My birthday is tomorrow!
I honestly meant to do this last year right when I turned 30, but between the new baby and the panorama that we’re in, I never got around to it. So on my last day of being 30 will have to do.
Just about 2 years ago now, I made a list of all the things I wanted to accomplish before I turned 30. It included travel, general lifestyle type things and business. The idea was to use the S.M.A.R.T goal setting system to achieve most of these goals in 2 years.
Some of these goals I hit right on. Others were a miss and some just don’t plain work with my lifestyle anymore. So I want to use this post here to reflect on what my goals were 2 years ago and how I’ve grown since.
Travel
Here were my goals for traveling:
- Hawaii
- Scotland
- Beach road trip
- Essence Fest
- Hair Fest
- Japan Olympics
- South Africa/Ghana
- Montreal
- Cherry blossoms in DC
Zero of these things actually happened. But, in my defense, 5 out of 9 were actually planed out and paid for.
As mentioned in a few pervious post. I had planned out vacations to Hawaii, Scotland and DC for 2020, as well as scheduled a work trip out to the beach to look at some properties and we had plans with some of my college friends to attend the olympics in Japan.
A long with some other places I had booked, 2020-2021 was going to be the year I caught flights. But this Polaroid had other plans in mind for me.
I have traveled a lot since turning 28 and have done many things that I never thought I would be able too– just none of those places were included on this list. Going forward into my 30’s. I would definitely like to take the family on more international trips.
If it wasn’t for this particular predicament, I would have actually done pretty good on my travel goals. There are still a few festivals and places that I feel like I should really prioritize seeing however, so I’m glad I revisited this list.
Work
These were the following things I wanted to accomplish in my work life at the time:
- Attend conferences
- Podcast
- Reach 10 k/on IG
- Reach 5k on youtube
- Reach 1K monthly views
- Partner with 10 brands
- Create Stock photo subcription
- Collaborate more
- Hold charity event for ACS
- Rent work space
It’s pretty surreal & hilarious to look back at this list and see how much my lifestyle and priorities have changed in just 2 years.
A lot of my interest nowadays is no longer image and social media focused. While social media outlets are still very important (And I honestly need to refocus some attention back to those), I’ve been much more focused on property management and my shop.
That said, I hit 4 of these goals ( attending conferences, collaborating more, partnering with brands and reaching over 1k on this blog) and have come close to a few others (close to reaching 10k on IG).
Other goals I don’t care so much about at the moment, such as starting a podcast or renting office space. But other goals I really want to revisit, like holding a charity event for ACS.
Life
These were the goals I had for my life at the time:
- Read 10 books for pleasure
- Hold a headstand for 15 seconds
- Create a vegetarian cookbook
- Create lifestyle coffee Table Book
- Save $10k
- Make downpayment on a home
- Re learn Japanese
- Take a sister trip
- Buy first non pre loved luxury bag
- Fancy staycation with Stephen
On this list here, I feel like I’ve actually done really good having accomplished six of these.
Before I had my second baby, and then got pregnant with our 3rd, I was able to hold a headstand for about 15 seconds. We now have a liquid savings that will get us through a year of not working, have made down-payments on several homes (and now flat out own a few too), have started to relearn Japanese alongside Edison, have gotten a few new luxury pieces for myself and had a lovely in town staycation with Stephen (even if it was cut short because Edison developed covid symptoms.)
I have also gotten close to creating that vegetarian cookbook. I actually have a fair bit of recipes put together that I’m thinking I will start sharing with the newsgroup.
I also feel like I’ve gotten close to taking a sister’s only trip. though pregnancy has kept getting in my way lol. Since I plan on having no more biological children, I hoping this can happen soon
I got nowhere close however to reading 10 books for fun. Reading is something I love doing, Especially sci-fi and fantasy novels. And a few of my friends have suggested some great reads to me, which I have started. But I just don’t have the free time like that to actually finish these stories. I’m hoping that in a few years, when my children don’t need me as much (what a really sad thought!) I’ll have more down time to myself where I can just sit and read a book.
I also haven’t come close to making a coffee table book either. But I’m thinking about putting one together on luxury eye candy. That seems aesthetically pleasing to me and I really just want to see how these photos come out.
I have so many goals for the next 1,3,5 and 10 years out, and I do want to share them with ya’ll.
But for now, I’m just excited and blessed to have spent another year here with my family and excited to see where the future will take us.
Did any of you make a 30 before 30 list? What were you surprised to see change about yourself over the years?
