency- First step, creating my weekly post schedule. I will now be posting every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Occasionally, I will post on more than 3x a week, if I enough content for you all. While you’re reading, make sure to subscribe, so you can be the first to know about new posts.
2. Collaborate – I have seriously loved being part of the blogging community, especially since I completely changed my niche and felt so lost in the beginning. Now that I am more confident in blogging and meeting others, I can’t wait to start collaborating with other bloggers for giveaways and guest posts.
3. Build followers – I really want to build my Instagram to 10k followers and my subscribers to at least 150 by June. I’m pushing myself to engage more with others and focus on branding, to build my audience. The blog grind is tiring, but SO worth it.
4. Plan ahead – Let’s just say it is 2:36am and I am still writing this blog post that will go live at 7. Enough said.
5. Create resources – I love answering questions from my followers. Whether through comments, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat or my blog Facebook, I adore getting questions because I know that people are watching. However, I would love to create printable resources that include pictures of my favorite outfits with links and pictures of my home, with links as well. That way, people can keep the resource if they ever want to refer to items I have. I would also love to create a daily planning page for busy fashionistas like myself. 

Well, there you have it. There are my main goals/new year resolutions for 2017. Have some suggestions or great ideas for yourself? Let me know in the comments. Peace, love & sass friends 🙂

–xoxo, Azanique <3

P.S. – I’m hosting an awesome giveaway with Jord. Check out my review + giveaway details here: Jord Giveaway